Chamber and committees

Local authorities have statutory responsibility for undertaking assessments of housing need and demand which form a shared evidence base for Local Housing Strategies and Local Development Plans.

The Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA) Tool contains Household projection data prepared by National Records of Scotland (NRS) which captures trends in household formation including where adults are living with their parents. Any trend, upwards or downwards, in the incidence of adult children living with parents, will, along with many other factors that drive change in household numbers, be captured and projected forwards in the projections. The HNDA tool data can be supplemented with robust, local information.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of people held in police custody suites in Scotland.

The Scottish Government do not hold the requested information.

As the request relates to operational data the member may wish to contact Police Scotland at ([email protected]) who might be able to provide at least some of the information being requested.

Education Scotland has four officers with responsibility for improving gender balance and equality. Building on the success of the IGBE team, a new equalities team has recently been established to continue the IGBE activity as part of a workstream to challenge equalities more broadly. The salary costs for these four staff members in financial year 2023/24, including an anticipated pay award of up to 3%, is £284,000.

(a) These four officers comprise:

• a Senior Education Officer for Equality;
• two Education Officers for Equality; and
• an Education Officer for Improving Gender Balance and Equality.

(b) These officers continue to lead a wide range of work to change perceptions, promote gender balance and challenge unconscious assumptions about gender roles and learner pathways, including in STEM subjects. They have developed an extensive range of resources which are hosted on Education Scotland’s National Improvement Hub. Up to March 2022, Education Scotland’s Improving Gender Balance and Equality Officers engaged with more than 1150 distinct establishments, and reached over 9400 practitioners.

Education Scotland and Scottish Government recognise that much work that remains to be done in this area which is why we’ve invested in a new team of permanent officers with relevant expertise. Through the work of the Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning, which I have agreed to Chair, we will continue to consider how best to effect systemic change which will remove barriers and promote gender balance and equality.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested, this is because individual landlords are responsible for the maintenance costs of ensuring their tenant’s homes meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard.

Following the Covid-19 pandemic, the Education Scotland Improving Gender Balance and Equalities team developed new methods for achieving strong engagement with practitioners, as well as adapting to the new and unprecedented needs of schools, settings and local authorities.

In addition to engaging directly with practitioners and education settings, the team developed a national professional learning offer that could be accessed remotely by practitioners.

The national professional learning offer includes a mixture of remote delivery, online courses, podcasts and YouTube videos. As part of this approach, six podcasts were created and released from August 2021 – November 2021. The podcasts have 6,069 views.

As outlined in the Scottish Ministerial Code, the Scottish Government aims to publish the information on ministerial engagements, travel and gifts for March and April 2023 by the end of June.

In FY 21-22 Forestry and Land Scotland employed thirty-eight apprentices, three foundation apprentices and seven mid-year students.

Of those completing their apprenticeships/placements, sixteen apprentices and four students have gone on to secure roles within Forestry and Land Scotland.

Eighteen apprentices are still completing their apprenticeship and are still employed as apprentices.

Four apprentices, three foundation apprentices and three mid-year students have sought employment or further education elsewhere.

We believe that a well-regulated private rented sector is good for landlords and tenants.

Since 2016 we have ended no-fault evictions and expanded access to tribunal services. We strengthened eviction protections, both in the Coronavirus Recovery and Reform Act and the Emergency Cost of Living Act, introducing a rent cap for most in-tenancy rent rises in the private sector. Just this month I announced our intention, subject to Parliamentary approval, to retain that cap until March next year.

Further reform is needed and we have set out our proposals in our draft New Deal for Tenants.

There is an established and growing number of well-capitalised private charge point operators in Scotland and across the UK. Transport Scotland’s joint report published with Scottish Futures Trust in July 2021 indicated that investment costs in growing Scotland’s public charging network could reach £100 million per annum by 2030. It is encouraging, therefore, to hear the recent pledge from industry body Charge UK that its members will invest £6 billion in public charging infrastructure across the UK by 2030. Our focus is on encouraging that investment to spread across all of Scotland. That’s why our Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund aims to draw in £60 million of public and private investment to double the size of the public charging network to 6,000 charge points by 2026, including areas of the network where private investment is less viable.