Chamber and committees

Local authorities already possess Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) powers and a number of authorities have utilised these in recent years to take possession of empty and derelict residential properties in order to bring them back into use or to replace them with modern affordable housing. We are committed to supporting authorities to utilise their existing CPO powers and in the past 2 years have:

• published a new suite of guidance that takes authorities through the CPO process from beginning to end;
• met with around 26 local authorities to discuss the potential use of CPO;
• published a series of case studies on the use of CPO – including for empty homes;
• held a training event with the Empty Homes Partnership on the use of CPO for empty homes; and
• hosted three training and good practice sharing events for local authority staff on the use of CPO more generally, which were attended by over 200 delegates.

In addition, we have empowered communities to address the problems caused by vacant properties. The Part 3A Community Right-to-Buy allows communities to buy buildings and land that are abandoned, neglected or detrimental. This is a compulsory purchase power, and if Ministers approve a community’s application, the owner must sell, whether or not they planned to do so.

Eligibility for funded early learning and childcare starts from the term after a child’s third birthday, although local authorities also have the flexibility to provide funded early learning and childcare before the statutory eligibility date, if they choose to do so. The eligibility criteria prioritises those children who stand to benefit the most in the first instance, through statutory eligibility for some 2 year olds.

The eligibility criteria also means that children born in January or February are able to access an additional year of funded early learning and childcare when they are four, if the parent choses to defer the child’s entry to primary school.

We understand the impact of domestic abuse on survivors’ housing situation, whether they require emergency accommodation, temporary or permanent accommodation. We know that the National Helpline and the local services we fund through the Equally Safe Fund can provide support in this area, but we are clear that more needs to be done.

We are funding Fife Council’s Improving the way we work project, which will address the key findings and subsequent action plan from the “Change, Justice, Fairness” report, a community research report commissioned by Fife Council from Scottish Women’s Aid involving women with lived experience of domestic / sexual abuse and homelessness. We have committed to sharing the lessons from this project with other local authorities.

In terms of systematic change, our Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan published in November, will transform how those at risk of homelessness receive help. Our work in this area include a commitment to developing a pathway to prevent homelessness for survivors of domestic abuse. The response to Parliamentary Question S5W-23871 on 15 July 2019 provides more detail. 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 .

On 26 August 2019 the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Communities attended the launch of Domestic Abuse: a good practice guide for social landlords , which aims to support social landlords in recognising and supporting survivors of domestic abuse. This is a joint publication of the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers (ALACHO), the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA), Shelter Scotland and Scottish Women’s Aid and supported by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA).

The Scottish Government’s position on woodland creation and maintaining existing woodland cover are outlined in Scotland’s Forestry Strategy 2019-2029 . Scotland’s woodland creation target is set out in the Climate Change Action Plan: 10,000 hectares per year until 2020-2021 and then increasing by steps to 15,000 hectares per year by 2024-2025. Scotland exceeded this target in 2018-19 by creating 11,210 hectares of new woodland – 84% of the new woodland created in the UK.

The Scottish Government recognises forestry’s vital role in Scotland’s response to the global climate emergency as well as in supporting the rural economy, which is why the current Climate Change Action Plan includes the ambitious forestry expansion plans described above. The Scottish Government has committed to updating the Climate Change Action Plan within six months of Royal Assent to the new Climate Change Bill, and a consideration of the government’s forestry ambitions will be included as a part of this process.

Preventing and eradicating all forms of violence against women and girls, including domestic abuse and forced marriage, is a priority for the Scottish Government. We are working collaboratively with COSLA and key partners to implement Equally Safe, our strategy in this area.

We are committed to ensuring that women and children who have experienced domestic abuse have access to support. Through our Equally Safe Fund, we’re investing £5.6m in initiatives which include front line services for women and children, and we are continuing to fund the National Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline. As part of the commencement of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, which created a “course of conduct” offence for the first time – enabling physical, psychological and controlling behaviour to be prosecuted at once, we have invested in a significant programme of capacity building in partnership with Police Scotland. We have also worked closely with justice partners and third sector services to ensure readiness for implementation of the new offence and the ability to respond effectively to the needs of survivors. We are working closely with key partners through our Forced Marriage Network to identify further work in this area, and have committed to refreshing statutory guidance previously issued under the Forced Marriage (Scotland) Act 2011.

Access to adequate food is an internationally recognised human right and is key to the fulfilment of other rights. The Scottish Government is therefore committed to ensuring everyone in Scotland has the opportunity to eat well and maintain a healthy diet as an key component of our Good Food Nation ambition. To do this we are taking action both at a population-wide level and through delivering targeted support specifically to those who need it most, including taking action to ensure people affected by food insecurity can eat well.

The Scottish Government already takes a human rights approach to tackling food insecurity by promoting the living wage and through the design and delivery of our new Scottish social security system. We have also committed to setting up a National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership and its work will include consideration of the right to food, as an integral part of the right to an adequate standard of living.

I found the visits to the Brownlee clinic and Waverley Care’s street support team informative and was impressed by the collaborative working taking place between the NHS and 3 rd sector organisations. I continue to take a close interest in measures to tackle the HIV outbreak in Glasgow. My officials are in contact with the Incident Management Team and clinicians leading on the response in Glasgow in order to understand what more can be done to tackle the ongoing transmissions of HIV in this vulnerable population.

The two NHS Health Boards with waiting lists for access to PrEP are NHS Highland and NHS Lothian.

NHS Highland has a four week waiting time, and NHS Lothian has a five month waiting time.

Responsibility for enforcing tattooing and skin piercing, including acupuncture, legislation lies with Local Authorities.

This falls within the remit of Local Authorities who have the statutory responsibility under The Civil Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Skin Piercing and Tattooing) Order 2006 which came into force in Scotland on 1st April 2006 and gives Local Authorities the power to license individuals who carry out skin piercing or tattooing activities as a business.

The information requested is not held centrally. However, the number of NHS Scotland hospital admissions with pneumothorax (spontaneous tension pneumothorax and other pneumothorax ) and the number of hospital admissions with traumatic pneumothorax are shown in Table 1 and Table 2 respectively.

Table 1

Number of NHS Scotland hospital admissions with spontaneous tension pneumothorax and other pneumothorax in each year since 2015-16, by health board and financial year.