Chamber and committees

The Super Sponsor scheme is designed to provide a quick and safe route for displaced people from Ukraine to come to a place of sanctuary by removing the need for applicants to be matched to an individual sponsor prior to being given permission to travel to the UK.

Once people have arrived, a national matching service, delivered by COSLA, will match those settling here with longer-term accommodation across Scotland.

Displaced people from Ukraine are asked to complete a short questionnaire that captures key information and preferences. This information is then used to find suitable longer-term accommodation, which will be offered as a choice.

All 32 of our local authorities are taking part in this programme, and hosts have offered up their homes right across the country. The national matching service will ensure that people are offered settlement opportunities across Scotland, recognising that people will have different preferences and available housing is limited in some local authorities.

The Super Sponsor scheme is designed to provide a quick and safe route for displaced people from Ukraine to come to a place of sanctuary by removing the need for applicants to be matched to an individual sponsor prior to being given permission to travel to the UK.

Once people have arrived, a national matching service, delivered by COSLA, will match those settling here with longer-term accommodation across Scotland.

Displaced people from Ukraine are asked to complete a short questionnaire that captures key information and preferences. This information is then used to find suitable longer-term accommodation, which will be offered as a choice.

All 32 of our local authorities are taking part in this programme, and hosts have offered up their homes right across the country. The national matching service will ensure that people are offered settlement opportunities across Scotland, recognising that people will have different preferences and available housing is limited in some local authorities.

The Scottish Government is currently consulting on whether, and if so how, to introduce mandatory calorie labelling in the Out Of Home Sector in Scotland. The consultation closes on 1 July and can be found at: https://consult.gov.scot/population-health/mandatory-calorie-labelling/ .

The consultation encourages those who may find calorie information upsetting – for example, people with disordered eating, eating disorders, distress around eating, or people with a higher weight – to comment on the proposals.

Responses to the consultation will help inform the further development of policy proposals as well as impact assessments. We are aware of concerns expressed by those affected by eating disorders and are taking those seriously as part of the impact assessment process. Officials engage regularly with Beat, the leading charity for those with an eating disorder, to ensure that we fully understand the nature of its concerns and to share any supporting evidence where available.

In addition, officials, in collaboration with Food Standards Scotland and Public Health Scotland colleagues, are conducting a Health Inequalities Impact Assessment. This includes, among other things, direct engagement with those who have clinical expertise in relation to eating disorders as well as weight stigma experts.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08695 on 7 June 2022. 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 .

Programme for Government includes a commitment to develop a model for Scotland which effectively tackles and challenges men’s demand for prostitution.

This model will aim to reduce stigma and criminalisation experienced by women and encourage better access to services.

There are several considerations which must be made in designing the model, including ensuring its alignment to the Equally Safe Strategy and our unique legal landscape in Scotland. The model must operate effectively not only to hold those who buy sex to account, but to deter them from purchasing sex. Any changes proposed to the current criminal law would require legislation to be brought before Parliament in the normal way in due course.

The criminal law is only one aspect of the model and it is vital that a package of measures is developed in parallel to underpin any changes which are brought forward.

Programme for Government includes a commitment to develop a model for Scotland which effectively tackles and challenges men’s demand for prostitution.

The Scottish Government funds a range of services aimed to address commercial sexual exploitation and to support those who may be exploited through it. This includes over £400,000 through the Delivering Equally Safe Fund to projects tackling commercial sexual exploitation. Sacro’s Another Way works to improve the health, safety and wellbeing of women affected by commercial sexual exploitation. The Women’s Support Project supports the Scottish Government and Equally Safe partners to tackle commercial sexual exploitation.

In addition, through our Victim Centred Approach Fund, we are providing the Trafficking Awareness Raising Alliance with £622,000 this year to support women trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation.

The Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 gives police and prosecutors greater powers to detect and bring to justice those responsible for trafficking as well as strengthening protections for survivors.

Police Scotland actively investigate any reports concerning human trafficking and exploitation, and continue to work closely with partners across the UK and beyond to share intelligence and coordinate work to tackle human trafficking.

Under our super sponsor scheme, displaced people from Ukraine are accommodated safely in temporary accommodation until disclosure and property checks have been completed.

The safeguarding checks which are carried out interrogate both national and local systems, and have been designed to maximise opportunities to identify and remove host applicants who may be considered to have ulterior motives.

The Scottish Government has also published Public Protection guidance to support all operational partners involved in safeguarding, this will help identify and respond to risk and need for all people fleeing Ukraine arriving in Scotland.

The guidance was developed with stakeholders and takes into account the needs of women and girls.

Eliminating Hepatitis C in Scotland by 2024 remains a priority target for the Scottish Government. The Scottish Health Protection Hepatitis C Network is made up of clinical leads and HCV co-ordinators, local health protection organisations and third sector agencies works to promote and support a ‘once for Scotland approach’. A key principle of the Network is to target specific populations, particularly those most at risk.

Following a recommendation in the last iteration of the Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Framework to introduce opt-out BBV testing within the Scottish Prison Establishment. Specific guidance was produced to support the delivery and monitoring of opt-out BBV testing within prison which is in line with the National guidelines and public health policies. We will continue to build on this progress as we develop the next iteration of the Framework.

Crown Estate Scotland is responsible for the ScotWind seabed leasing process, including setting Option Agreement fees and rent prices. Crown Estate Scotland informed Scottish Government of its pricing structure based on its own evidence gathering and information available at the time. Once projects are under seabed leases and wind farms are generating energy, rental payments are annual – these are separate from the Option Agreement payments.

The recently published report of the Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy recommends that the Scottish Government should develop an indicative cap that declines over time for the amount of residual waste treatment needed as Scotland transitions towards a fully circular economy. We are carefully considering all recommendations made in the report and will set out our initial response in June.

Scottish Ministers have committed to ending the practice of landfilling biodegradable municipal waste by 2025. In the update to our Climate Change Plan, we also committed to extend the ban to include biodegradable non-municipal waste, subject to appropriate consultation and work to provide assurance around some specific waste streams..

The Scottish Government, working with Zero Waste Scotland and local government partners, is providing centrally co-ordinated procurement support for local authorities without a solution in place in preparation for the ban coming into force in 2025. As part of this collaborative procurement programme, we are funding the provision of expert procurement, legal and technical support to local authorities to enable them to secure alternative solutions for their residual waste.