Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has had no recent discussions with the UK Government on the existing plant and machinery exemptions relating to power generation relying on a solar power source.

The requested information is not held centrally. The development and staffing of community justice services is a matter for the local leadership of public services engaged in these activities – primarily from local criminal justice social work services, but where appropriate including staff from local housing, healthcare, addictions, other social work, and third sector services.

In June 2015, I announced my vision for a new and innovative approach for the female custodial estate in Scotland. Since then a programme of work has been established in the Scottish Prison Service in partnership with the Scottish Government to deliver this vision. The programme includes:

The design and construction of a new small national facility for women on the site of HMP and YOI Cornton Vale. This facility will be run using therapeutic community principles and will incorporate gender-specific and trauma informed practice. Construction on the new national prison is expected to begin in mid-2018 subject to financial and planning approvals and;

The design and development of up to five Community Custody Units (CCUs) located across Scotland sited to ensure that women are held in facilities as close as possible to their own communities. The CCUs will focus on rehabilitation and reintegration and will ensure women are held in conditions of appropriate security.

A range of work is already underway to further develop these models.

This information is not held centrally.

The number of staff with a specialist expertise in mental health who are involved in the provision of services to patients within prisons, wholly or as part of their role, is not centrally held.

Specific local information may be available from individual NHS Boards, which are responsible for recruiting and retaining the staff they need to deliver safe, high quality services.

The Scottish Government has treated local government fairly despite the cuts to the Scottish Budget from the UK Government and is providing local government with a funding settlement of over £10.3 billion in 2016-17. There are 461 refuge spaces in Scotland.

The homelessness legislation also provides a strong statutory safety net so that women and children seeking to leave an abusive perpetrator are supported into temporary accommodation immediately and then moved on to appropriate settled accommodation or, if safe, back into their original home. Housing options are continuing to develop through the Scottish Government funded local authority led housing options hubs. This work focuses on the prevention of homelessness and ensuring that people have access to good quality housing advice which should help women and children experiencing domestic abuse in accessing relevant legal mechanisms.

In March 2016 the Scottish Government published enhanced Housing Options Guidance, which recognised that those removing themselves from domestic abuse situations will have particular needs and recommended that Housing Options Services should ensure that appropriate plans, liaison and referral arrangements are in place. A national training toolkit is being developed which will cover issues of domestic abuse and how this should be addressed through housing and homelessness provision.

The £400M Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme is delivering fibre broadband access to at least 95% of premises across Scotland by the end of next year. This is a vital first step towards our commitment to extend superfast access to 100% of premises by 2021.

For those not covered by the DSSB programme, guidance is publicly available which outlines the options available for securing financial and practical support for broadband connectivity.

Community Broadband Scotland is a Scottish Government initiative, delivered nationally by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, which provides financial and technical support for communities who wish to pursue their own connectivity solutions. Alternatively, individuals may wish to consider the Better Broadband scheme, which offers funding to help with connection costs.

Information on the Community Broadband Scotland initiative can be found at http://www.hie.co.uk/community-support/community-broadband-scotland/, and on the Better Broadband scheme at https://www.scotlandsuperfast.com/where-when/the-programme/better-broadband-scheme/.

Scotland’s participation in Erasmus+, the EU’s 2014-2020 Education, Training, Youth and Sport Programme, is in line with our aims to promote Scotland as a learning nation and to increase student and staff mobility, and brings strong educational, employability, cultural and economic benefits. Erasmus+ also enables students from Scotland to access commercial loans on favourable terms in order to study postgraduate courses in other member states. Scotland’s preference would be to continue full participation.

Erasmus+ 2014-2020 is delivered by the British Council with Ecorys under contract to the UK Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) with and on behalf of the four nations of the UK. The Scottish Government has received assurances that the EU Referendum result has no immediate effect on learners, staff or volunteers from Scotland currently abroad under the Erasmus+ scheme or anyone applying for 2016-17. Payments will be made in the usual way. The Scottish Government continues to seek assurances covering the medium and longer term.

The Scottish Government’s starting point is to protect our relationship with, and place in, the European Union. The Scottish Government will publish proposals over the coming weeks that would allow Scotland to stay in the single market and to preserve aspects of our relationship with the EU, even if the rest of the UK is intending to leave.

The purpose of the new Scotland-wide statutory board will be to drive stronger governance and alignment across a coherent and fully integrated enterprise and skills system which provides the support that businesses and users of the skills system require. Decisions regarding the formation, remit and funding arrangements for this board for will be taken forward during phase two of the review process which began on 1 November. It is therefore not possible to set out at this stage what future budgets may be, as they will be developed in the normal way to meet funding needs and obligations through spending review and annual budget setting processes.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise will continue to exist. As part of our review of skills and enterprise, working closely with key stakeholders we will consider how the new Scotland-wide statutory board will operate. Current boards will continue to be involved as we develop our plans going forward.