Chamber and committees

We remain committed to bringing forward housing legislation to deliver the new deal for tenants and homelessness prevention duties. The majority of the measures being considered for inclusion in the legislation have already been subject to consultation, and we continue to engage directly with stakeholders as more detailed work progresses.

The Government’s legislative programme for the coming parliamentary year will be announced in the autumn Programme for Government in the normal way.

Specifically on the regulatory regime for property factors, the Code of Conduct (the Code) is key to encouraging transparency and setting minimum standards of practice for registered property factors to comply with. Following a full public consultation, a revised Code was introduced in August 2021. The changes ensured that the Code remains up to date and responds to concerns raised by homeowners.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested, however, my letter to the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee of 28 June 2023 provided an update on the health of the tourism sector drawn from indications taken from a number of reliable sources. This points to the outlook for Scotland’s tourism sector continuing to improve, with overseas visitor numbers almost recovering to pre-pandemic levels and accommodation occupancy rates increasing over the last year. While the macroeconomic environment is challenging, with the tourism sector being more greatly impacted than other sectors by staff shortages and the cost crisis that is reducing business confidence, there are also promising indications for recovery.

We want to see a thriving short-term let and self-catering sector in Scotland. I am therefore sorry to note that 766 self-catering businesses (around 4% of those registered to pay non-domestic rates) responded to the ASSC 48-hour poll in June indicating they were considering whether to leave the sector rather than apply for a short-term let licence. This regulation is leading the way in the UK, providing assurance to guests and visitors coming to Scotland that all short-term lets must now meet safety standards to operate. Responsible businesses are likely to already comply with the licensing conditions, many of which are existing legal requirements, and therefore a combination of wider factors are probably influencing numbers deciding to leave as well as invest in this sector. We will continue to work with stakeholders and monitor trends, as part of actions linked to our Scotland’s Outlook 2030 Strategy. We’ve also separately committed to provide implementation updates on licensing and, in 2024, will update the short-term let regulation business regulatory impact assessment.

The Scottish Government revised the Code of Conduct for Property Factors in August 2021 to make it clearer, to drive up standards and to improve transparency and consistency.

There is evidence that the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 is working as intended. However. officials will be taking a wider look at the operation of the property factor sector to see what more can be done to promote an ongoing improvement in standards in line with the requirements currently set out in legislation.

The Managed Service Network for Children and Young People with Cancer (MSN CYPC) works with local Health Boards to ensure specialist age-appropriate care is delivered to children and young people with cancer across Scotland.

This includes the delivery of a national Teenage and Young Adult (TYA) Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) weekly meeting, where all young people should be presented at least once to ensure a holistic and coordinated approach to their treatment and care. This meeting includes a discussion of psychosocial needs, and the TYA specialist Clinical Psychologists are core members of the MDT.

The Grampian service supports around 15 referrals per year. This includes some patients from other Health Boards. The Greater Glasgow & Clyde service reviews around 96 referrals per year. 42% of the outpatients in the 2020-22 service report resided outside of the NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde Health Board area.

National Treatment Centres (NTCs) require an appropriate mix of new and experienced staff to operate safely and efficiently. While initial modelling of projected workforce requirements was undertaken to inform earlier phases of our planning for the National Treatment Centre programme, detailed plans relating to the size and composition of the workforce for NTC Tayside will be developed by the Board and submitted to the Scottish Government as part of the wider planning and approval process for the site in operation.

National Treatment Centres (NTCs) require an appropriate mix of new and experienced staff to operate safely and efficiently. Management information provided by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) shows that at 31 March 2023, 93 people were employed in NTC Fife. 23 are new entrants meaning they are undertaking their first role in NHS Scotland. Whilst these figures from NES are classed as management information at this stage, NES will continue to work with data providers to develop these as Official Statistics. The next step in this process will be to release these statistics within the NHS Scotland workforce publication as Experimental Statistics in December 2023. NTC workforce data will be reported every six months thereafter.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19984 on 7 August 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19970 on 7 August 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19965 on 7 August 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19957 on 7 August 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers