Chamber and committees

We are committed to tackling hatred and prejudice in all its forms and recognise the value of having robust data and evidence on hate crime in Scotland. We want to see disaggregated data published on a regular and sustainable basis – including data about hate crimes against Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus.

The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 makes provision requiring disaggregated information about police recorded hate crime and convictions data to be published annually. We are working with justice partners to ensure these provisions can be implemented effectively.

In the meantime, a further Scottish Government study into the characteristics of hate crimes recorded by police in 2020-21 will be published later this winter. This report will include the nature of hate crimes recorded by the police, including characteristics of both victims and perpetrators.

We encourage anyone who has experienced or witnessed a hate crime to report it to Police Scotland by dialling 101 in non-emergencies, or 999 in emergencies.

For the purposes of Cladding Remediation, an SBA is an assessment carried out by homeowners to determine the fire safety risk in buildings due to cladding. Duty of care for properties lies with the owners.

With regard to the safe collection and disposal of dead wild birds suspected of having been infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), current government disease control guidance is for carcases to be left in situ.

At present there is no scientific evidence that the removal of carcases significantly reduces the risk of onward spread of the current strain of HPAI H5N1 amongst wild birds. However, this matter continues to be under review, including currently being the topic of a veterinary risk assessment carried out by the Centre of Expertise on Animal Disease Outbreaks (EPIC), commissioned by the Scottish Government.

Without such evidence, there is no animal disease control reason for the collection and disposal of wild bird carcases and, as such, no additional funds have been, or are planned to be, allocated. Collection and disposal of such carcases are carried out at the local council’s discretion.

I am extremely disappointed that there has been a further delay to the introduction of the new booking ticketing and reservations system.

I have been assured by CalMac that the new system should now be operational in early 2023.

There is no freeze on Modern Apprenticeships (MAs) this year. We are on track to meet contracted demand for MAs across the childcare related frameworks.

As the member knows, in accordance with the requirements of UK Railway legislation – namely, the Railways Act 1993, and the Scottish Ministers’ Franchising Policy Statement, consideration is being given to the successor arrangement for the continued provision of Caledonian Sleeper services. It is our firm intention, should it be required, that all current jobs and post holders will transfer, should they wish to.

The Scottish Mental Health Law Review published its final report at the end of September 2022 and set out over 200 proposals for reform.

Cross-government work is now underway to assess the implications of these proposals. Given the scope and complexity of the review, we will take time to consider the report in detail and will provide a formal response in due course.

The Scottish Government provides funding to local authorities of over £11 million per year to provide the school clothing grant for eligible children and young people. Local authorities are directly responsible for setting the eligibility criteria at the local level, therefore the Scottish Government does not hold information about how many children and young people are eligible to receive the grant.

However, the Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics workbooks contain information about the number of school clothing grants issued by local authorities in each financial year. In 2020-21, the most recent year for which this data is available, Inverclyde Council issued a total of 1,400 school clothing grants to primary school children and North Ayrshire Council issued 3,689 grants.

In total, Inverclyde Council issued 3,282 school clothing grants to eligible pupils across all age groups and North Ayrshire Council issued 6,283 grants.

This information is available on the Scottish Government’s website through the following link: Scottish local government finance statistics (SLGFS) 2020-21: workbooks - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The Scottish Mental Health Law Review published its final report at the end of September 2022 and set out over 200 proposals for reform.

Cross-government work is now underway to assess their implications and we will set out our response, including priority actions that will be taken forward, in due course. As part of this work, we are considering the timescales for implementation and any recommendations that can be progressed in the short-term as part of our existing work to strengthen mental health and incapacity policy and law.

The First Minister’s Environmental Council’s responses to the question regarding mechanisms to reduce consumption in raw materials can be found in the minutes of the meeting on 13 June 2022: www.gov.scot/publications/first-ministers-environmental-council-minutes-june-2022/

Specifically, the minutes report that:

• members suggested an increase in community and stakeholder engagement to understand how best to incentivise household recycling - noting the lack of standardised recycling across local authorities and the social barriers to recycling.
• members highlighted chemical recycling as a key example to support a fundamental shift: i.e. chemicals in products holding back recycling potential. Members suggested further investigation on targeting the use of critical elements such as Lithium
• support was provided on embedding circular economy practices into construction and product design. Key challenge is addressing the generation of waste, not just managing existing waste.
• need to consider low carbon as well as recycled materials and understand the evidence behind different choices is important here.