Chamber and committees

The Fuel Insecurity Fund was first established by The Scottish Government in the winter of 2020, as part of the wider Winter Support Fund, to help households struggling with their energy costs who were at risk of severely rationing their energy use, or self-disconnecting entirely.

The following table gives an overview of the Fuel Insecurity Fund’s budget and distribution since its inception:

The Scottish Government has no plans to reduce the period that a person must wait before reapplying for a Minimal Asset Process (MAP) bankruptcy. We have made significant changes to MAP eligibility criteria recently, removing the application fee, removing the minimum debt threshold, and increasing the maximum debt level to £25,000. It is important to assess the impact of these changes before considering further reform.

Any form of human trafficking or exploitation is completely unacceptable.

The Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015, which was passed unanimously by the Scottish Parliament, gives police and prosecutors greater powers to detect and bring to justice those responsible for trafficking as well as strengthening protections for survivors.

In the current financial year, Migrant Help and the Trafficking Awareness Raising Alliance will share over £2.1m to support adult victims of human trafficking and exploitation. We are also providing funding to Justice and Care to support two Victim Navigators who work alongside Police Scotland's National Human Trafficking Unit; funding to JustRight Scotland to support the work of their Scottish Anti-Trafficking Centre, including the provision of early legal advice to potential victims. Furthermore, we are funding Survivors of Human Trafficking in Scotland to deliver a long-term support pilot to those recovering and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to provide a national psychological trauma support service to adult trafficking victims.

We will continue to work with partners across Scotland and beyond to provide support to victims and combat those who seek to profit from the exploitation of others.

The Scottish Government records and processes correspondence addressed to Scottish Ministers on its Ministerial and Corporate Correspondence (MiCase) System. Since the start of 2023, there have been three pieces of correspondence regarding gene editing recorded and processed via the MiCase system.

Scottish Government officials are also in frequent contact with a range of stakeholders and officials in other UK administrations, where gene editing may form part of ongoing correspondence around regular liaison meetings on a range of policy topics.

The Scottish Government is taking a range of activities to improve circularity within the Scottish economy. This includes consulting on proposals for a Circular Economy Bill Delivering Scotland's circular economy: Proposed Circular Economy Bill - Consultation analysis - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) which we will bring forward before summer recess, and for a Waste Route Map which will be published later this year Delivering Scotland's Circular Economy - route map to 2025 and beyond: consultation analysis - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

We have made one of the biggest investments in a generation to modernise recycling in Scotland through the £70m Recycling Improvement Fund. The Fund is supporting Scottish councils to modernise recycling services and increase both the quantity and the quality of recycling collected. This increases the supply of materials in frequent use and high demand, such as plastics, and helps to ensure availability of materials for businesses whilst reducing waste.

The forthcoming Deposit Return Scheme has already delivered hundreds of millions of pounds of investment across Scotland and is creating over 500 new green jobs.

Last year, we launched a Circular Textiles Fund to improve the circularity of textiles; issued a revised procurement policy note setting out that we expect public bodies to use their public procurement spend to support climate and circular economy ambitions ( Public procurement - taking account of climate and circular economy considerations: SPPN 3/2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot); and launched the Low Carbon Manufacturing Challenge Fund, which will support the development of new business models based on the principles of a circular economy.

We also provide funding to Zero Waste Scotland which has a range of support available for businesses and social enterprises to help them transition to more circular ways of working. Zero Waste Scotland also works in partnership with organisations throughout Scotland to encourage collaboration on circular economy projects between businesses, sectors and communities, for example: with Highlands & Islands Enterprise, South of Scotland Enterprise, Chambers of Commerce, manufacturing and renewable energy industry bodies.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Since January 2022, there have been 20 instances of drone activity being recorded over or inside the prison estate, out of which there were been 6 physical drone recoveries. SPS systems cannot provide information prior to this date as incidents before January 2022 are not categorised to allow this information to be extracted. The rising number of incidents involving drones has now resulted in closer monitoring and recording of these incidents.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) is funded primarily by revenue receipts from commercial trading activities such as the sale of timber, renewables, recreation, venison, estates, and other income raised. In addition, an Annual Subsidy Limit (ASL) is agreed with the Scottish Government. This is agreed by Scottish Ministers and forms part of the budget setting and review process and is set out in the annual Budget (Scotland) Act. It is this element of its funding that has reduced.

FLS is classified as a public corporation, for the purposes of its accounts, by the Office of National Statistics. This classification was awarded based on the nature of activity within the business and the high proportion of business trading. The classification enables the agency to build and sustain essential financial reserves across financial years to sustain and deliver outcomes. These are essential in managing the dynamic activity in the forestry sector.

As a result of the level of reserves held by FLS, the ASL allocated for FY 23/24 has been reduced. The FLS Business Plan sets out the main actions that the organisation will take over the period 01 April 2023 - 31 March 2024 to deliver the commitments and outcomes identified in their Corporate Plan. Ministers approved that plan in March 2023.

Business Plan - Forestry and Land Scotland

The plan highlights that FLS will use an element of its reserves to fund its ongoing activities.

61 Slurry Storage applications will be considered for funding through the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme for 2023.

As set out in the Scottish Government’s response to the Committee’s recommendations in September 2022, no further work has been undertaken in relation to a mapping exercise for Advice Services. Mapping a sector as complex and dynamic as the advice sector would be a lengthy, labour-intensive process and any mapping exercise would be out-of-date very soon after completion.

Scottish Government has provided funding to the Independent Food Aid Network to develop localised 'Worrying About Money?' cash first referral leaflets for every local authority area in Scotland. These resources can be used both for people facing money worries and support workers. The leaflets identify which local agencies are best placed to help people maximise income and access any existing financial entitlements.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-16876 on 25 April 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .