Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has not commissioned Strathesk Resolutions to undertake a mediation process between employers and trade unions.

The organisation has undertaken a Lessons Learned exercise to identify factors that have led to dispute in the college sector in recent years, and has provided recommendations on the future operations of national bargaining in Scotland.

The report, alongside the Scottish Government's response, will be published in due course.

SEPA conducts assessments of Invasive Non Native Species (INNS) that affect the aquatic environment through River Basin Management Planning (RBMP) status assessments and routine impact monitoring, carried out as a subset of the wider condition assessment. The location of INNS (riparian plants) is mapped during morphology surveys and data is also collated from verified external datasets such as the National Biodiversity Network (including records submitted via Scotland’s Environment Website).

As directed by the Scottish Government, SEPA’s INNS assessments are currently of those species on the UK Technical Advisory Group (UKTAG) high impact list. At Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) and other designated sites NatureScot undertakes INNS assessments (including non-aquatic species) through their routine condition assessments.

As of 4 May, 2,108,468 households in Scotland have successfully submitted their response to Scotland's Census 2022.

It is essential we maximise participation and ensure that everyone is heard and their needs captured. That is why the census online completion site remains open and support through both the free helpline (0800 030 8308) and field teams will remain in place.

National Records of Scotland will also continue to accept paper returns for this short extension period - until end May.

The benefit cap is a UK Government policy that sets a limit on the total annual payment a household can receive from means-tested benefits. The Scottish Government cannot amend this policy but we can provide support to benefit-capped families through the discretionary housing payment system. Our aim is to mitigate the cap as fully as possible within the parameters set by UK legislation on discretionary housing payments.

We are working with local authorities to identify good practice in benefit cap mitigation and agree how to best support those affected. This additional funding will be rolled out as early as possible this year. Estimates show around 4,000 households are capped and we will work with local authorities to identify those.

The Scottish Government welcomes the publication of the IEA’s 10-Point Plan to Cut Oil Use as a useful contribution to ongoing global policy development on net zero and energy sector volatility. It contains a range of actions which can be taken by consumers, businesses and public sector actors. The IEA report asserts that if adopted in full by all advanced economies, it would reduce consumption by 2.7 million barrels a day within the next four months, relative to current levels. The publication underlines the importance of reducing the need for private car travel, which the Scottish Government is addressing through our target to reduce car kilometres by 20% by 2030 – a truly world-leading commitment. Our route map to achieving this commitment was published in January and provides a framework for people to choose alternatives to car journeys, including sustainable online options; choosing local destinations; switching to walking, wheeling, cycling or public transport where possible; and to combine a trip or share a journey.

The Scottish Government’s position is clear that unlimited extraction of fossil fuels is not consistent with our climate obligations and we have consistently called on the UK Government, to urgently re-assess all approved oil licenses where drilling has not yet commenced against, our climate commitments. By refusing to recognise this, whilst demonstrating a failure of leadership to support an acceleration of low carbon heating and home energy efficiency measures, the UK Government’s new Energy Security Strategy has completely failed to take into account the agreements made at COP26, particularly in view of the UK’s continuing role as COP president in the run up to COP27, advice from its own statutory advisors, and the most recent alarming report from the UN’s IPCC. In Scotland, we will continue to focus on reducing reliance on fossil fuels and our overall energy demand while accelerating the deployment of renewable energy, creating a true just transition for our existing workforce and a greener, fairer future for everyone.

The audit trail here is a matter of public record. Advice was put to the then Cabinet Secretary Keith Brown on 20 August 2015, setting out CMAL’s identification of FMEL as the preferred bidder. Advice was also put to the then Minister for Transport and Islands on 7 October 2015, setting out risk associated with contract award in the absence of a guarantee, and mitigation that would be put in place.

The memos to Ministers mentioned have been in the public domain since 2019 and can be found at the following link: Ferguson Marine: key documents - 2015 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

There was no Ministerial direction in relation to the contract award and Ministers did not direct CMAL to enter into the contract. The contract was awarded by CMAL in its capacity as procuring authority following a robust procurement process.

While CMAL did express concerns about the absence of a refund guarantee, mitigations were agreed that were sufficient to assuage those concerns.

We welcome the scrutiny into the procurement, award and regrettable delays associated with Hulls 801 and 802. We have engaged fully with both the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee (RECC) inquiry, and with Audit Scotland’s recent review and have endeavoured to provide all requested information. In recent evidence, the Auditor General confirmed that there is no evidence that material has been deliberately destroyed that otherwise should have been retained as part of the formal record, although it is noted that a specific response cannot be located.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to compliance with the requirements of the Public Records (Scotland) Act. The Scottish Government therefore follows procedures that aim to ensure that all employees, contractors, agents, consultants and other trusted third parties who have access to any information held within the Government, are fully aware of and abide by their duties under the Act.

The Scottish Government collects information on the use of temporary accommodation (associated with homelessness applications). The HL2 data collection provides aggregate snapshot data on the number of households in temporary accommodation at the end of each quarter.

However, the Scottish Government does not collect data on the availability of temporary accommodation or stock in each local authority over and above what is in use. It is for local authorities to have an understanding of their stock, and that of their partners, which enables them to determine what could potentially be used as temporary accommodation when required.

The HL2 data is available for all local authorities from 2002 to 2021. Table 26 of the main tables associated with the most recent Homelessness in Scotland annual publication provides data for the number of households in temporary accommodation as at 31 March, by local authority, which will be a very close proxy for households in temporary accommodation on 29 March.

The bi-annual publication Homelessness in Scotland: update to 30 September 2021 provides additional quarterly figures from 31 st March 2019 to 30 September 2021 – Table 14 of the associated tables. This is the latest data available.

Data up to 31 March 2022 will be published on the homelessness statistics webpage in Summer 2022, although the publication date is not yet known.

It is an existing criminal offence to knowingly make a false statutory declaration and the Bill creates a new offence of knowingly making a false application for legal gender recognition. The maximum penalty for these offences is imprisonment for up to 2 years or an unlimited fine, or both.

There is provision in the Bill for a person with an interest in a Gender Recognition Certificate, such as the Registrar General to make an application to the Sheriff for revocation of a GRC on the grounds that it was fraudulently obtained. For example, the Registrar General may receive information that would have led to the refusal of the application or a person may make it known they have submitted a false application.

As with any criminal offence, it would be a matter for the police, the procurator fiscal and the courts to demonstrate and determine where an offence has been committed.

Some premises listed in Use Class 7 (of the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Scotland) Order 1997) are exempt from short-term let licensing legislation. Schedule 1 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Short-term Lets) Order 2022 (the “Licensing Order”) sets out excluded accommodation. Class 7 premises that are exempt are:

• a hotel, which has planning permission granted for use as a hotel
• a hostel

In addition, the following exemption will also be relevant to some Use Class 7 premises (including hotels and guest houses):

• premises in respect of which a premises licence within the meaning of section 17 of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 has effect and where the provision of accommodation is an activity listed in the operating plan as defined in section 20(4) of the 2005 Act

Guest houses were originally listed as excluded accommodation in a previous version of the Licensing Order laid in December 2020. However, in response to feedback from our stakeholder working group we subsequently removed guest houses from the list of excluded accommodation and undertook further public consultation on this in June 2021. As guest houses can be variants of home sharing, they should not be automatically excluded. Further information is set out in the 2021 consultation paper (item 1 in table 2 at page 12): Short term lets - draft licensing order and business and regulatory impact assessment (BRIA): consultation - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Unless otherwise excluded by any of the criteria set out in Schedule 1 of the Licensing Order, use class 7 premises are therefore within scope of the definition of a short-term let in the Order laid in November 2021 and approved by the Scottish Parliament in January 2022.