Chamber and committees

East Lothian Council convened an Incident Response Group as the incident required a multi-agency, co-ordinated response. As part of the co-ordinated response, a sub-group consisting of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s (SEPA’s) Airborne Hazard Emergency Response (AHER) Team, Public Health Scotland and the local Health Board, provided scientific advice in relation to air quality and impacts on human health.

No additional assessment by Scottish Government on air quality, local people or wildlife was therefore required.

SEPA is continuing to engage with the operator and investigating the incident.

The reasons for the Commissioners’ resignations are a matter of public record as set out in letters to the Social Justice and Social Security Committee.

I am grateful to the Chair and Commissioners for their contributions to the Commission and thank them for their service.

As the Commission is an independent public body any issues relating to internal relationships are for the Commission to manage .

Part of the Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group’s remit was to consider ways to reduce the high number of children in temporary accommodation, some of whom are in temporary accommodation for long periods. In our response to the Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group recommendations, we said that we will support local authorities’ efforts to ensure households with children who have been living in temporary accommodation for a number of years are supported into suitable permanent housing.

Our national acquisition plan is one way to help boost the supply of available affordable housing, including settled family homes. We will invest at least £60m from the Affordable Housing Supply Programme in 2023-24 to enable local authorities and registered social landlords to acquire properties of the right types and in the right places for use as high quality, affordable, permanent homes.

The Scottish Government is making £3.5 billion available in this parliamentary term towards the delivery of more affordable and social homes. Scotland has led the UK in providing affordable housing, delivering 122,201 affordable homes between April 2007 to the end of March 2023. Since 2007, Scotland has seen over 40% more affordable homes delivered per head of population than in England, and over 70% more than in Wales.

In addition to increasing housing supply, we will maximise the use of existing homes. This includes providing funding for councils and social landlords to bring empty homes back into use, asking social landlords to increase allocations to homeless households, and supporting councils to develop targeted plans to reduce temporary accommodation pressures. Meetings with the local authorities with the greatest temporary accommodation pressures are taking place to better understand the specific issues they are facing and what work could be undertaken in partnership to reduce the number of households, including those with children, in temporary accommodation.

We remain committed to having restorative justice (RJ) services available across Scotland. We are clear that the needs and voices of persons harmed must to be central to RJ processes and that services must be safe, consistent, evidence-led, trauma informed and of a high standard.

Restorative justice is already possible, with RJ services available in some areas and national guidance in place. We are continuing our work to develop a national service, based on a hub and spoke model.

The pandemic slowed progress and initial development work also identified complexities which need further exploration. We are committed to taking the time to resolve these issues and develop a safe and robust system. Work is underway with partners across the justice system to do this.

A national Hub has been established within Community Justice Scotland (CJS) (focused on RJ for adults) and the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ) are developing similar services for children and young people. Work is currently focussed on developing a policy and practice framework and on testing the model within the Lothian and Borders area.

Following testing and evaluation of the model in Lothian and Borders, we will work with CJS, CYCJ, partners across the justice system and adults, children and young people who may wish to access RJ to plan the expansion of RJ.

The Scottish Government recognises that the imprisonment rate in Scotland is high and we are taking action to address that. I wrote to the Criminal Justice Committee on 13 September, to highlight the issue and outline the actions being taken to tackle the rise in the prison population, this letter can be found at: Scotland's Prison Population | Scottish Parliament Website

Furthermore, regarding operational matters, I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The prisoner population on 15 September 2023 of those establishments operating above their design capacity is detailed within the following table:

In the current system care home providers should clearly set out their terms and conditions to residents and their families in the contractual arrangements; these are covered by consumer protection laws.

The Scottish Government acknowledges, however, that the social care sector requires reform. We remain committed to delivering a National Care Service to improve quality, fairness and consistency of provision that meets individuals’ needs. The design and delivery of the National Care Service will have human rights embedded throughout.

Engagement on the Bill, on the Bill proposals, and on the wider Agriculture Reform Programme is constant and extensive.

The Agriculture Reform Programme is currently hosting engagement sessions across Scotland to hear from farmers and crofters and increase awareness of Agricultural Reform.

The Agricultural Reform Roadshow started in June 2023, visiting 25 agricultural shows and marts across Scotland.

A full list of the roadshow dates can be found at Agriculture Reform Programme (ARP) roadshow dates 2023 (ruralpayments.org) .

The Scottish Government delivers support for energy efficiency measures in owner occupied household through a number of schemes.

Information about the number of measures installed by councils as part of our Area Based Schemes is not reported on a monthly basis. Annual returns based upon the information provided by councils are published on the Scottish Government website:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/area-based-schemes/

Information about the number of measures installed by the scheme managing agent, Warmworks, as part of our Warmer Homes Scotland scheme is not reported on a monthly basis. Annual reports are published on the Warmworks website:

https://www.warmworks.co.uk/our-work/warmer-homes-scotland/

The number of households supported with energy efficiency measures through the HES Grant and Loan, including payment for funding offers issued under the predecessor HES Loan and Cashback Scheme are set out in the following table.

Our recently published Cash-First Plan recognises the role of the community food sector, including pantries, in helping people to access cash and wider support in a crisis to reduce the need for emergency food parcels.

That is why we are providing The Scottish Pantry Network with £16,000 in 2023-24 to support the development and evaluation of cash-first models to tackle food insecurity within the context of pantry-type organisations. This funding will support them to work with their membership of around 20 pantry initiatives to increase access to cash-first support alongside access to dignified food services, and to develop learning and resources that can be shared with pantries beyond their network.

Pantries and the wider community food sector can also contribute to Scotland being a Good Food Nation by promoting healthier diets, increasing access to local and sustainably sourced foods and supporting our climate ambitions.

In August 2022, the Scottish Government committed funding to increase capacity across a range of advice services to help to address demand as a result of the energy crisis. This funding supported the Home Energy Scotland advice service to increase its capacity by 20% which helped to support over 138,000 unique households in 2022-23, with over 71,000 of those vulnerable to fuel poverty. This was an increase of over 70% of households at risk of fuel poverty receiving support from the service, versus the previous year. Home Energy Scotland's Energycarer service was boosted at the same time, allowing for an increase in visits to extremely vulnerable households who would otherwise struggle to engage with the service via the telephone or online. The expanded level of service has been maintained in 2023-24.