Chamber and committees

Equally Safe, Scotland’s strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls acknowledges the important role specialist and single-sex services play in supporting victim-survivors of violence against women and girls.

There are single sex exceptions in the UK wide Equality Act 2010, and it is the responsibility of service providers to comply with the 2010 Act. The Equality and Human Rights Commission as the body responsible for enforcing the 2010 Act has produced specific guidance to support organisations in their compliance, including a Statutory Code of Practice and a guide for service providers who operate a separate or single-sex service.

The legislation sets out maximum processing times and authorities are working within these to process applications as quickly as possible. Existing hosts can continue to operate while their applications are being processed and licensing authorities are prioritising applications from new hosts during this transitional period. Hosts are encouraged to work with councils to supply missing documentation in a timely manner, as incomplete applications will understandably increase processing times.

Licensing authorities administer local short-term let licensing schemes based on a cost recovery model. When I met with the City of Edinburgh Council recently on this matter, it advised it is resourced to handle the volume of enquiries and applications it has received, this includes a team who will specifically focus on ensuring a quick turnaround of temporary exemption applications for the summer period.

Scottish Government and Crown Estate Scotland representatives meet regularly to discuss actions CES are taking forward which directly benefit Scotland’s communities. CES is a revenue-raising public corporation. Many of these conversations include commercially sensitive discussions. The last catch-up took place on 31 May 2024.

In declaring a national housing emergency, the Scottish Government recognises that there are major challenges within the housing sector in Scotland. To address these challenges, joined up action across Scottish Government, UK Government, local government, registered social landlords (RSLs) and our full range of housing sector partners will be critical.

There is widespread support for Scotland’s long term plan for housing set out in the Housing to 2040 strategy, and for our collective plan to end homelessness set out in Ending Homelessness Together. So rather than diverting effort to the creation of a new action plan, it is our intention to work at pace in collaboration with partners to critically review and prioritise actions within these current plans. In doing so, we will focus on their impact and deliverability, linked to the First Minister’s priorities of eradicating child poverty, driving economic growth and investing in vital public services.

The publication of the Infrastructure Investment Plan Annual Report and Pipeline Reset has had to be postponed due to the timing of the UK General Election. Scottish Ministers will now consider a revised publication date, and will inform Parliament in due course.

Allotments and their provision are the responsibility of local authorities, as set out in the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 Part 9.

Whilst the Scottish Government is not required to collect information on waiting lists, we are aware of long lists in some areas of the country. We are committed to maintaining an open dialogue and working with our local authority partners to support them to meet their various statutory duties relating to allotments. Scottish Ministers have also issued guidance about the carrying out of functions conferred on local authorities by Part 9.

The Scottish Government recognises the wide-ranging benefits which participating in community growing activities can bring, not only for our physical and mental wellbeing but also for a sense of cohesion in our local communities.

In recognition of this, between 2012 and this financial year, we have awarded around £2.3 million to directly support, and increase the land that is available for, community growing initiatives through various grant funding. This includes £100,000 awarded to the Green Action Trust to deliver the Growing Food Together Fund for another year, with applications due to open soon.

We are currently prioritising work across the Scottish Government in light of increased budget pressures.

We estimate that establishing a register of child welfare reporters under the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 may cost around £5 million a year. This is based on calculations in the Financial Memorandum Children (Scotland) Bill (parliament.scot) that accompanied the Children (Scotland) Bill (now the Children (Scotland) Act 2020).

This is a significant financial pressure at the current time, and there is insufficient budget available within our 2024-25 allocation to implement the new register.

However, we plan to establish a short-life working group on child welfare reporters later this year with key stakeholders. This will inform further development of policy around the new register.

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) manage the nursing and midwifery Return to Practice education provision on behalf of Scottish Government.

Although the deadline has passed, the tender process is still live, and NES expects to publish the award on the Public Contracts Scotland website in the week commencing 24 June 2024.

Since 2011 Scottish Ministers have invested over £65 million in public EV charging. Scotland now has over 5,000 public EV charge points and is on target to have 6,000 public EV charge points by 2026, through a combination of public and increasing private sector investment. Scotland has the best provision of public EV charge points per head of population of anywhere in the UK, outside of London, and the most rapid charge points per head of population of any region in the UK.

Transport Scotland has also to-date provided £5.7 million to support the installation of 18,861 domestic charge points and £10.8 million to support 1,432 higher powered workplace charge points, complementing the public network.

In June 2023 the Scottish Government published its Vision for Scotland’s Public Electric Vehicle Charging Network, highlighting the need for a transition towards a public charging network that is largely financed and delivered by the private sector. In 2024, the private sector is forecast to invest £40 million to £55 million in public EV charging in Scotland.

The Government is investing a further £30 million through our EV infrastructure fund, supporting Local Authorities across Scotland, and prioritising areas of Scotland that are less likely to attract private investment, including rural and island communities.

Since 21-22, the Scottish Government has provided over £15 million of financial support to Local Authorities to support the installing of public EV charge points.

The First Minister emphasised his Government’s commitment to Scotland’s independence in his first call with the Prime Minister earlier this month. The Scottish Government stands ready to engage at any point with the UK Government to begin talks about the change to the Scottish Parliament’s powers to allow the Scottish people to choose their future.