Chamber and committees

The care provided by Scotland’s independent secure providers is highly-regarded. We need to consider how the secure care system operates overall in the coming years, taking in to consideration the asks from the Independent Care Review’s Promise and the incorporation of UNCRC, before embarking on any redesign work.

In the short term, the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill will give effect to the necessary legislative changes to displace all under 18s from custody. Contractual and other non-statutory interventions to guarantee secure capacity and to minimise providers’ reliance on placements from elsewhere in the UK are already in train.

Over the coming years, preparing to keep the Promise by 2030 will likely entail a transformational change to the current secure provision for children in Scotland. A secure estate configured to meet Scotland’s future demands means we will need to undertake significant redesign activity with providers and purchasers. Resource shifts, system and practice change will also be required.

Alongside that, a national service specification for secure transport is being developed by the joint Scottish Government and COSLA led Secure Care Group. This specification aims to bring consistency to the expectations and requirements, wherever secure transport requires to be commissioned.

The Scottish Government recognises the critical role of advice services, often delivered by our diverse third sector and providing lifeline services to the most vulnerable communities during the cost crisis. We are directly investing around £12.5 million this year in free income maximisation, welfare and debt advice services delivered by third sector partners.

We recognise the impact that rising operating costs are having across society, including on charities and voluntary organisations, and we are committed to doing everything within our powers to support the third sector.

However, our ability to fulfil our devolved responsibilities and the support we would wish to provide remains a significant challenge due to the limitations on our parliament and the UK Government’s economic mismanagement.

ScotRail has provided the below data for its closed customer complaints since 1 April 2022, by four-weekly rail period, with the prior year (2021-22) and final pre-pandemic year (2019-20) included for comparison:

There are 3 operational Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts which comprise facilities within the East Kilbride area. These are NHS Lanarkshire’s Hairmyres Hospital, the Police Scotland College (formerly Police Force Training Centre) and South Lanarkshire’s Secondary Schools Modernisation PFI Programme. The Schools PFI Programme included a total of 19 new or refurbished secondary school facilities, 4 of which were within the East Kilbride area. These were Calderglen High School, Duncanrig Secondary School, Sanderson High School and St Andrew's and St Bride's High School.

There is also one operational NPD/hub contract which formed part of the Non-Profit Distributing (NPD) programme that comprises facilities within the East Kilbride area. This is the NHS Lanarkshire Bundle which includes 3 new health centres, 1 of which is in East Kilbride area.

The Scottish Government annually update and publish the cost information in relation to the referred PFI and NPD/hub contracts but not for each of the individual facilities within the contracts as this is not held. Information relating to PFI and NPD/hub contracts as described, is available from the Scottish Government website by way of the following link www.gov.scot

The Scottish Government monitors statistics collected by UK Finance on the number of buy-to-let mortgages in arrears across the UK. The latest trends are reported by the Scottish Government in the Scottish Housing Market Review, which is published each quarter as a resource for housing market stakeholders, including local authorities.

The Scottish Government is providing all local authorities with an annual share of £30.5 million in 2023-24 for homelessness prevention and response measures. We recognise that support to tenants being evicted is important and PRS landlords are under a duty to inform the local authority if their tenant is being evicted and at risk of homelessness. Anyone experiencing homelessness should contact their local authority as they have a legal duty to offer a minimum of temporary accommodation, advice and assistance to anyone at risk of homelessness. Organisations such as Shelter Scotland and Citizens Advice Scotland are also able to provide advice and guidance.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-14081 on 30 January 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 S5W-14081 on 30 January 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

Whether or not to grant a warrant for entry is a judicial decision.

Legislation places a duty on all government ministers; law officers; and members of the parliaments to uphold judicial independence, barring them from trying to exert influence over judicial decisions.

For the purpose of upholding that independence, there is a duty on the First Minister, the Lord Advocate and the Scottish Ministers not to seek to influence judicial decisions through any special access to the judiciary. "Special access" refers to any access which they may have which a member of the general public may not.

Additionally, if judicial training is considered necessary then this is entirely a matter for the Lord President as Head of the Judiciary.

For these reasons it would not be appropriate to meet with the Scottish Courts and Tribunals service to discuss the increase or otherwise of the number of warrants granted.

The Digital Inclusion Fund was initiated in 2020 to enable students who, owing to low incomes, struggled to access online learning during the pandemic.

To date the fund has supported almost 11,000 learners across colleges, universities and within community learning settings. We expect this number to increase on receipt of final reporting on the £5 million investment for 2022-23; which is expected by the end of this academic year.

Information relating to Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Non-Profit Distributing (NPD) contracts and their associated unitary charge payments, is available from the Scottish Government website by way of the following link www.gov.scot