Chamber and committees

The budget of £9m for 2024-25 has been set on the basis of up to 1,000 disabled people receiving awards of up to £330 per week. The budget takes account of awards for new recipients phasing in over the course of the year, and makes allowance for the additional operational costs to Independent Living Fund Scotland for processing and assessing applications and supporting new recipients.

The principles that will govern access to the reopened Independent Living Fund, recommended by the Co-Production Working Group, are set out on the Independent Living Fund Scotland website, at https://ilf.scot/news-post/update-re-opening-ilf-in-scotland/

Based on £9 million of funding available in 2024-25, Scottish Government and ILF Scotland worked together to develop indicative options based on varying threshold sums and maximum award levels for consideration by the Co-Production Working Group. The group provided recommendations to Ministers on reopening the fund, which were accepted. The recommendations report is available at: https://ilf.scot/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Recommendations-for-Scottish-Ministers-v01.0.pdf

The group recommend that the Fund should re-open using a ‘threshold sum’ as a key access principle. The threshold sum is the value of the local authority / Self Directed Support care package and has been used by ILF since 1993 as a proxy for level of need. Following deliberations on the group on the number of people that may be eligible at different threshold levels, the group recommend that the Fund should open with a threshold sum of £800.

The group considered that 10 hours of additional independent living focused support and assistance was meaningful in relation to the realisation of Article 19 of the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (UNCRPD) and would enable a typical award to contribute to making a meaningful difference. Using the current ILF average hourly rates awarded of £22 per hour, taking 10 hours as the average, and 15 hours as the maximum, this equates to a maximum award of £330 per week.

To ensure that the Fund is affordable within the £9m allocation committed to by Ministers in the first year, each local authority area was allocated a share of 1,000 places in the Fund, with places allocated proportionately based on the size of the population and the percentage of disabled people in that area. The places allocated to each local authority is available on the ILF Scotland website: https://ilf.scot/re-opening-ilf/re-opening-frequently-asked-questions/#allocation

We have committed £9m in 2024-25 to offer up to 1,000 new applicants access to the Independent Living Fund. This initial funding takes into consideration that applications will be received and assessed over the course of the year, so that new awards will phase in as the year progresses. Funding for 2025-26, and the number of further people who will be able to access the Fund, will be agreed through the annual budget process.

Based on the recommendations of the Co-Production Working Group, the maximum award for new recipients of the Independent Living Fund has been set at £330 per week. Historically awards have tended to be substantially lower than the maximum. However, the Independent Living Fund is now open to new applicants for the first time since 2010, so it is challenging to estimate the average award level. Awards will depend on individual assessments by ILF Scotland Assessors of the award required to achieve the independent living outcomes sought.

Up to 1,000 new applicants will be offered awards in 2024-25. The actual number of applications received will be monitored by ILF Scotland and Scottish Government.

A budget of £9m has been committed to reopening the Independent Living Fund in 2024-25. Funding for 2025-26 will be agreed through the annual budget process.

The Scottish Government is preparing a Voluntary Code of Practice on dismissing and replacing land-owning land maintenance companies.

I acknowledge that there has been a considerable time elapsed since the decision to bring forward a voluntary code of practice on dismissing and replacing land-owning maintenance companies.

Unfortunately, due to other pressures, work has not progressed on the voluntary code of practice as anticipated.

The Single Building Assessment (SBA) is a risk-based approach to assess and culminate in a report on the risk to human life (directly or indirectly) created or exacerbated by the External Wall System (EWS) in multi-residential domestic buildings which may include a commercial premises, constructed or refurbished between 1 June 1992 and 1 June 2022, 11 metres and over in height and incorporating a form of external wall cladding system. The SBA includes a FRAEW (Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls) which requires that a building is assessed holistically, and for that reason, the SBA will also include a Fire Risk Assessment of the common parts of the building to the level of detail deemed required by the Fire Engineer / Assessor. The level of risk acceptance for any building in scope is tolerable risk. The recommendations identified by the Fire Engineer or Assessor within the SBA report which are deemed necessary to eliminate or mitigate risk to human life (directly or indirectly) created or exacerbated by the EWS will form the remediation scope.

The Single Building Assessment (SBA) is a risk-based approach to assess and culminate in a report on the risk to human life (directly or indirectly) created or exacerbated by the External Wall System (EWS) in multi-residential domestic buildings which may include a commercial premises, constructed or refurbished between 1 June 1992 and 1 June 2022, 11 metres and over in height and incorporating a form of external wall cladding system. The SBA includes a FRAEW (Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls) which requires that a building is assessed holistically, and for that reason, the SBA will also include a Fire Risk Assessment of the common parts of the building to the level of detail deemed required by the Fire Engineer / Assessor. The level of risk acceptance for any building in scope is tolerable risk. The recommendations identified by the Fire Engineer or Assessor within the SBA report which are deemed necessary to eliminate or mitigate risk to human life (directly or indirectly) created or exacerbated by the EWS will form the remediation scope.