Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government’s consultation document Your Scotland, Your Referendum published on 25 January 2012 confirmed that in an independent Scotland Her Majesty the Queen would remain as Head of State.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans to set up such an organisation.

The Scottish Government has not yet decided its legislative programme for future years.

Any proposal to introduce a specific bill on trafficking in human beings would have to be considered alongside a wide range of other potential priorities for legislation.

The Scottish Government provides funding to the Trafficking Awareness Raising Alliance (TARA) and Migrant Help to support suspected victims of trafficking as set out in the following table. Funding for TARA commenced in 2006 and commenced for Migrant Helpline in 2009. The figure provided for 2011-12 is an estimate as we have not yet reached the end of the financial year.

During the police led anti-trafficking operation, Pentameter 2, which ran from October 2007 to March 2008, the Scottish Government made available up to £20,000 to reimburse local authorities for any direct costs, on a case-by-case basis, they incurred in providing support, subsistence and accommodation to adult victims of human trafficking who had no recourse to public funds.

In addition to core police funding, the Scottish Government provided additional funding of £4 million from 2009 to 2011 to the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency to boost capacity to tackle organised crime and, within that, provide Scotland’s first dedicated expert resource to build the intelligence necessary to support and improve human trafficking investigation.

The Police and Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service spend a significant amount of operational time on victim issues, including victims of human trafficking. Information on resources provided by these and other organisations, such as the support of child victims of trafficking by local authorities, is not held centrally.

Intelligence assessments are operational matters for police forces.

The Scottish Government provided additional funding of £4 million over a two year period from 2009 to 2011 to the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency to boost capacity to tackle organised crime, and within that provide a dedicated expert resource to build the intelligence necessary to support and improve human trafficking investigation. That resource is now in place. Trafficking strategic and tactical groups have been set up by the Agency and this is one of the issues that these groups will seek to address.

The Scottish Government has no current plans but will consider with stakeholders what further specific human trafficking awareness-raising activities would be of benefit within the public and private sectors.

The Scottish Government keeps human trafficking legislation under regular review and responds as appropriate to any developments in line with our commitment to tackle this form of serious organised crime.

These issues are principally operational matters for the organisations involved.

However, the Scottish Government will host a summit in the coming months to bring together the various agencies involved in combating trafficking in human beings to refresh the strategic direction for policy and delivery in this area. Improved co-operation between all organisations will be one of the objectives of the summit.

The Scottish Government's proposal for Scotland is not "separation", but independence, with a new relationship of equality between Scotland and the other nations of these islands. Under the Olympic Charter, any independent states recognised by the international community can participate in the Olympic Games. Scotland already funds its teams to compete in Commonwealth Games and would do so for an Olympic team in the future.

As laid out in Choosing Scotland's Future (paragraphs 3.9 - 3.11) and Your Scotland Your Voice (paragraphs 9.17 - 9.19), the current constitutional arrangements would provide a robust initial framework for an independent Scotland. A white paper drawing together the Scottish Government’s proposals for independence will be published in November 2013.