Chamber and committees

This information is not available in this format, as it would be dependent on the depend on the number and type of traffic, on any one particular sailing.

There is growing pressure on homelessness services and for some local authorities, including Glasgow and Edinburgh, the pressure is most keenly felt from the impact of the Home Office’s streamlined asylum process which is increasing demand for homelessness support.

The latest homelessness statistics released on 27 February 2024 do not indicate that there is growing pressure on local authority homelessness services due to the changes to local connection legislation. Between April and September 2023, 3% of households that were assessed as homeless had no local connection to the local authority to which the application was made, but had a local connection to another Scottish local authority. This is similar to the proportion of households in previous years:

• 2021-22, 5% of households (1,535)
• 2022-23, 2% of households (705)

[Note: The statistics above are over a 12 month period, whereas the statistics from February 2024 cover a six month period. The April to September 2023 statistics is the first bi-annual collection to include local connection data following the legislative change to local connection in November 2022.]

A Local Connection Solutions Group comprising Scottish Government and local authority officials was established last year to co-produce guidance to support local authorities with the legislative changes and to address emerging issues.

To date, there is no evidence of a disproportionate impact on any local authority; rather, we are seeing a pattern of people moving across the country, exercising choice about where they want to live, as the legislation intended. We will continue to monitor the flow of people both into and leaving local authorities to inform our understanding of the impact of the legislative change.

There are a number of avenues for local authorities to engage with Scottish Government on this issue including via the Housing Options Hubs, through the Local Connection Solutions Group and via the regular meetings between local authority and Scottish Government officials. Local authorities are also encouraged to contact Scottish Government officials on an ad hoc basis regarding any queries they have or issues they want to raise. In addition, local connection has been an agenda item at meetings the Minister for Housing has had with Housing Convenors.

Scottish Government officials also meet specifically with the island local authorities on a regular basis as per the Island Community Impact Assessment, which was completed in advance of the legislation.

Local authorities take their own decisions about which digital tools, services and apps to deploy in their schools to support delivery of education. We expect that any digital service would be implemented in recognition of statutory duties arising from GDPR and Data Protection Act. As Data Controllers in their own right, it is for local authorities to ensure all digital services in schools comply with the relevant legislation.

At 30 September 2023 there were 254 directly employed staff within the Aberdeen City Council area.

The Scottish Government publishes employment figures on a quarterly basis. This data, along with a time series back to 2012 and full explanatory notes, can be found here: Scottish Government workforce information - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The Scottish Government is aware of the proposals put forward by the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers and will issue a response to it in due course.

Coalfields Regeneration Trust’s (CRT’s) grant for 2023-24 has been agreed following the principles of the Scottish Government’s latest grant management guidance which ensures adherence to the Scottish Public Finance Manual instructions. These state that contracts that include services to distribute grant funds must be awarded through genuine and effective competition. In light of that, the previous historical arrangement with CRT has been reviewed and the Scottish Government can no longer provide a proportion of the grant for CRT to use as a budget to then operate a small grant fund.

The Scottish Government’s procurement rules exist to ensure funds are spent in a way that delivers the most benefit to society. The Scottish Government is discussing with CRT other ways in which they can best support community organisations where these meet the regeneration outcomes and conditions of its existing grant award.

The Empowering Communities Programme (ECP) comprises two community funding programmes - the Investing in Communities Fund and Strengthening Communities Programme – as well as grants to strategic delivery partners. In 2023-24 222 organisations within the ECP have been offered grants with a total value of £13,855,118.50.

As grant claims are invited on a quarterly basis in arrears we do not collate information on grant claims paid on a monthly basis at an organisational level and are therefore unable to provide this information in the format requested. Data on the amount of grant paid is currently available from the 1 April 2023 up to the period ending 31 January 2024. The total amount of grant paid for the ECP for this period is £9,030,517.

A table including the list of grant awards made for each organisation within the ECP has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 64909)

The Gender Equality Taskforce in Education & Learning developed a set of ambitions in order to help inform its work, including the development of leadership programmes with a focus on gender inequality in education and learning. Development of this particular ambition was undertaken in consultation with Education Scotland, COSLA, the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland, the Scottish Council of Deans of Education and gender equality organisations including Close the Gap, Zero Tolerance and Rape Crisis Scotland. Since then, discussion and work has been ongoing to refine the overall workplan, including this particular ambition, to ensure that it is able to foster the type of long term, complex, systemic change that is needed. I am committed to continuing and accelerating such work to ensure that girls and young women have a gender equal experience of education and learning. The next meeting of the Taskforce will take place on 18 April.

Of the grants delivered within the Empowering Communities Programme there has been one organisation that dissolved in 2020-21 during the period of their grant award and one that entered into dissolution process in the final year of their grant award period in 2021-22.