Chamber and committees

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

It is anticipated that the majority of the women living at Cornton Vale will transfer to HMP & YOI Polmont during the interim period where there is already a comprehensive range of services and interventions available for them.

Every effort has been made to ensure the care of the women is not compromised or reduced during the transition period and each woman will engage in an individual case discussion supported by Health Care and Social Work colleagues to identify the most appropriate transfer location for them.

A dedicated area within Polmont has been identified and work is currently underway to increase the number of available ‘safer rooms’ ahead of any relocations taking place. A number of staff who currently work with the women will also relocate to Polmont to provide continuity of care. This will be supplemented by ongoing support from partner agencies including NHS Forth Valley, Social Work Services within Stirling and Falkirk local authorities and Voluntary Third Sector Partners.

Improving the accessibility of elections is a key element of the Scottish Government’s electoral reform agenda. It is our ambition to remove or reduce barriers that some voters face and to improve the accessibility of elections.

We have been working with RNIB Scotland and the Forth Valley Sensory Centre over several months to consider potential solutions and technology to assist people with sight loss to cast their votes, including testing audio devices. RNIB Scotland will also shortly undertake testing of a tactile ballot paper solution at the Centre. We will then consider feedback from these initial trials of the tactile ballots papers and, working in collaboration with our partners in Local Government, electoral administrators and the Electoral Commission, produce proposals for next steps. I anticipate we should be in a position to report progress and set out future proposals and plans to Parliament in the summer.

In addition, as part of the Government’s current consultation on electoral reform we are asking for views on how the accessibility of elections could be improved and what changes might be made in law. The consultation closes on 15 March - available at https://consult.gov.scot/constitution-and-cabinet/electoral-reform/ . I look forward to reading the responses which will help inform our work going forward.

This is a matter for the Scottish Social Services Council. The information requested is not held centrally.

This is a matter for the Scottish Social Services Council. The information requested is not held centrally.

In relation to veterans healthcare, the Scottish Government has developed a scheme to help General Practices to identify and recognise the circumstances of veterans and their families . This is currently in the pilot phase of the programme.

In addition, the application form for Adult Disability Payment asks clients about their possible entitlement to Armed Forces Independence Payment, War Pensioners’ Mobility Supplement and War Pension Constant Attendance Allowance. Where appropriate, clients are then directed to Veterans UK for further advice.

We are also engaging with Scotland’s Housing Network’s Local Housing Strategy Group to encourage local authorities to identify the housing needs of the veterans and Armed Forces community. This will include local authorities sharing examples of best practice.

Finally, during 2022, the Scottish Government supported the UK Government work to undertake a scoping study for provision of digital verification of veteran status and contributed to the project’s Discovery Phase. We will continue to support the work as it progresses which will make it easier for all veterans to identify as such when accessing services and support.

For this response families have been interpreted as households with children.

There have been 447 households with children included in the homelessness application that have spent three years or more in temporary accommodation. This is based on available temporary accommodation placement data, where placements closed on or before 31 March 2022. Source: HL1 and HL3 data collections up to 31 March 2022, data as published on 18 August 2022.

Notes on data

The total duration of stay in temporary accommodation for households with children has been derived by linking records between the homelessness application (HL1) and temporary accommodation placement (HL3) data collections. The HL1 collects information on the composition of households making homelessness applications (available from 2002-03). The HL3 gathers information about temporary accommodation placements associated with homelessness applications (only available for all local authorities from 2017-18, however, it includes placements which commenced prior, and includes data prior to this for some local authorities).

The total duration is based on the sum of the durations of all temporary accommodation placements associated with the same household. It may be underestimated where households have placements that started and ended before the HL3 data collection began.

The figure includes households who may have turned down multiple offers of settled accommodation by the local authority but have chosen to wait for an offer that fully meets their needs.

It is important to note that households may sometimes make alternative arrangements for children when entering temporary accommodation and therefore children included in the HL1 return are not always present in associated placements. It can also be that children are present for only part of the stay in temporary accommodation, e.g. as part of shared custody arrangements.

Since its inception in 2014, the annual budget for the Commissioner’s office has been £250,000. This is funded by the Scottish Government and covers the Commissioner’s remuneration, support staff, office and IT requirements and general running costs. The draft budget published on 15 December proposed increasing this to £280,000 in Financial Year 2023-24.

The UK Government has since funded the appointments of the UK Independent Veterans Advisor and the Wales and Northern Ireland Veterans Commissioners for which the Scottish Government do not receive any Barnett Consequentials.

The Scottish Government has received correspondence from business representative organisations and individual businesses within the retail, hospitality or leisure sectors, or their elected representatives.

Prior to the publication of the Scottish Budget 2023-24, the number one ask of business organisations was to freeze the non-domestic rates poundage, which we have delivered, saving businesses £308 million compared to an inflationary increase, along with a package of reliefs worth £744m. We expect around half the properties in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors to be eligible for 100% Small Business Bonus Scheme relief next year. Properties in these sectors may also be eligible for the transitional relief schemes set out in the Budget.

The value of payments made by our Fuel Insecurity Fund delivery partners varies substantially, from the cost of fuel vouchers to energy bill debt write-offs. Each payment is awarded on an individual case by case assessment, as to the most appropriate support and intervention that can be provided to help achieve a sustainable outcome.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13803 on 25 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/questions-and-answers