Chamber and committees

If a person believes someone has not obeyed a court order for child contact or residence, they can make the court aware of this and ask it either to vary the order or to have the person in question ordered to appear before the court. It would then be for the court to decide whether any failure to obey the order amounted to contempt of court. Individuals may be eligible for financial assistance to raise a court action through the Scottish Legal Aid Board .The Board is responsible for the administration of the legal aid system, independent of Scottish Ministers. The Scottish Government is not involved in the decision making process to grant or refuse legal assistance and it cannot intervene in or comment on legal aid decisions.

Section 22 of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 will, when commenced, place a duty on the court to investigate the reasons behind a failure to obey a court order for contact or residence.

The available information is published on a monthly basis, as experimental statistics, by Public Health Scotland: Primary Care in-hours General Practice activity visualisation - as at 30 June 2023

This exploratory work aims to illustrate the type of activity information captured within General Practice clinical systems. Not all activity is currently recorded on the clinical systems and therefore the activity reported here does not represent all the work happening within a general practice setting. Work is ongoing to enhance this data. This collaborative effort between ourselves, the profession, National Services Scotland and Public Health Scotland, is a significant step on our journey to improving access to General Practice data.

The available information is published on a monthly basis, as experimental statistics, by Public Health Scotland: Primary Care in-hours General Practice activity visualisation - as at 30 June 2023

This exploratory work aims to illustrate the type of activity information captured within General Practice clinical systems. Not all activity is currently recorded on the clinical systems and therefore the activity reported here does not represent all the work happening within a general practice setting. Work is ongoing to enhance this data. This collaborative effort between ourselves, the profession, National Services Scotland and Public Health Scotland, is a significant step on our journey to improving access to General Practice data.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that workers whistleblowing rights are protected, as outlined in the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. Employment powers are a matter reserved to the UK Parliament, however, the Scottish Government encourages all employers to provide fair and inclusive work, including an effective voice, to all workers.

All public sector organisations should have their own whistleblowing policy and procedures in place which should be consistent with the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, and with their own nominated officer and process for investigation. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to whistleblowing policy as policies will vary depending on the size and nature of the organisation. It is for each organisation to consider what training is required to support the effective implementation of their whistleblowing arrangements.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21068 on 14 September 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 Government collects information on the composition of households making homelessness applications through the HL1 data collection. This includes information on the number of children in the household. The HL3 data collection collects information about temporary accommodation placements connected to homelessness applications.

An additional question was added to the HL3 data collection in 2019 to ask if a child is in the temporary accommodation placement. Although all local authorities have been able to provide this data from April 2022, as this is the first time a full set of data has been available, this is subject to on-going quality assurance. Therefore, information relating to the presence of children within temporary accommodation placements has been derived by linking household records between the HL1 and HL3 data collections. However, it is important to note that households may sometimes make alternative arrangements for children when entering temporary accommodation and therefore it is not always the case that children included in the HL1 return are present in associated temporary accommodation placements. It can also be the case that children are present for only part of the stay in temporary accommodation e.g. as part of shared custody arrangements.

Data on temporary accommodation taken from the HL3 data collection is only available for all local authorities from 2017-18, however, this includes temporary accommodation placements which commenced prior to 2017-18. In addition, some local authorities have provided data prior to 2017-18 and, where this is available it has been included.

Information at individual (person or household) level cannot be provided due to data confidentiality.

The following table shows the distribution of time spent in temporary accommodation for households with children included in homelessness applications for each local authority. The figures are based on homelessness applications made since 1 January 2016 that closed on, or prior to, 31 March 2023 with at least one associated temporary accommodation placement. Note that figures may be based on the total duration of multiple temporary accommodation placements taken up by a household.

Figures have been rounded to the nearest 5 due to small numbers in some categories.

These figures may include households who have turned down multiple offers of settled accommodation by the local authority and chosen to stay in temporary accommodation instead.

Time spent in temporary accommodation for households with children included in the homelessness application (number of households)

Households with an open homelessness application from 1 January 2016 which was closed at, or prior to 31 March 2023 with at least one associated temporary accommodation placement*

The Scottish Government does not routinely gather or centrally hold information on the total number and value of contracts awarded by public corporations to consulting companies. As public corporations have a degree of independence from central government information of this nature will be held more locally and can be attained by approaching the bodies directly.

There are no Lord Advocate’s Guidelines in relation to assaults generally. Lord Advocate’s Guidelines have previously been issued to the Chief Constable in relation to the recorded police warning system for adult offenders.

There are currently no plans to publish the guidelines referred to above.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17708 on 16 May 2023 The Clydebridge Steelworks site in Cambuslang is not currently operational and no staff are currently employed at the site. The future of the site is an operational matter for Liberty Steel and I understand that a number of options for the future of the site are being considered including a possible sale.

Scottish Government maintain an open dialogue with Liberty Steel and have regular meetings with them.

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 Government does not routinely gather or centrally hold information on the total number and value of contracts awarded by executive, advisory and tribunal non-departmental public bodies to consulting companies. As executive, advisory and tribunal non-departmental public bodies have a degree of independence from central government information of this nature will be held more locally and can be attained by approaching the bodies directly.