Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government uses the Trussell Trust data to identify the trends in food bank use in Scotland. While the TT figures only cover their own foodbanks, they are the largest provider of emergency food aid in Scotland. The TT statistics can be accessed at: http://www.trusselltrust.org/stats.

The latest figures for Scotland from 2011-12 through to 2015-16 are in the following table:

However, those using food banks are not the only people experiencing food poverty. We heard through our Fairer Scotland conversation in summer 2015 that there are also many people who struggle to afford food but will not, for various reasons, access a foodbank. The Scottish Government has therefore taken steps to better measure the full range of food insecurity in Scotland. Three questions on food insecurity in Scotland will be included in the Scottish Health Survey 2017. Thereafter, the full United Nations food insecurity question set will be included in the Scottish Health Survey from 2018 onwards. This will allow internationally comparable baseline data on food insecurity in Scotland to be available in 2019 with further data sets available annually thereafter.

Local authorities supply the Scottish Government with information on homeless applications through the HL1 data-set. The following table provides the number of people who have presented as homeless over the last ten years.

Number of applications for homelessness assistance in Scotland

Source: Scottish Government HL1 dataset as at 25 May 2016

Since 2007, applicants have been asked their main reason for making an application for homelessness to their local authority. The main reasons for applying as homeless remain largely unchanged. Dispute within the household/relationship breakdown is one of the main causes of homelessness applications (29% of all applications) or being asked to leave (26%).

This data is available in Table 9a of the annual publication: Homelessness in Scotland: 2015-16. Available at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/RefTables/Homelessness201516

The Scottish Government does not collect eviction statistics relating to the private rented sector in Scotland. A new private residential tenancy introduced by the Private Housing (Tenancies) Act 2016 will take effect from December 2017 and will give tenants in the private rented sector more security, stability, and predictability. The Act creates a modern, open ended tenancy where landlords cannot evict a tenant simply because their tenancy agreement has reached its end date. Landlords will be required to use one of the 18 new grounds for repossession which offer a modernised process for regaining possession in all reasonable circumstances.

The majority of funding for suicide prevention and other mental health promotion, early intervention and appropriate services and treatment for people with mental health problems, is drawn from the overall funds allocated to NHS Scotland and Local Authorities each year by the Scottish Government.

Scottish Government spend on a number of mental health programmes (such as improving access to psychological therapies and educating and training the workforce) will all have had an indirect impact on helping to reduce the suicide rate by 18% since 2001 but this is difficult to separate because of the diverse way in which spend is reflected across the various budgets and programmes. The following table shows some examples of Scottish Government programme funding allocated for specific initiatives over the last three years which will have had a more direct impact on reducing the suicide rate in Scotland. It would be disproportionate to research and produce this information for the seven years prior to 2013.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is responsible for regulating medicines, medical devices and blood components in the UK, and the Scottish Government does not therefore hold the information sought.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for regulating medical devices in the UK. Any allegations regarding the use of counterfeit material, or any other adverse event, are investigated by the MHRA and device and drug alerts are issued as required.

With reference to the alleged use of counterfeit material in Boston Scientific's trans-vaginal mesh products, I can confirm that the Scottish Government has contacted the MHRA on more than one occasion, most recently at the beginning of October. To date, the alleged use of counterfeit material has not led to any reported adverse events associated with the devices, and the MHRA has not therefore been required to take enforcement action or to issue any device alerts.

The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 requires a public body’s annual procurement strategy to include a statement of their general policy on the procurement of fairly and ethically traded goods and services and report on this annually.

The Act also introduced a sustainable procurement duty, which places sustainable and socially responsible purchasing at the heart of public procurement processes. The duty requires public bodies to consider how in conducting the procurement process it can improve the economic, social, and environmental wellbeing of their area.

Public bodies have been supported to deliver social and environmental benefits through its public procurement activity through an extensive programme of training and mentoring, over 700 staff have received training. The in-depth approach to ethical sourcing of uniforms adopted for the London 2012 Games was used for procuring uniforms for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. We are also working with the Scottish Fair Trade Forum to progress the uptake of fair and ethically traded goods and services through public procurement.

The Scottish Government has no plans to regulate the use of e-cigarettes in enclosed public spaces.

All authorisations of undercover police officer must comply with the provisions contained in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Scotland) Act 2000, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Authorisation of Covert Human Intelligence Sources) (Scotland) Order 2014, and have regard to the Covert Human Intelligence Sources Code of Practice. Any additional internal procedures are an operational matter for Police Scotland.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland is developing its terms of reference and will consult on these with relevant stakeholders. The review will cover undercover policing activity in Scotland over the period during which the Scottish Parliament has had responsibility in this area. The Scottish Government has no plans to reconsider the period to be covered.