Chamber and committees

The Housing (Scotland) Bill includes provisions to remove the ability of the rent officer or tribunal to determine a rent that is higher than that requested by the landlord.

Ministers have no plans to seek to accelerate the current timescales of the bill, however, we will seek to commence these provisions as soon as possible after royal assent.

Scotland’s partnership with Pakistan is long-standing, with a highly active diaspora, and Pakistan being the 4th largest international student community in our own universities. Our commitment for the Scotland Pakistan Scholarships for Young Women and Girls has been to provide £400,000 a year, through British Council Pakistan who manage the scholarships, though we have provided further financing in year 2022 to support women and girls affected by floods, and year in 2023-24 and 2024-25 because the high level of demand on the scheme.

This is in a country with significant gender disparities in education ranking 145 out of 146 countries on the Gender Parity Index for literacy and educational attainment (in 2018 that was 146 out of 148 countries). Pakistan has the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children with an estimated 22.8 million children aged 5-16 not attending school, close to 60% of which are girls. Pakistan has one of the highest amount of out of school girls. Only about 22% of the workforce are women while women's representation in professional and managerial positions remains low, with only 7.4% of STEM professionals being female.

Inspired by a courageous campaign for better education for girls in Pakistan led by Malala Yousafzai, a young female education activist and the youngest Nobel laureate who was shot by the Taliban, the Scottish Government set up the Scotland Pakistan Scholarships for Young Women and Girls to support equality for women and girls in Pakistan. Since 2013, I am proud to say that Scottish Government has supported over 20,000 women and girls to get Secondary education and a further 2,000 to attend University education including at postgraduate level (16300 for secondary education and 1,200 for University in the last 5 years).

To support work with refugees, people seeking asylum and local communities, the Scottish Government provides funding to organisations such as the Scottish Refugee Council to ensure that all people seeking refugee protection in Scotland are welcome, where women, children and men are protected, find safety and support, have their human rights and dignity respected and are able to achieve their full potential.

The following table contains a list of the funding the Scottish Government has provided to the Scottish Refugee Council since March 2020. It is a condition of all Scottish Government grants that recipients deliver the objectives set out in the grant offer letter. The funding below has been assessed through a combination of written and financial reporting and deemed to be effective.

Australian Council for Educational Research International UK (ACER UK) were awarded a contract to support the Scottish Government, in consultation with its partner country Governments, to provide a needs analysis in Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda to inform the design of our new Inclusive Education programmes, with a focus on improving access to education for the most marginalised – particularly girls and learners with disabilities. The total amount paid to ACER UK for their services in FY2023-24 was £54,172.

Support from the Scottish Government for Inclusive Education was a specific ask during discussions with all three partner countries of Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda, and is provided in line with commitments made in Scotland’s International Strategy: Delivering for Scotland and the Programme for Government in 2023.

In 2020-21, the Scottish Government carried out a review of its approach to International Development in light of COVID-19 which deepened pre-existing inequalities, exposing vulnerabilities in social, political and economic systems. The results of that Review were announced to the Scottish Parliament through a Ministerial Statement on 3 March 2021 which included agreeing priority focus areas for future international development programming, ensuring SG is supporting its partners to address the impacts of COVID-19; education was one of the priority areas.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. The member may find it useful to consult the Public Health Scotland ‘Cancer incidence in Scotland’ publication. This had its most recent release in November 2024 and is accessible at the following link: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancer-incidence-in-scotland/cancer-incidence-in-scotland-to-december-2022/

Increasing housing supply is key to reducing levels of homelessness. In 2024-25, we made additional funding of £40 million available to local authorities, taking investment in affordable housing to almost £600 million. 80% of the additional funding has been targeted to areas with the most sustained temporary accommodation pressures to increase the supply of social and affordable homes through acquisitions and to bring long term empty social homes back into use. This will help to increase the supply of settled homes of the right type and size, including larger properties suitable for families.

The 2025-26 budget of £768 million represents a 38% increase when compared to the 2024-25 original published budget of £555.8 million – an increase of £181 million capital (44%) and an increase of £30.8 million (63%) in financial transactions. Supported by our guidance on the planning and delivery of the affordable housing supply programme, this investment is estimated to enable the delivery of approximately 8,000 homes while contributing towards our target of 110,000 affordable homes by 2032. This significant increase in our budget will allow us to prioritise proposals that aim to reduce the number of families with children in temporary accommodation. To the end of September 2024, 24,382 homes have been delivered towards this target, of which 18,539 (76%) are homes for social rent. And an estimated 2,776 households with children have been helped into affordable housing in the year to September 2024.

Our long term commitment of £100 million over several financial years for mid-market rent will, with institutional investment, grow to at least £500 million and will support the delivery of around 2,800 affordable homes.

Through our engagement with local authorities, we know that efforts are being made at a local level to help reduce the time between a household accepting an offer of settled housing and moving into their home.

However, the most effective way to reduce the flow of households into the homelessness system is to prevent homelessness from happening in the first place. The measures in the Housing (Scotland) Bill are designed to make the prevention of homelessness everybody’s business and to ensure that people get the help they need to prevent their homelessness earlier.

The commercial harvesting of wild Atlantic salmon in Scotland is now very limited consequent to conservation measures. It is unlikely that wild Atlantic salmon from Scotland will appear in UK supermarkets.

Whether farmed or wild caught, the origin of unprocessed and certain types of smoked fish, including imported salmon, should be included on the product label or on display if sold loose. There is a general requirement that food information must not mislead consumers as to the characteristics of the food, its nature, identity, country of origin or place of provenance, method of manufacture or production.

We will comply with all aspects of the reporting and authorisation requirements detailed in the Scottish Public Finance Manual, which includes notification to the Finance and Public Administration Committee. Scottish Government does not intend to advise the Scottish Fiscal Commission on this question separately. All contingent liabilities are disclosed in the Scottish Government's annual report and accounts.

The third sector plays a critical role in the Scottish Government’s ambition to improve outcomes for children, young people, families and adult learners particularly given the ongoing cost of living crisis. Since 2016, the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities (CYPFEI & ALEC) third sector fund has supported 122 organisations with just over £112m in funding. Since 2022, the Scottish Government has supported a further 22 organisations, providing core funding of over £6m, through the Children, Young People, Families and Adult Learners (CYPFAL) third sector fund. Core funding delivered through these funds has helped to support a range of action to deliver on priorities including tackling child poverty, supporting Children’s Rights, Keeping the Promise and promoting positive mental and physical health and wellbeing.

The Scottish Government appointed a fund administrator – the Corra Foundation – to work closely with all 137 organisations to support delivery of the funding outcomes that were set out in grant offers. As part of the conditions of grant, funded organisations are required to report on their progress towards delivery of the agreed funding outcomes. In the most recent reporting period from April to September 2024 around 1.3 million people – children, families and adult learners - across Scotland were directly supported as a result of this funding. Some of the key benefits of the funding identified by the Corra Foundation through their support for organisations include high quality support for children and families; improved knowledge and confidence in children, families and adult learners; improved outcomes for families, and enhanced partnership working across the third sector.

The Scottish Government is in the early stages of considering afresh the purpose and potential benefits a unique learner number could bring including the role, if any, of existing reference numbers held on data sources.

It is not yet possible to say if legislation is required.