Chamber and committees

The Scottish Milk and Healthy Snack Scheme will replace the UK Nursery Milk Scheme in Scotland from 1 August 2021 for pre-school aged children. Costings for the Scheme, including a budget for Year 1 of more than three times the amount invested in UK Nursery Milk Scheme, have been through an extensive development process which factored in feedback from dairies and other key stakeholders. Funds have been distributed to local authorities based on Local Serving Rates agreed with COSLA, taking account of the differences in the cost of providing milk and snacks in rural and urban areas.

While our key focus has rightly remained on ensuring that we are putting the health outcomes of children at the centre of this policy, we recognise the challenge of developing a funding model that is sufficiently sensitive to every local circumstance and have sought to ensure our approach will allow for milk or a specified alternative to be sourced sustainably at a fair rate, supporting our vital Scottish food and drink sector.

Using the latest available forecasts published by the Scottish Fiscal Commission in January 2021 1 , it is estimated that 163,000 children are eligible for Scottish Child Payment in 2021-22.

Social Security Scotland publish official statistics on the number of applications they have received, processed and the number of children who have benefited from Scottish Child Payment. The latest statistics published in May 2021 2 cover the period from 9 November 2020 to 31 March 2021. The next publication, covering up to 30 June 2021, will be released on 31 August 2021.

1 Scottish Fiscal Commission (January 2021) Scotland’sEconomic and Fiscal Forecasts. Available at https://www.fiscalcommission.scot/publications/scotlands-economic-and-fiscal-forecasts-january-2021/ .

2 Social Security Scotland (May 2021) Scottish Child Payment: high level statistics to 31 March 2021. Available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-child-payment-high-level-statistics-on-applications-to-31-march-2021/ .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-01456 on 11 August 2021. In addition, the Scottish Milk and Healthy Snack Scheme has been costed using the best available data including feedback from dairy suppliers and an uplift was applied to the funding model to take account of uncertainties such as market variation and potential sensitivities around milk supply in rural Scotland.

Through the Scottish Milk and Healthy Snack Scheme we aim to embed the habit of regular consumption of high-quality dairy produce and fruit and vegetables from an early age. The Scottish Government will use Year 1 to gather and review evidence, including via an implementation group consisting of key partners, to ensure the Scheme is meeting policy objectives. Should evidence suggest otherwise, we will consider whether action is required as we look ahead to Year 2 and beyond.

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 S6W-01856 on 6 August 2021. 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.

Last year due to restrictions on international travel we saw an increased number of visitors and campers to the countryside. With restrictions ongoing, for this year only, we are supporting local authorities, National Parks and communities with an additional £2.75M to put in place temporary solutions for 2021, such as additional ranger posts, temporary car parks and toilets.

Our primary method in supporting sustainable tourism in rural areas remains the Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund which was doubled to £6.2M this year, bringing our total investment to £15M. This has supported the development of car parks, toilets and motorhome waste facilities at some of Scotland’s most popular rural areas.

The Scottish Government is committed to investing £500M in our natural economy over the course of this Parliament to help tackle the biodiversity crisis. We will work with NatureScot, the National Parks, and local authorities to determine where our funding can have the most positive effect and deliver the best value for money.

Community benefits are increasingly included in public procurement contracts. As a result, thousands of employment and training opportunities have been achieved, contributing to national and local outcomes and achieving a positive social impact.

In 2016, the Scottish Government issued Statutory Guidance under the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, setting out how public bodies can include community benefits in relevant public procurements. In 2020, we published guidance for public bodies on ‘ Measuring social impact in public procurement (SPPN 10/2020) ’. This includes a focus on the use of community benefits and examples of how public procurement has been used to deliver social impact in communities.

Our sustainable procurement tools include additional guidance on employment, skills and training through public contracts.

We believe that including relevant and proportionate community benefit requirements in public contracts is beneficial and encourages suppliers to deliver wider social benefits.

While there is room for innovation in the delivery of community benefits, our policy, as stated in the statutory guidance underpinning the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, is that requirements should be robust, relevant and proportionate so that they can be judged on objective and measurable outcomes.

In our recent policy note on measuring social impact in public procurement, we encourage public bodies to engage with communities to understand local priorities so that they can achieve targeted social outcomes through their procurement.

The completion rate for Community Payback Orders (CPOs) has generally been around 70% over the last seven years. This is consistently higher than for the orders they replaced.

There are a range of factors which can influence the likelihood that an order will be successfully completed. In particular, outcomes are likely to be influenced by the nature of the offending behaviour and individuals’ underlying risks and needs. The proportion of orders with an offender supervision requirement rose to 62% in 2019-20, the highest level in the last five years. Greater use of supervision suggests that individuals have more complex and entrenched issues to address and may have greater likelihood of reoffending.

Local authorities are responsible for delivering CPOs and, notwithstanding the factors noted above, we are continuing to work with national and local partners to help ensure orders are implemented as effectively as possible, and that completion rates are as high as they can be. Specifically, effective practice and improvement is supported by:

Community Payback Order Practice Guidance for practitioners

• a programme of scrutiny and assurance work carried out by the Care Inspectorate, funded by Scottish Government
• ongoing training and support from national partners, including Community Justice Scotland, Social Work Scotland, and Scottish Government
• analysis of statistics which are disaggregated by local authority areas, practice support groups organised by Social Work Scotland, area based CPO annual reports and an annual CPO report prepared by Community Justice Scotland

In addition, the Scottish Government has protected record levels of funding with up to £106 million allocated in 2020-21 to local authorities for the delivery of justice social work services. An additional £11.8 million has been provided this year to support justice social work recovery relating to the impact of coronavirus, which had a significant impact on the delivery of CPOs.

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 ‘Bairns’ Hoose’ refers to the Scottish Government’s application of the international concept of Barnahus to the Scottish context.

The Scottish Government has an unashamedly bold aspiration to create our own Bairns’ Hooses in Scotland. We believe that every child victim or witness has the right to consistent and holistic support that enables them to tell their stories, access specialist services and recover from their experiences, and that these services should be delivered under one roof.

Work is currently underway to understand the required infrastructure to support Bairns’ Hooses across Scotland. We would envision a number of bespoke child friendly spaces with both urban and rural accessibility to ensure that every child victim/witness will have support from a Bairns’ Hoose by 2025.