Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government commissioned an expert group to make recommendations on action to reduce the number of people in temporary accommodation and the length of time spent there, with a strong focus on households with children. The Scottish Government is thankful to Alison Watson, Director of Shelter Scotland, and John Mills, Head of Housing for Fife Council, for co-chairing the discussions which informed the group’s recommendations.

The Scottish Government published its response to the Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group report on 19 July 2023. In our response, we have set out how we will prioritise action with partners in local government and across the housing sector on the recommendations that will have the most immediate impact on reducing the number of households in temporary accommodation.

Our national acquisition plan is backed by £60 million and will offer all local authorities, including Dundee, various routes to increase the supply of affordable housing, including through the purchase of privately owned properties. Increasing their supply of larger properties will support local authorities’ efforts to ensure households with children who have lived in temporary accommodation for a number of years are supported into suitable permanent housing.

Recognising that challenges vary from authority to authority, the Scottish Government will work with local authorities to take targeted action to bring about a more rapid reduction in the use of temporary accommodation in the areas where this is concentrated. This could include increased allocations of social homes to homeless households, reducing the number of long-term empty homes and more effective void property management. Large-scale flipping of temporary accommodation to a permanent home could also help to reduce the length of time households spend in temporary accommodation.

We will continue to work with all local authorities, including Dundee, on routes to increase their affordable housing supply, which is key to relieving the pressures on temporary accommodation.

The HIV Transmission Elimination Proposal, commissioned by the Scottish Government and published on World AIDS Day in 2022, sets out 22 recommendations to ensure progress is made to meet our goal of zero HIV infection transmissions in Scotland by 2030.

An HIV Transmission Elimination Proposal Scoping Group met between March and June 2023 to review the proposal, and to identify key actions to be taken forward in 2023-24. The recommendations from this group are currently being considered and prioritised.

In addition, the Scottish Government has provided funding to support the development of an e-PrEP pilot and a national publicity campaign to address HIV stigma, to be developed by a multi-agency partnership.

The Scottish Government’s Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus plan for 2023 to 2026 is scheduled for publication towards the end of summer 2023. As part of this approach, there will be a focus on improving access to testing for STIs and blood borne viruses.

Recommendations made within the HIV Transmission Elimination Proposal are currently being considered, and prioritisation of those to be taken forward in 2023-24 is likely to be announced before the end of summer 2023.

The Scottish Government remain committed to investing in the professional development of our valued social services workforce. A Graduate Apprenticeship for the profession is part of a range of options in consideration to widen access into social work. Officials are working with sector partners over the summer to provide Skills Development Scotland and Scottish Funding Council with updated evidence of employer interest and demonstration of the added value of an additional work-based qualification route for the social work profession in Scotland by Autumn 2023.

We constantly monitor the flow of approvals through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme. While council and Registered Social Landlord projects which are seeking grant funding in excess of the relevant affordable housing investment benchmark are subject to a detailed value for money assessment, which can take longer than the streamlined approval process which applies in cases where projects can be delivered with grant funding at or below benchmark, there is no evidence to suggest that this is having a material impact on the speed of programme delivery.

Once approved, we continue to work closely with partners to check that projects are progressing as planned.

Statistics relating to the progress of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme are published quarterly on the Scottish Government website. These statistics relate to the number of approvals, site starts and completions of social and affordable homes, and can be accessed using the following link : https://www.gov.scot/publications/housing-statistics-for-scotland-new-house-building/ .

A table showing the number of affordable homes approved under the Affordable Housing Supply Programme in each of the last five financial years, broken down by local authority area, has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 64393).

In August 2021, the Scottish Government published Reset and Rebuild, a recovery plan for sexual health and blood borne virus (SHBBV) services. This plan was co-produced with NHS and third sector partners, to take stock of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on SHBBV services and people that use them.

The Scottish Government’s SHBBV plan for 2023-2026, which is due to be published towards the end of summer 2023, will include a focus on improving access to SHBBV services across Scotland.

In addition, as noted in response to S6W-19566 on 26 July 2023, work is on-going to understand and put in place the necessary governance and infrastructure to support a national online testing service for sexually transmitted infections and bloodborne viruses.

The Scottish Government has also provided funding to support the development of an ePrEP pilot and a national publicity campaign to address HIV stigma to be developed by a multi-agency partnership.

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 S5W-19568 on 26 July 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/questions-and-answers .

The R100 contracts do not have a targeted number of premises broken down at local authority level. However, as of 31 May 2023 the R100 North contract has delivered 6,897 connections which equates to 11.3% of the R100 North contract targeted figures. For the R100 Central contract 8,905 connections have been delivered which equates to 27.6% of the R100 Central contract targeted figures. For the R100 South contract, 8,392 connections have been delivered which equates to 38.3% of the R100 South contract targeted figures.

Additionally, as the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) is demand-led we do not have a targeted number of vouchers broken down at local authority level. However, as of 1 July 2023, a total of 3,288 connections have been delivered through utilisation of R100 SBVS vouchers.

While we do not have a targeted number of premises broken down at local authority level, and therefore cannot provide a percentage breakdown, we can provide details of the number of premises that have received a connection through the R100 contracts and the R100 SBVS at local authority level. Please see the following below for further information:

The Scottish Government has remained committed to implementing the new model of neonatal intensive care as set out in The Best Start. That will see the most preterm and sickest babies receive specialist complex care in fewer centres. Evidence tells us long term health outcomes will improve for those babies if cared for in higher volume units.

We have been working with expert clinicians to plan for this service change and have identified that the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Aberdeen Maternity Unit should be the Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) for babies and women requiring the most specialised care.

No neonatal units in Scotland will close. This is about ensuring the smallest and sickest babies are born where the they can readily access the very specialist care and services they may need.

Further information on the appraisal approach and framework can be found at

Information for parents can be found at Discharge Planning - Scottish Perinatal Network