Chamber and committees

The Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan Scheme was launched in April 2020 to support landlords with the cost of installation for energy efficiency improvements, renewable systems and energy storage systems.

The funding allocated for the scheme is set out in the following table:

Three agencies have been opened outside of the Lothian region since 2007 with no relocations during this time. There is one Agency located in the West Scotland region.

There have been multiple changes to Scottish Government Directorates over the last 15 years. Available data would not provide accurate assessment of the number of Directorates relocated or opened outside of the Lothians over the period.

Directorates particularly in DG Net Zero and DG Communities continue to be located outside of the Central Belt in locations close to their stakeholders and operations.

There are 17 owned buildings on the Scottish Government Core Estate. 11 have EPC ratings lower than C.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested.

Responsibility for the management of the (a) police estate is for Police Scotland, which is accountable to the Scottish Police Authority; and (b) the fire estate is for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

Meeting health and safety requirements across their estates continues to be a high priority for both Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

The Scottish Government welcomes the publication of the RCN Scotland report, The Nursing Workforce in Scotland, and notes the report's recommendations.

On 21 February 2023 we announced that a Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce had been established to build on efforts to make Scotland the best place for nurses and midwives to work by developing plans for recruitment and retention. The Nursing Workforce in Scotland Report, and its recommendations, will be considered by the taskforce as a part of its work.

The Royal Bank of Scotland’s Report on Jobs is one of several sources of evidence that the Scottish Government monitors, in the context of wider developments in the labour market. The Report draws on a monthly survey of recruitment agencies, and offers insights into broad trends and developments around recruitment.

The latest edition of the Report indicates reductions in staff placements, along with reduced staff availability and increased demand for permanent staff. The latest labour market data for Scotland from ONS indicates that Scotland’s employment rate remains high, while unemployment rates are at close to record lows.

The National Strategy for Economic Transformation sets out our approach to ensuring that employers have a pipeline of skilled workers and makes clear that employers must invest in the skilled employees they need to grow their businesses. We are taking forward a range of measures, including working with business organisations to promote Fair Work; providing a range of employability support to help people to enter the labour market; and developing our Talent Attraction programme and Migration Service to attract workers with the skills that Scotland needs.

The HMP Glasgow project was advertised to the market in March 2022 to commence procurement of pre-construction services as part of a two-stage procurement process in order to progress the overall delivery of the programme. The Scottish Prison Service awarded the pre-construction services contract in July 2022. Timescales for the delivery of the prison will be confirmed once the design phase is concluded.

In the following table, data on all restriction of liberty orders imposed since April 2013 is provided, covering two contractual periods of the current electronic monitoring service provider (G4S Monitoring Technologies & Services). The data set out shows “status at order end”, either: completed, revoked or expired.

Compliance with a restriction of liberty order is reported back by the monitoring provider to a court, and the court then determines what actions they wish to take in relation to that order, which may include continuing or revoking that order. A restriction of liberty order can be revoked by the issuing court for a number of reasons including: on appeal, on breach of a concurrent order, because a new offence had been committed or a breach of restriction of the liberty order has occurred. The outcome of a revoked order could include actions such as imposition of a further court order or imposition of custody. A breakdown of reasons for restriction of liberty orders being revoked or outcome of revocation, by issuing court, is not held.

The category of “expired” orders, includes orders where the outcome of any court consideration may not yet be known at the point the order ends. It will also include orders that were not being actively monitored at order end. Active monitoring could cease for reasons including: absence of the monitored person without consent, householder consent to monitor at that address being withdrawn or as the individual is otherwise absent for example they are already in custody or are in hospital.

Section 8 and section 8A of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (the 1997 Act) make provision for civil non-harassment orders (NHOs).

Since 2018-2019, we have included data in the Civil justice statistics in Scotland on all legal remedies (craves) sought in the courts, including craves for civil NHOs.

In 2021-2022, 12 civil non-harassment orders were sought in the sheriff courts where the NHO was the principal crave in the proceedings and 55 were sought in the sheriff courts as ancillary craves in family proceedings. The available data for 2020-2021 indicates that there were 32 prosecutions and 31 convictions where the main charge related to the breach of a civil NHO.

We have placed the available data about the numbers of civil NHOs granted where the NHO was the principal crave, and the numbers of prosecutions and convictions for breaches of civil NHOs since 2008-2009 in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre under Bib. No. 64214.

The figures for the number of civil NHOs granted and for prosecutions and convictions for breaches of civil non-harassment orders are taken from the statistical information held by the Scottish Government. Figures in this area should be treated with caution as applications for civil non-harassment orders may be an ancillary crave in an initial writ and so may not always appear in the statistics. Section 3.2 of Civil justice statistics in Scotland 2021-22 (www.gov.scot) discusses the statistical approach to ancillary craves. In addition, there is separate provision for non-harassment orders to be issued in criminal proceedings.

As the answer to question S6W-15303 notes, the civil remedy of interdict, which can prohibit or restrain specified behaviour, is also available. In practice, interdicts are much more commonly sought than civil non-harassment orders. In 2021-2022, the most recent year for which we have published statistics , there were around 1300 craves for interdict in family procedure cases initiated in the sheriff courts.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, and the Scottish Government does not hold this information, I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

Work within Inverclyde Council’s Pottery Street depot has been progressing well, although there has been some delay to starting work on the A8 itself due to other urgent utility work. For the section of work on the A8, Scottish Water’s forecast start date is at the end of June, with an anticipated completion by mid- to end-December. Information on the project is published online at https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/In-Your-Area/Investments-in-Your-Area/A8-Greenock