Chamber and committees

The Scottish Veterans Fund was established in 2008 for the purpose of assisting groups and organisations providing support services to Scotland’s ex-Service personnel.

The Scottish Government has invested £833,316.88 to date via the Fund supporting 125 projects across the country aimed at improving the quality of life for Veterans living in Scotland.

Detail on projects that have benefited to date is captured - copies have been lodged with SPICe (Bib number 58314).

The Public Bodies (Joint Working)(Scotland) Act 2014 placed a duty on Integration Authorities to develop a 'strategic plan' for integrated functions and budgets under their control.

In 2015, the year before integration went live, the Scottish Government published statutory guidance on strategic commissioning setting out that each Partnership's strategic commissioning plan should be based upon a Strategic Needs Assessment of local people's needs, including, as appropriate, the needs of veterans. Strategic commissioning plans have been published by every Partnership, and we are providing support for their on-going development. Some partnerships are undertaking more detailed needs analysis of specific care groups.

The strategic commissioning plan sets out how partnerships will plan and deliver services for their area over the medium term, using the integrated budgets under their control. Stakeholders must be fully engaged in the preparation, publication and review of the strategic commissioning plan, in order to establish a meaningful co-productive approach, to enable Integration Authorities to deliver the national outcomes for health and wellbeing, and achieve the core aims of integration.

As at 31 August 2016, The Scottish Government has paid CAP 2015 payments (Basic, Greening and Young Farmers) that total almost £323 million to more than 17,704 farms. Of that, 17,330 businesses have received their full payment. The remainder (374) have received partial payment.

Our estimate of the total number of eligible businesses is 18, 479. This means that 93.7 per cent of the current total number of eligible business have received their full payment with 95.8 per cent having received either full or partial payment.

However, at this stage it is important to note that the total number of eligible businesses, and therefore the percentage figures is still subject to change until all claims have been fully validated.

The Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work (Keith Brown): On 19 May 2016, the Ministry of Defence published the most recent analysis of the Annual Population Survey produced by the Office of National Statistics in 2014, which contains information on the number of veterans living in Scotland. This analysis is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-population-survey-uk-armed-forces-veterans-residing-in-great-britain-2014

Based on this analysis of the Annual Population Survey, in 2014 there were 231,000 veterans residing in Scotland, an estimated 5.2% of the population in Scotland. The Annual Population Survey was only asked of those residing in households and therefore excluded individuals who were homeless or living in communal establishments such as care homes or prisons. Information is not broken down by local authority area.

Statistics on those who have applied to local authorities and are assessed as being homeless or threatened with homelessness, including those who have identified themselves as veterans, are published online at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/RefTables/RefTables. Numbers of homelessness applications overall have fallen steadily over the past five years, including from those declared as a former member of the Armed Forces.

Applicants are entitled to temporary accommodation whilst waiting for settled accommodation to be found and to assistance to help them secure alternative accommodation. A number of Charities and organisations offer assistance specifically to veterans who are threatened with homelessness, with support from the Scottish Government and local authorities. Organisations include the Scottish Veterans Housing Association which provides high quality, supported accommodation for veterans.

The Scottish Government continues to work with stakeholders to ensure that the Commissioner’s findings and recommendations are central to our current and future work programme.

We have taken forward a number of recommendations made by the Scottish Veteran Commissioner in his reports and an outline of our programme and priorities in support of Scotland’s Armed Forces and veterans community is set out in the publication Renewing Our Commitments; available at: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/02/1650. I also refer you to the answer to question S5W 02056 on 7 September 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Through its affordable housing supply programme, the Scottish Government provides grant funding to build homes to support ex-Service personnel. The Scottish Government awarded £2.59 million to Scottish Veterans Residences’ to provide affordable rental homes exclusively available for former Armed Forces members and their families, as well as temporary accommodation for veterans in need of dedicated support. The Scottish Government has also awarded grant funding of £1.3 million to the Scottish Veterans Garden City Association to build 38 new homes across six local authority areas to support impaired ex-Service personnel. Twenty homes have now been completed.

Priority access is provided to veterans who are looking to buy a home with assistance from the Scottish Government’s Low Cost Initiative for First Time buyers schemes. For 2016-17, the Scottish Government allocated £80 million to the Open Market Shared Equity Scheme to help up to 2,000 first time buyers. Priority access to these schemes is provided to serving members of the Armed Forces, those who have left within the past two years and to widows, widowers and other partners of personnel for up to two years after their partner has lost their life whilst serving.

The Scottish Government has legislated to allow ex-Service personnel to establish a local connection to the area in which they served, enabling them to be treated fairly in homelessness assessments by local authorities. The Scottish Government has produced a tailored housing guide for veterans and for support organisations that provide advice and support to veterans to help them to understand their housing options. Housing options guidance, published earlier this year, also highlights the importance of taking into account the particular needs of people leaving the Armed Forces in the delivery of local authorities’ housing options services.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-00253 on 6 June 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Ex-Service personnel have full access to training and placement schemes that are available to those seeking employability support in Scotland, subject to eligibility. In September 2015 the Scottish Government provided an additional £1.3 million to the Community Jobs Scotland (CJS) pilot scheme to help more people with barriers to employment into jobs. The funding was to develop and deliver 100 additional CJS places this included up to 50 early service leavers from the Armed Forces. Following the changes made to the CJS programme in light of the Scottish Veteran Commissioner’s recommendations, up to £6.1m was committed for Phase six in 2016-17 to support 700 CJS jobs lasting up to 12 months for vulnerable 16-29 year olds; including ex service personnel and the partners of veterans. This year veterans will also be helped to transition to civilian life through a range of projects delivering employability and health and wellbeing services following the award of £120,000 of grant funding through the Scottish Veterans Fund. The Scottish Government is currently working with Business in the Community Scotland and Salute My Job to promote veterans recruitment by private sector employers. In addition to a dedicated online recruitment fair, an employers summit has been arranged for later this year.

Ex-Service personnel have full access to training and placement schemes that are available to those seeking employability support in Scotland, subject to eligibility.

In September 2015 the Scottish Government provided an additional £1.3 million to the Community Jobs Scotland (CJS) pilot scheme to help more people with barriers to employment into jobs. The funding was to develop and deliver 100 additional CJS places this included up to 50 early service leavers from the Armed Forces. Following the changes made to the CJS programme in light of the Scottish Veteran Commissioner’s recommendations, up to £6.1m was committed for Phase six in 2016-17 to support 700 CJS jobs lasting up to 12 months for vulnerable 16-29 year olds; including ex service personnel and the partners of veterans.

This year veterans will also be helped transition to civilian life through a range of projects delivering employability and health and wellbeing services following the award of £120,000 of grant funding through the Scottish Veterans Fund.

The Scottish Government is currently working with Business in the Community Scotland and Salute My Job to promote veterans recruitment by private sector employers. In addition to a dedicated online recruitment fair, an employers summit has been arranged for later this year.