Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government revised the Code of Conduct for Property Factors in August 2021 to make it clearer, to drive up standards and to improve transparency and consistency.

There is evidence that the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 is working as intended. However. officials will be taking a wider look at the operation of the property factor sector to see what more can be done to promote an ongoing improvement in standards in line with the requirements currently set out in legislation.

The Scottish Government published an Island Communities Impact Assessment of the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel scheme on 14 December 2021 which concluded that ferry travel should not be included in the scheme, but that issues relating to ferry fares should be considered as part of the Islands Connectivity Plan and the Fair Fares Review, which are underway. The issue of ferry fares for young people is being actively considered as part of this work.

Although the new statutory Young Persons’ Free Bus Scheme is for bus travel only, we are continuing our existing Young Persons Concessionary Travel Scheme which provides 16-18 year old islanders four free ferry journeys to or from the mainland every year, as well as discounted rail travel.

Additionally, significant fare reductions have been implemented on the Northern Isles and Clyde & Hebrides ferry networks, including a fares freeze until the end of March 2024.

The Managed Service Network for Children and Young People with Cancer (MSN CYPC) works with local Health Boards to ensure specialist age-appropriate care is delivered to children and young people with cancer across Scotland.

This includes the delivery of a national Teenage and Young Adult (TYA) Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) weekly meeting, where all young people should be presented at least once to ensure a holistic and coordinated approach to their treatment and care. This meeting includes a discussion of psychosocial needs, and the TYA specialist Clinical Psychologists are core members of the MDT.

The Grampian service supports around 15 referrals per year. This includes some patients from other Health Boards. The Greater Glasgow & Clyde service reviews around 96 referrals per year. 42% of the outpatients in the 2020-22 service report resided outside of the NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde Health Board area.

The following table details the number of hate crimes that included a religion aggravator in Scotland, by police division.

Table 1: Religious hate crimes by police division: 2016-17 to 2021-22

As noted in the response on 28 March 2023 to the Chair of the Just Transition Commission from the then Minister for Just Transition, Employment and Fair Work, the Supply Chain Development Programme (SCDP) seeks to maximise the economic benefit from Scotland’s annual public sector procurement (£14.5 billion in FY 20/21). It works alongside portfolio policy teams and focusses on the manufacturing opportunities that will arise in the Net Zero transition.

Its current priorities remain as set out in the letter:

• Increasing Scottish manufacturing of heat pumps and other low carbon heating;
• Maximising Scottish manufactured components in new green and blue Hydrogen supply infrastructure and the products and vehicles that will use it; and
• Increasing value-added from Scottish timber in (largely offsite) construction.

The SCDP has not set specific job creation targets for these priorities. Its purpose is to make sure that procurement opportunities are made visible to Scottish supply chains, including manufacturers in Scotland with the skills, capacity and capability to bid for, win and deliver contracts.

Fair Work continues to be a key focus for the Scottish Government in delivering sustainable and inclusive economic growth and the SCDP operates within the context of Scotland’s existing sustainable public procurement legislation. The Scottish Government’s approach to sustainable public procurement is encapsulated in national legislation which includes a sustainable duty on contracting authorities to consider in their procurements, access for SMEs, Third Sector and Supported Businesses; delivery of economic, social and environmental impact; and promoting innovation. Legislation also includes explicit requirements on public bodies to consider how they can use procurement to drive wider community benefits including jobs and training. The legislation is underpinned by national policy and tools to encourage procurement to make the best use of public money.

Scottish Government is consulting Bòrd na Gidhlig in support of developing the Addressing Depopulation Action Plan, building on previous engagement to understand better the linkages between Gaelic language and culture, and population retention, undertaken during the Islands Bond consultation.

We have commissioned multiple projects to explore issues that may impact on population retention and growth, including the impact on Gaelic. We have also supported Argyll and Bute Council to deliver a project across Bute, Coll, and Tiree about supporting the growth and normalisation of Gaelic usage in the islands to improve employment, economic development and social cohesion.

Scottish Government engages with local authorities about depopulation across multiple fronts including: the SG/COSLA population roundtable; the Convention of the Highlands and Islands population working group; learning from Community Settlement Officers based in local authorities. This ensures we understand local-level population challenges, to enable development of a place-based approach to tackling them. Engagement will continue prior to publication and into the first phase of delivery.

We also engaged extensively through the Islands Bond consultation with the six local authorities with islands. Lessons from this led to a range of community-based projects to inform the Action Plan’s development.

The information requested is not held centrally.

Estimates of Police Recorded cybercrime were most recently published in the Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2022-23 - (gov.scot (www.gov.scot) statistical publication and are based on a review of a sample of recorded crimes which are considered likely to include a cyber element. The amount of money defrauded through cybercrime is not recorded.

Estimates of Police Recorded cybercrime were most recently published in the Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2022-23 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) statistical publication and are based on a review of a sample of recorded crimes which are considered likely to include a cyber element. The amount of money defrauded through cybercrime is not recorded.

National Treatment Centres (NTCs) require an appropriate mix of new and experienced staff to operate safely and efficiently. Management information provided by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) shows that at 31 March 2023, 158 people were employed in NTC Golden Jubilee. 38 are new entrants meaning they are undertaking their first role in NHS Scotland. Whilst these figures from NES are classed as management information at this stage, NES will continue to work with data providers to develop these as Official Statistics. The next step in this process will be to release these statistics within the NHS Scotland workforce publication as Experimental Statistics in December 2023. NTC workforce data will be reported every six months thereafter.

National Treatment Centres (NTCs) require an appropriate mix of new and experienced staff to operate safely and efficiently. Management information provided by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) shows that at 31 March 2023, 153 people were employed in NTC Highland. 50 are new entrants meaning they are undertaking their first role in NHS Scotland. Whilst these figures from NES are classed as management information at this stage, NES will continue to work with data providers to develop these as Official Statistics. The next step in this process will be to release these statistics within the NHS Scotland workforce publication as Experimental Statistics in December 2023. NTC workforce data will be reported every six months thereafter.