Chamber and committees

Information presented in the annual and bi-annual Homelessness in Scotland publications is based on quarterly homelessness applications and temporary accommodation data provided to the Scottish Government by local authorities.

There are rigorous quality assurance processes in place for the data provided by local authorities. Validation checks are in place with summary reports prepared for checking by local authorities. Scottish Government statisticians undertake further in-depth quality assurance on the data and follows up with local authorities to confirm or correct data as necessary prior to publication. This has included enhanced quality assurance on the reporting of breaches of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order (UAO), following on from reporting inconsistencies and inaccuracies that were uncovered due to COVID-19 exceptions that were put in place, and the extension of the UAO (to all households) over the same period.

Where specific data issues are brought to the attention of Scottish Government, these are investigated and followed up on with local authorities as necessary. Scottish Government will continue to work with local authorities to ensure the data provided is as accurate as possible for future publications.

Further information on the quality assurance of homelessness data collections is available on the homelessness statistics webpages.

The Scottish Government is progressing Equally Safe, Scotland's strategy to prevent and address all forms of violence against women and girls, specifically violence, abuse, and exploitation directed at them because of their gender.

The Equally Safe Delivery Plan underpins the wider strategy and outlines collaborative working between key partners across the public and third sectors. It sets out a wide range of deliverables and actions that reach across many areas, including education, health, and justice to ensure the aims of the Equally Safe strategy are achieved.

There are no Scottish Government vehicles purchased through loan or credit agreements.

Scottish Government is currently assessing alternative spending models for natural restoration that will seek to encourage greater responsible private investment.

The Scottish Government is willing to consider any steps that might usefully and proportionately allow us to improve the data collected about primary care services and which could be used to improve those services. Any consideration of steps would be done in collaboration with the representative bodies of our contractor groups.

The Scottish Government‘s forthcoming Natural Capital Markets Framework will set out the actions we will take to deliver our market vision for private investment in natural capital, including in relation to transparency and integrity.

Scottish Government is currently assessing alternative spending models for nature restoration that will seek to encourage greater responsible private investment.

The Scottish Government has not set a target ratio of public to private investment or established a maximum limit that the public purse should pay of any investment with regards to incentivising nature recovery.

Scottish Government’s approach will focus on maximising the value of public spending to achieve the greatest amount of nature restoration and positive environmental outcomes while ensuring communities benefit from this investment.

There are no immediate plans to ask Public Health Scotland (PHS) to expand the content within their Accident and Emergency publications.

Due to data quality and completeness issues, PHS do not publish information on the full list of data items in the A&E dataset, including patient triage category as it would not provide an accurate national picture or meaningful comparisons between NHS Boards.

We continue to work with PHS to ensure that A&E reporting guidance can be applied as consistently as possible across NHS Scotland and publication of data is subject to the necessary data quality and completeness standards being met.

This is an operational matter for ScotRail and Network Rail who manage railway stations in Scotland. ScotRail advises there are currently 18 stations with ticket gates.

The Scottish Government published an Action Plan in June 2023 to deliver improvements to the Scottish Welfare Fund. The actions committed to are being progressed in conjunction with stakeholders through our Practitioners’ Forum and Statutory Guidance Review Committee.

As well as stakeholders on these forums, officials have met with organisations including Engender to discuss the work that is being progressed on the back of the independent review recommendations and action plan and have discussed clarifying the Scottish Welfare Fund statutory guidance to support marginalised women.

In the Ending Destitution Together strategy, published in 2021, the strategy is clear that there are limits on the action that can be taken by the Scottish Government to support women with the condition of No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF). This is because immigration and nationality, including the NRPF policy, are reserved to the UK Parliament. There is an ask of the UK Government to remove the Scottish Welfare Fund from the list of restricted public funds set out under paragraph 6 of the immigration rules. If successful, this would enable Crisis and Community Care Grants to be provided from the Scottish Welfare Fund to people subject to NRPF, where they are eligible, on the same basis as anyone else.

We are proud that we have the Scottish Welfare Fund providing emergency support and a lifeline to people in need, through Crisis Grants to help meet immediate short-term needs arising from exceptional circumstances and Community Care Grants to help eligible people establish or maintain a home. We have protected investment in the fund of £41 million this year.