Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not have information on rents in private sector housing, broken down by local authority area.

The main source of the Scottish Government’s rent data for private sector housing is the Rent Service Scotland, Market Evidence Database. Information from this source is published annually on rent levels by 18 Broad Rental Market Areas and by five different property bedroom sizes, which are used to inform Local Housing Allowance rates in Scotland. This data source has not been designed to provide information on rent levels by 32 separate local authority areas.

The Scottish Government publishes annual statistics from this source. The latest Scottish Government Private Sector Rent Statistics, Scotland (2010 to 2015) publication, released in November 2015, is available on the Scottish Government Housing and Regeneration Statistics webpages at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration

Comprehensive information from this data source is not available prior to 2010.

The next set of annual private sector rent statistics, covering the period 2010 to 2016, are due to be released on 8 November 2016.

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 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.

The Scottish Government collects information on rough sleepers through the HL1 data-set. This data collection records information on homeless applications and is supplied by local authorities to the Scottish Government.

Since 2002, the HL1 data-set has recorded cases where rough sleeping occurs a) the night prior to a homeless application being made and b) at least once during the three months prior to the application being made. However, it is voluntary for applicants to supply this information.

For annual figures on this, see Table 2a in the publication: Homelessness in Scotland: 2015-16 available at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/RefTables/Homelessness201516

Use of the HL1 only provides information on homeless applicants who sleep rough and will not count all rough sleepers. Some rough sleepers will not necessarily want to engage with services or are particularly hard to reach.

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.