Chamber and committees

The PVG Scheme was established on 28 February 2011. The number of PVG disclosures completed in each financial year since that date is set out in the following table.

Disclosure Scotland’s Annual Report and Accounts, which includes figures about PVG disclosures, is laid in the Parliament each year and published on the MyGov.Scot website: Disclosure Scotland Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22

Since being established in the winter of 2020, as part of the wider Winter Support Fund, a total of £33.595 million in support has been distributed from the Fuel Insecurity Fund (FIF) through our third sector delivery partners, namely Advice Direct Scotland, the Fuel Bank Foundation and the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations. This includes the full £20 million budgeted for in 2022-23, all of which has been drawn down by delivery partners.

We have agreed an approach to monitoring and evaluation of support provided by delivery partners which seeks to avoid excessive demands for data gathering and reporting, in order to ensure the FIF can be distributed to those most in need. As such, the Scottish Government does not hold this information, although we are aware of the unprecedented demand for support from the Fuel Insecurity Fund, which our partners are providing to households. Based on evaluation reports received to date and ongoing monitoring, we estimate over 100,000 households will have received some form of support.

Further information, including FIF partner publications and evaluations, can be accessed directly on their respective websites linked to below.

The Fuel Bank Foundation - Fuel-Bank-Fuel-Crisis-Report-2023.pdf (fuelbankfoundation.org)

Scottish Federation of Housing Associations – 92717.pdf (sfha.co.uk)

Advice Direct Scotland - Publications – Advice Direct Scotland

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Provision of school libraries, which deliver a wide range of benefits and access to learning materials and resources for pupils, is a matter for local decision making in each local authority area.

We support the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) to deliver the School Library Improvement Fund and support Vibrant Libraries, Thriving Schools – A National Strategy for School Libraries in Scotland 2018-23 .

The Scottish Government collects information on temporary accommodation placements associated with homelessness applications through the HL3 data collection. This gathers information on date of entry and date of exit (where relevant) for each temporary accommodation placement. It is possible to combine durations of individual temporary accommodation placements associated with the same homelessness application.

The HL3 data collection does not gather information on all persons present in temporary accommodation placements. However, it is reasonable to assume there is at least one adult present. An additional question was added to the HL3 data collection in 2019 to ask how many children require accommodation in temporary accommodation placements, but not all local authorities have so far been able to provide this information.

An estimate of the presence of children in temporary accommodation placements can be derived by linking household records between the HL1 and HL3 data collections. The HL1 data collection is related to homelessness applications and gathers information on household composition. However, it is important to note that households may sometimes make alternative arrangements for children when entering temporary accommodation and therefore it is not always the case that children included in the HL1 return are present in associated temporary accommodation placements. It can also be the case that children are present for only part of the stay in temporary accommodation e.g. as part of shared custody arrangements.

A full set of HL3 data is available for all local authorities from 2017-18. However, this includes temporary accommodation placements which commenced prior to 2017-18. In addition, some local authorities have provided data prior to 2017-18, but the completeness of this is highly variable across local authorities.

Information at individual (person or household) level cannot be provided due to data confidentiality.

Information gathered through Scottish Government homelessness data collections can be found under the homelessness data provider information section of the homelessness statistics webpages. Within the annual Homelessness in Scotland publications, data tables are included for a) the average time spent in temporary accommodation for closed cases, by local authority and household type and b) the distribution of time spent in temporary accommodation for closed cases, by local authority for i) all households; ii) households with children; and iii) households without children.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on local authority expenditure for the provision of emergency accommodation to households experiencing homelessness. This information would need to be requested from each local authority directly.

The majority of homelessness funding since 1999 has been provided to local authorities through the annual local government finance settlement, which is £13.2 billion in 2023-24. Each local authority is responsible for managing and administering their own budget on the basis of local needs and priorities, and have discretion as to how they use this resource to prevent and respond to homelessness, including providing emergency accommodation. This has been supplemented in recent years by £5.5 million from the Scottish Government’s health and housing budgets for the Housing First pathfinder and identifiable resource as follows:

The Scottish Government does not collect or hold this information. You may wish to contact individual Local Authorities who collect a range of information from applicants for social housing.

The Scottish Government HL1 data collection gathers information relating to reason support may need to be provided, according to the judgement of a homelessness officer, for households who make a homelessness application.

No information is gathered about support needs or disabilities of individuals within the household.

The HL3 data collection gathers information about temporary accommodation placements associated with homelessness applications. The following information has been derived by linking data from Scottish Government HL1 and HL3 collections

Support needs identified for households in temporary accommodation, as at 30 September 2022 (latest available)

The Scottish Government does not hold that specific information. However statistics collected from local authorities includes information on housing for disabled people: Housing for Older People and People with Disabilities and the Scottish Housing Regulator also collects information on numbers of housing units for disabled people: Statistical information | Scottish Housing Regulator .

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the lives of people with complex care needs. Along with the Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care, I recently wrote to all areas to encourage greater collaborative working across integration authorities and local authorities to deliver integrated housing, care and support services for people with complex care needs living in Scotland.

Social landlords in Scotland must already meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard which requires properties to be free from damp, have adequate ventilation and be suitably insulated and they must ensure any requests for repairs are carried out in a timely fashion. Compliance is monitored by the Scottish Housing Regulator. If landlords fail to comply, tenants can escalate complaints to the Scottish Public Sector Ombudsman. The latest report on the Scottish Housing Charter shows that almost 9 out of 10 social tenants are satisfied with the homes and service that their landlord provides.

The Regulator is currently working proactively with social housing providers to identify and share best practice in dealing with damp and mould and is expected to publish updated guidance shortly.

We plan on consulting on proposed updates to Housing for Varying Needs to uplift standards applicable to homes delivered with support through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme in the Spring of this year. This consultation will also include proposals for the introduction of an all-tenure Scottish Accessible Homes Standard which is planned to be implemented through changes to building standards and guidance from 2025-26.