Chamber and committees

The Victims Taskforce was established in December 2018 to co-ordinate and drive action to improve the experience of victims and witnesses in the criminal justice system - it is not in the Taskforce’s remit to recommend legislative change.

A number of legislative changes have been progressed by the Scottish Government since the inception of the Taskforce that advance or facilitate actions in the Taskforce’s work plan and provide a legislative framework within which further improvements can be made. Examples of primary legislation include the Vulnerable Witnesses (Criminal Evidence) (Scotland) Act 2019, the Forensic Medical Services (Victims of Sexual Offences) (Scotland) Act 2021 and the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021. Furthermore, various pieces of secondary legislation have seen the implementation of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, the establishment of the Victim Surcharge Fund, the creation of a statutory Appropriate Adult service, more flexible powers to pilot improvements to the victim statement scheme and changes to Parole Board Rules to ensure victims are better informed, more involved and receive greater support ahead of prison release decisions.

The Private Rented Sector Landlord (PRSL) Loan was launched in April 2020. The following table shows the total number of applications received, the total number of offers made and the total number of expired offers. These figures represent the total number from launch to the end of June 2021, and relate to the location of the applicant.

We welcome the publication of Audit Scotland’s report on community justice, and its intention to carry out further work in this vital area in 2022.

While sentencing decisions in individual cases are a matter for the independent courts, we are committed to encouraging more widespread use of community-based interventions where appropriate. These are often more effective at reducing re-offending, as Audit Scotland sets out, and for keeping our communities safe.

In addition to continued investment in community justice services, which will total more than £117m this year, Parliament agreed in 2019 to extend the presumption against short custodial sentences from 3 to 12 months. Although it is too early to determine the impact of the extension, the use of such sentences has fallen significantly in recent years, with those receiving a sentence of 12 months or less reducing by 13% in the most recent data between 2018-19 and 2019-20, whereas the number of convictions reduced by 4%.

Our firm focus on prevention and effective community interventions has helped see Scotland’s reconviction rate fall to its lowest level since comparable records began more than 20 years ago. We intend to continue building on progress to date, including through a review of the National Strategy for Community Justice, expanding availability of alternatives to custody, and exploring legislative opportunities for a sustainable reduction in the prison population.

We will consider the issues identified by Audit Scotland in its report, including as part of the review and expected refresh of the Community Justice strategy, which we anticipate will be published in 2022 alongside an update Outcomes, Performance and Improvement Framework.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. The allocation of resources, and the Health and Wellbeing of Police Officers and Police Staff, are matters for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority. Despite constraints on Scotland’s public services through a decade of UK austerity, policing services have been maintained and improved and we will protect the police resource budget in real terms for the entirety of this Parliamentary term, as we did for the last. We have invested over £10 billion in policing since the creation of Police Scotland in 2013 and have increased the policing budget by £75.5 million in 2021-22.

Police officers and staff can access a range of services to care for their physical and mental health through Police Scotland's “Your Wellbeing Matters” programme. This includes the introduction of Wellbeing Champions, and has resulted in raised awareness of the services available such as occupational health and employee assistance, which offer counselling, and specific interactions through the Trauma Risk Management programme (TRiM).

We have made a commitment to increase the direct investment into mental health services by at least 25% and ensure that, by the end of the parliament, 10% of our frontline NHS budget will be invested in mental health services.

We have also set our plan to prevent, mitigate and respond to the mental health impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic through our ‘Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan’, published in October 2020, which sets out our response to the mental health effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, containing over 100 actions. The Plan is supported by a £120 million Recovery and Renewal fund, announced in February 2021. The Fund will transform services, with a renewed focus on prevention and early intervention. We expect total spend, including by NHS Scotland, on mental health in 2021-22, to be in excess of £1.2 billion.

There has been no increase to the funding allocated from the Scottish Government’s Children Young People and Families Early Intervention Fund & Adult Learning and Empowering Communities (CYPFEI & ALEC) Fund to the Scottish Youth Parliament in 2021-22.

My officials have sought confirmation on this issue from panel members. There are 25 panel members, of whom 18 have responded to date.

Of those responses:

• 1 member of the 2018 panel and 3 members of the 2020-21 panel had a role in designing BS 8414;
• 1 member of the 2018 panel and 2 members of the 2020-21 panel have worked for organisations that carry out BS 8414 tests on behalf of commercial sponsors; and

Once a full response is received I will provide an update on the above information.

The Scottish Government is committed to working closely with local authorities on the shared national endeavour to tackle the global climate emergency by achieving net zero emissions by 2045, recognising that local climate action is crucial to achieving our national climate ambitions.

Through the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, we have provided new powers for local authorities to introduce Low Emission Zones to improve air quality. We are also providing other forms of support to local government including the Green Growth Accelerator which will unlock £200m of investment in local authorities for emissions reduction infrastructure, and supporting local authorities to develop Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies and accompanying delivery plans.

More broadly, the joint Local Governance Review with COSLA is considering how powers and resources are shared between national and local government, to ensure that we are doing all we can to achieve our shared national outcomes.

The Scottish Government recognises that the global climate emergency will pose particular challenges for island communities. Our response is guided by the best available scientific evidence, including the latest independent expert assessment of the impacts of climate change in Scotland published by the UK Climate Change Committee on 16 June 2021. This assessment identifies 61 key areas of impact, including:

• Risks to transport infrastructure from flooding, extreme weather, erosion and subsidence. The assessment notes that some of these risks affect the islands disproportionately, for example in situations where disruption to passenger and freight transport can leave whole communities and economies isolated.
• Risks to housing from flooding, sea level rise and damage from driving rain. The assessment notes that sea level rise poses particularly significant risks for the viability of coastal communities in low lying islands.
• Risks, across all parts of Scotland, to agricultural productivity from pests, pathogens and invasive species, as well as risks to agricultural soils and land from changing climatic conditions and sea level rise. The assessment also notes that there could be some opportunities in terms of new crop species becoming viable, but these cannot be expected to outweigh the negative impacts.

The Scottish Government is building resilience to the impacts of climate change through the implementation of our second statutory adaptation programme. The programme covers the period 2019 to 2024 and includes over 170 policies across Scotland. Examples of particular measures that will help protect our island communities include:

• We are investing in climate resilience as part of a green recovery from COVID-19, including a further £12 million for coastal change adaptation as well as an extra £150 million over this Parliament to manage the risks from flooding.
• Our National Transport Strategy includes an outcome to ‘adapt to the effects of climate change’ and the first Delivery Plan sets out policies that will ensure the transport system adapts to the projected climate change impacts.
• Transport Scotland is currently working with CMAL and CalMac to develop investment programmes for vessels and harbours with the aim of increased standardisation and improved resilience, which will improve connectivity for our island communities.
• The results from the second phase of Dynamic Coast, Scotland’s National Coastal Change Assessment, will be published in August 2021. Dynamic Coast 2 assesses the impact that global sea level rise will have on erosion rates, improving our understanding of the measures needed to protect our coastal and island communities.
• Our Housing to 2040 strategy sets out the intention to develop a new Housing Standard for Scotland, set in law. The aim of the new standard is to ensure that there will be no margins of tolerance, no exemptions and no “acceptable levels” of sub-standard homes in urban, rural or island communities, deprived communities or in tenements.
• The Farming for a Better Climate programme continues to promote practical and cost effective measures for both climate change mitigation and adaptation to farmers and land managers. Alongside this, the farmer-led soil regenerative agriculture network focus on positive actions that can be taken on Scottish farms to support, enhance and protect their soils.

Building resilience to the impacts of climate change on Scotland’s islands also lies at the heart of the Scottish Government’s National Islands Plan. This commits to putting in place adaptation plans on islands that are at greater risk and working closely with local stakeholders to ensure that the voices of islanders are fully heard in the just transition to a net-zero society. A part of this transition also includes our manifesto commitment to supporting Carbon Neutral Islands which would include pilots for some islands to run on 100% renewable energy, to create circular economies tackling and processing waste and exploring more sustainable transport options.

In light of the Climate Change Committee’s recently updated risk assessment, the Scottish Government is clear that more will need to be done to build resilience to the impacts of climate change as part of Scotland’s just transition. In the run up to COP26, we will host a National Climate Resilience Summit to connect leaders from across the public and private sectors to build momentum for such action . We will respond in full to the Committee’s updated risk assessment through the development of the next statutory adaptation programme, which is due for publication in 2024.

The Scottish Government is committed to continuing to work with partners to take forward the recommendations of the National Review of Care Allowances, including development of a Scottish Recommended Allowance for foster care and kinship care. This will improve consistency and transparency for looked-after children, their families and their carers across Scotland.

No information has been formally received by Scottish Government regarding how much material shortages and increased contractor prices in the construction sector are impacting householders redeeming Home Energy Scotland Loan offers.