Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is currently considering all of the recommendations made as part of the Independent Review of Audiology Services in Scotland.

We will provide an update to Parliament on next steps in due course.

This is an operational matter for ScotRail. The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

Who Cares? Scotland was established in 1978. It provides independent advocacy for children and young people in care across Scotland, and campaign on behalf of and with children and young people with care experience. The organisation’s vision is ‘a lifetime of equality, respect and love for care experienced people’.

Who Cares? Scotland also offer a range of groups, activities and events to care experienced people, specifically to those that become members.

The Scottish Government provides grants to Who Cares? Scotland to provide a Helpline Service, Corporate Parenting Training and Children's Advocacy for Children's Hearings as part of a national scheme.

The objectives on these topics for the financial year 2022 to 2023 were:

Helpline Service

1. To provide a helpline service that will act as the main point of contact for people with care experience which will allow them to:
‎ •access support and advice; and
‎ •receive sign-posting to other support networks as required

2. To work with Scottish Government officials to report on key themes that are highlighted through calls to the helpline to allow Scottish Government colleagues to work across policy areas to address emerging or ongoing issues.

3. To work with Scottish Government officials to evolve and align this current grant funded activity with the Scottish Government’s strategic priorities including work to Keep the Promise, particularly around the development of a future advocacy support model and any future and consequential implications for the helpline.

Corporate Parenting Training

1. To provide a Training Programme for Corporate Parents - with a focus on Health Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs), will proactively receive offers of bespoke training to upskill their workforce and embed The Promise and UNCRC within their practices. The promotion and protection of the rights of people with Care Experience amongst Corporate Parents will be enhanced.

2. To provide a Training Programme - A programme of themed training events, including health specific themes, will be available to all Corporate Parents. These are to be designed to help Corporate Parents understand how to collaborate for maximum impact to improve outcomes for people with Care Experience.

3. To provide on-Going Support - Provide on-going advice and concentrated support to Corporate Parents to encourage positive change in internal structures, policies and practice. Health Boards and HSCPs will be specifically targeted to offer support.

4. To establish Corporate Parent Champions – A Corporate Parent Champions network is established to champion change within their own organisation, share practice across Corporate Parents and influence nationally.

5. To develop Digital Communications - Develop, maintain and promote online learning and training resources available to Corporate Parents.

6. To Engage with Young People - Provide opportunities for Corporate Parents to access the voice of Care Experienced people in a meaningful way in order to support ongoing policy development and public understanding.

7. To tackle Stigma – Throughout all activities, communications and support provided, the Grantee should ensure that all efforts to reduce stigma faced by people with Care Experience are in line with the wider sectoral commitment - The Each and Every Child Initiative.

Children's Advocacy for Children's Hearings

1. To support the Scottish Government with the development, delivery and promotion of the national children’s advocacy in children’s hearings scheme as part of the implementation of section 122 of the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 and The Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 (Children’s Advocacy Services) Regulations 2020, in a manner which gives cognisance to the:

o Scottish Government’s Children’s Advocacy Guidance (published in 2014), https://www.gov.scot/publications/childrens-advocacy-guidance/; and

o National Practice Model for Advocacy in the Children’s Hearings System (published in March 2020), Advocacy in the children's hearings system - national practice model: guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

2. To promote high quality independent advocacy services to children and young people, to support them to exercise their rights to be heard within their Hearings and contributing to the recovery of children’s hearings from Covid 19 impacts towards stable service.

3. To promote high quality independent advocacy services to brothers and sisters, to support them to exercise their rights to participate in the Hearings of their siblings on staying together/contact arrangements as introduced by section 25 of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 and related changes in Regulations made under section 177 of the Children (Scotland) Act 2011 - The Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 (Rules of Procedure in Children’s Hearings) Amendment Rules 2021 (legislation.gov.uk)

4. To support planning and future implementation of The Promise by improving experiences and outcomes for care experienced children and young people.

5. To take steps to promote, respect, protect and fulfil the rights of children and young people and increase awareness of the UNCRC amongst staff and stakeholders. You will promote the UNCRC throughout the creation and development of the project, and related policies and procedures in relation to this funding.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22375 on 3 November 2023 . 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 .

The Scottish Law Commission's homicide law project has been continued into their 11th Programme of Law Reform. In 2021, the Commission published their discussion paper on this subject. Scottish Government officials have engaged with the Scottish Law Commission who advise they hope to be in a position to publish their final report during 2024.

Taxis and private hire cars are licensed under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 ("the 1982 Act"). While the Scottish Government has responsibility for the overarching legislation, the day to day administration of the licensing regime is devolved to independent licensing authorities – in effect the 32 Scottish local authorities. The 1982 Act authorises a licensing authority to appoint, after consultation, stances for taxis.

There are no current plans to review the taxi licensing regime, as set out in the 1982 Act. If there are any issues with any specific taxi stances/bays this will be a matter for the relevant licensing authority to consider and address where appropriate.

Earlier this year the Scottish Government published updated ‘Best practice guidance for local licensing authorities and taxi and private hire car operators on the licensing of taxis and private hire cars and their drivers’.

This guidance offers best practice advice to licensing authorities on a range of issues relating to the licensing of taxis, private hire cars and their drivers and was revised with the assistance of a working group including representatives from the Scottish Government, Transport Scotland, local licensing authorities, taxi and private hire car trade representatives and UNITE the Union.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22375 on 3 November 2023 . 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 .

Paragraph 1.27 of the Scottish Law Commission's Homicide Project Discussion paper indicates corporate homicide is one of a number of topics that the Commission will not be considering as part of their project. As paragraph 1.27 and associated footnotes indicates, a Bill was presented to the Scottish Parliament in 2020 in this area of law and the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament made a statement that the Bill was not within the legislative competence of the Parliament. The Commission's Homicide project relates to matters which would be within the competence of the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish House Condition Survey provides a snapshot of the Scottish housing stock in each survey year including the construction age and built form of Scottish domestic buildings. Within this it provides estimates of the number of dwellings with a prepayment meter for gas or electricity.

The most recent estimates of households with a prepayment meter are from 2019, and are presented in the following table.

Table 1: Number of households with prepayment meters.

Analysis of data from the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) shows that approximately 690,000 students have benefitted from free tuition fees at university between 2007-08 and 2022-23.