Chamber and committees

The analysis of responses to the consultation on Review of Part 1 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 and creation of a Family Justice Modernisation Strategy was carried out by KSO Research Limited following a public tendering exercise.

The £2m was committed to be spent over this parliament (to March 31 2026). Of the £2 million previously committed at COP26, £1.7 million has been delivered through grants. £1 million was grant funded to the Climate Justice Resilience Fund (CJRF). Created in 2016, CJRF is one of the first major funding initiatives framed explicitly around climate justice, and one of few philanthropic players that works internationally on climate resilience. They have been selected as they have extensive experience of delivering rapid, community-based finance to address climate justice.

Through the Scottish Government’s partnership with the CJRF, five project in the Global South have been grant funded grants to date; £233k to Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), £228k to Helvetas Bangladesh, £205k to Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), £182k to Churches Action in Relief and Development (CARD) and £136k to the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition Youth Grantmaking Council (LDYGC).

Furthermore, £500k of the initial £2 million has been granted to The Scottish Catholic International Fund to directly support communities in our partner country, Malawi, facing losses and damage resulting from recent tropical storms. With participation and co-design at the heart of their programming, SCIAF and partners have built long-term relationships through the delivery of the SG funded Climate Challenge Programme Malawi with communities who are now experiencing severe loss and damages. SCIAF’s experience and existing relations will ensure Scottish Government funding has an immediate and much needed impact in Malawian communities.

Alongside grant funded projects on the ground, the Scottish Government identified a gap in global knowledge and understanding through extensive stakeholder engagement and as such, allocated part of the £2 million funding to further research on loss and damage. £75k has been awarded to the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) to investigate operationalising finance for Loss and Damage. A further £150k has been granted to the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) in Bangladesh for further research on loss and damage.

Final decisions on how the remaining unallocated funds will be spent will be made following stakeholder engagement and a thorough review of the global commitments made at COP27 to ensure that the Scottish Government creates maximum impact with our approach and does not duplicate funding efforts elsewhere.

Information on the 10 most common offences for which (a) men and (b) women in the Highlands and Islands parliamentary region have been sent to prison in each year since 2016-17, broken down by (i) age group and (ii) number of offences; is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre - Bib number 63924.

Please note:

Criminal proceedings data are presented by the main charge which is the one conferring the most severe penalty.

Data for 2020-21 are affected by the pandemic and subsequent court closures and may not be indicative of long term trends.

The latest available data is for 2020-21. Information for 2021-22 will not be available until publication of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2021-22 Statistical Bulletin. This is due to be published in 2023.

The £31.3 million Building Standards budget for 2023-24 has been allocated for (a) Cladding remediation programme spend of £29.72 million; (b) research and professional advice on the building standards system spend of £0.38 million; (c) other spend of £1.20 million.

The Scottish Government does not mandate the recording of contractor or housebuilder details within a tender application. If supplied, the information we collect relates solely to the name of the contractor. The Scottish Government has no direct engagement with the contractor as the contractual relationship is between the grant applicant and the housebuilders/contractors. Scottish Government More Homes Division engagement at a strategic level is through industry bodies such as Homes for Scotland.

We expect the Scottish Local Authorities Renumeration Committee to provide its report and recommendations to the Government in Autumn 2023.

Once this is provided, the Scottish Government will consult with COSLA on a response to the recommendations, and inform Parliament of our decisions as soon as possible thereafter.

The Contract awarded by CMAL is a standard BIMCO NewBuildCon and as such the decision regarding equipment lies with the shipyard.

Ship building and the supply of goods is a global business and Cemre Marin Endustri in Turkey has contracted with Scottish manufacturers for equipment, which will be transported to Turkey to be fitted to the new Islay vessels .

CMAL ask for information regarding Fair Working Practices and Community Benefits as part of all their high value tender exercises, in accordance with the Scottish Government’s Statutory Guidance.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12852 on 10 January 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 responded to the legal services regulation reform consultation analysis report on 22 December 2022. The response may be viewed at the following link: Legal services regulation reform - consultation analysis: Scottish Government response - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The response underpins the Scottish Government’s commitment to reforming legal services and to retaining the sector’s independence within a system that provides greater flexibility in how complaints are handled, to benefit both consumers and legal professionals. The response also sets out how the existing regulatory framework for legal services should be modernised to provide users with increased confidence, support growth in the sector and strengthen consumer protections.

I understand that the Law Society of Scotland has written to you directly on this matter however, I can confirm that it is the Law Society’s policy and practice to remove any suspended solicitor from their online searchable database. This is done as soon as they have been suspended, regardless of any outstanding disciplinary processes.