Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to engaging the Chinese Government on human rights and this is articulated in Working with China: A Five Year Strategy for Engagement between Scotland and the People’s Republic of China, published in December 2012. We fully support action to combat the commercialisation of organs, tissues and cells and the trafficking of people for organ donation, all of which are illegal in the UK. We support the Declaration of Istanbul, which encourages all countries to draw up legal and professional frameworks to govern organ donation and transplantation activities. We understand that the Chinese National Health and Family Planning Commission is in the process of developing and implementing a nationwide system for voluntary organ donation, supported by a new national database.

Whilst the Scottish Government does not have a locus to intervene in the course content of higher education institutions, we fully support action to combat the commercialisation of organs, tissues and cells and the trafficking of people for organ donation, all of which are illegal in the UK. We support the Declaration of Istanbul, which encourages all countries to draw up legal and professional frameworks to govern organ donation and transplantation activities. We understand that the Chinese National Health and Family Planning Commission is in the process of developing and implementing a nationwide system for voluntary organ donation, supported by a new national database.

The proposals will be published on the Scottish Government’s website, alongside the National Planning Framework 3 Main Issues Report.

The Scottish Government Central Enquiry line which provides the first point of contact to the public is operated internally. Other information requested for private companies operating any helplines supported by the Scottish Government is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government remains committed to publishing an options paper in the lifetime of this current parliament. No decisions have been taken yet on the timetable however, once they are taken, the Scottish Government will fully engage with stakeholders on the matter.

£10 million has been allocated to the Home Owners’ Support Fund for each of the years 2013-14 and 2014-15.

The Private Rented Housing Panel was launched on 3 September 2007 and deals with 2 types of cases, rent assessment and repairing standard cases. The figures for each are as follows.

325 households were helped by the Home Owners’ Support Fund in 2011-12.

Prior to considering establishment of minimum standards, the Scottish Government is assembling a clearer evidence base on standards in temporary accommodation, working closely with our local authority partners and organisations like Shelter Scotland.

We have invited Shelter and the other stakeholders to highlight concerns or evidence of poor quality standards of temporary accommodation in Scotland. I have also asked the joint Scottish Government/COSLA Homelessness Prevention Group to examine this issue, and discuss any action required.

No records are kept of the number of individual hits on the Landlord Registration Scotland website.

However, a total of 211,339 applications for registration have been made on the website between inception of the system on 30 April 2006 and 31 January 2013.