Chamber and committees

The Police Scotland Estate Strategy seeks to deliver modern, fit for purpose police buildings which are co-located with strategic partners, and which meet the needs of 21st century operational policing. To date over 60 co-locations have been delivered.

Overall responsibility for managing the police estate is for the Chief Constable under Scottish Police Authority (SPA) scrutiny. As approved by the SPA it is for Police Scotland to consult on the details of its planned estate changes.

The pandemic and the subsequent pressures on the court system and justice partners arising from the backlog of cases it created, has impacted on the implementation timetable for the Vulnerable Witnesses (Criminal Evidence) (Scotland) Act 2019. We are working with partners and stakeholders through a cross sector implementation group to update the implementation plan and have committed to publish by the end of March 2024.

The Scottish Government’s latest annual progress report on child poverty , published on 13 June 2023, sets out progress toward the meeting the child poverty targets and in implementing the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan, ‘Best Start, Bright Futures’.

Modelling published alongside this year’s progress report estimates that 90,000 fewer children will live in relative and absolute poverty in 2023-24 as a result of Scottish Government policies, with poverty levels 9% points lower that they would have otherwise been. This includes lifting an estimated 50,000 children out of relative poverty through our Scottish Child Payment. However, we will not know if the interim child poverty targets have been met until March 2025.

Our approach to tackling child poverty is in stark contrast to that of the UK Government. Scottish Government analysis, published in April 2022, estimated that reversing key UK Government welfare changes that have taken place just since 2015 could lift an estimated 70,000 people out of poverty in Scotland, including 30,000 children, and put £780 million in the pockets of Scottish households this year.

As official statistics on rates of relative poverty in Scotland come from the Family Resources Survey which is run by the Department for Work and Pensions, which is a sample survey. This therefore this does not allow a breakdown to be produced below the national figure for Scotland.

The £46 million funding was intended to support strategic change in the college and university sectors and was not part of the core teaching funding allocations. Despite a very challenging financial climate, the Scottish Government committed nearly £2 billion to Scotland’s universities and colleges in 2023-24. Part of the reason for withdrawing the £46 million funding was to allow the Scottish Government to fund public sector pay deals. Strategic change remains necessary and we will be taking this forward with the Scottish Funding Council, colleges and universities in the context of reform, building on the purpose and principles for post-school education published in June 2023. This can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/post-school-education-research-skills-purpose-principles/

One Parent Families Scotland is a national organisation which works with and on behalf of one parent families, with the aim and purpose to improve the lives of single parents and their families, enabling them to benefit from life’s opportunities and fulfil their potential.

In 2022-23 One Parent Families Scotland (OPFS) received £371,700 in core funding via the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention & Adult Learning & Empowering Communities (CYPFEI & ALEC) third sector fund. The agreed outcomes from this funding were:

• Build Single Parents’ Capacity & Resilience so they will be stronger and more confident in knowing their rights and controlling their lives and supporting their children.
• Single parent families will have improved their standard of living, so reducing child poverty
• OPFS will be a resilient and responsive organisation, ensuring government has an increased understanding of issues affecting single parents, resulting in the development of more effective policies and services for children, young people and their families.
• Single parent families will participate and take an active role in making positive change.

In addition, the Scottish Government allocated £393,096 in 2022-23 to OPFS for welfare and debt advice. This funding included £320,233 for OPFS’s National Advice and Information Service and £72,863 debt levy funding for debt advice. The funding objectives were;

• to provide holistic advice and information on welfare benefits and other issues that affect single parents and their families’ financial inclusion and wellbeing
• to enable single parents to maximise their income
• to increase OPFS capacity to provide debt advice to single parents.

Scottish Government and the Improvement Service continues to support Local Authorities with their local implementations of PARD. Support ranges from guidance on data preparation, through to examples on when PARD can be used.

Scottish Government and the Improvement Service are also drafting a ‘quick start guide’ that will be distributed to Local Authorities by the end of October 2023. The guide answers frequently asked questions.

Scottish Government Digital Directorate has engaged with the Society of Local Authority Lawyers & Administrators in Scotland (SOLAR) FOI, Data Protection & Human Rights Group working group to brief them on the Data Protection requirements around PARD. The working group will provide support to Local Authorities when preparing Data Protection documentation relating to PARD.

Additionally, Scottish Government Digital Directorate presented PARD to a Public Engagement Panel that was looking at public acceptance and Data Ethics around the use of personal data by the Public Sector. The panel was very supportive of the use of personal data in PARD and in general for incidents and emergencies.

It is a matter for Local Authorities to decide whether they want to adopt PARD or use a different system. The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 places a duty on Category 1 and 2 responders to share and access information to support decision making.

To date, Scottish Government and the Improvement Service have held workshops with colleagues from Social Work and Emergency Planning in all Scottish Local Authorities. These workshops have focused on how PARD data can be used to identify people at risk during and to support decision making during incidents.

The Forestry Grant Scheme opened for applications in 2015 as part of the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) and initially had a 7 year budget of £36m per year. The Forestry Grants budget has since been reviewed on an annual basis, as part of the wider Scottish Government Budget process, to reflect the Climate Change Plan woodland creation target and on-going legal commitments.

Forestry Grant Scheme contracts are issued by Scottish Forestry, and underspends can occur where insufficient applications are received or approved schemes are delayed. Underspends occurred in 2015-16 and 2016-17 due to insufficient applications being received in the first two years of FGS. Since then underspends have occurred in 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23, due to combination insufficient applications and delays with approved projects being implemented.

On 28 September I wrote jointly with Julie James, Minister for Climate Change in the Welsh Government, to Michael Gove, UK Minister for Intergovernmental Relations, expressing disappointment at the Prime Minister’s announcement that the UK Government is significantly changing course on key net zero commitments.

Tackling the twin crises of climate change and nature loss is one of the most significant challenges facing people and planet this century and the Prime Minister’s statement was an unforgivable betrayal of current and future generations.

There was no prior engagement with the Scottish or Welsh Governments. Because of the weakness of current arrangements, we seek a high level summit and the establishment of a new, mutually respectful partnership to develop an agreed four nation approach to net zero in a collaborative manner. We also continue to strongly urge the UK Government to provide detailed information to enable us to fully assess the implications of the announcement.

On 5 October I made clear the Scottish Government’s position in a call with Graham Stuart, Minister of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.

On 26 October, I wrote to Claire Coutinho, Secretary of State, to express my deep concern about the path chosen by the Prime Minister in abandoning and delaying measures which have been previously committed to by the UK Government. I also seek an urgent response on long-standing proposals from the Scottish Government for action on reserved issues to accelerate the transition to net zero and help deliver both Scottish and UK targets.

I will again raise these issues when I chair the next meeting of the four nations Inter-Ministerial Working Group on Net Zero on 15 November.

The changes to examination recall times follow independent best practice guidelines set by NICE, allowing dentists to tailor recalls based on patients’ individual oral health needs. The guidelines can be found online at: Overview | Dental checks: intervals between oral health reviews | Guidance | NICE.

No one will have reduced access to dental examinations if they need them, alongside the annual extended clinical exam, there is a new review examination available, free of charge, as often as the dentist deems it clinically necessary.