Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold a discrete budget line for raising awareness of Non-Domestic Rates reliefs. Information on all non-domestic rates reliefs, including the Business Growth Accelerator, is available on the mygov.scotwebsite , and other websites including those of individual local authorities who similarly promote information on reliefs and how to apply for them. Since 2020-21, following recommendation 14 of the Barclay Review of Non-Domestic rates, all councils have adopted a standardised bill template which includes, amongst other things, direction to ratepayers on how to find information on the range of reliefs available.

Officials also regularly share information, including on any new or expanded reliefs, with a range of stakeholders, including business representative groups at the Scottish Ratepayers Forum and with NDR practitioners at Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation forums.

The summary reform pilots are judicially-led and an operational matter for the independent Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) in collaboration with other criminal justice partners. SCTS advises that while the pilots will be monitored and evaluated throughout, plans to report on their outcomes have yet to be fixed. However the Quarterly Criminal Court Statistics published by SCTS provides quarterly figures on criminal court activity in all High, Sheriff and Justice of the Peace courts, giving national trends as well as detailed figures for local courts in solemn and summary criminal business. The figures for the Pilot courts at Dundee, Hamilton and Paisley Sheriff Courts are and will continue to be, readily accessible via that publication .

We are taking action to change the way that imprisonment is used in Scotland. The Vision for Justice in Scotland (published 8 February 2022) sets out the ambition that people in Scotland live in a just, safe and resilient society, where they will be supported in rehabilitation by the most effective means. As part of this vision, the Scottish Government recognises that there must be appropriate and consistent alternatives to custody, accessible across Scotland.

The Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Bill (introduced 8 June 2022) supports the aims of the strategy by introducing a number of reforms designed to refocus how imprisonment is used. They are intended to ensure that, as much as possible, the use of remand is a last resort for the court, and to give a greater focus to the rehabilitation and reintegration of individuals leaving custody.

This is supported by investment to strengthen and reform vital services across the justice sector, including an expansion of community justice services supporting diversion from prosecution, alternatives to remand and community sentencing. We have increased investment in community justice services since the new model for community justice was introduced in April 2017 – reaching more than £119m of funding for this year (2022-23).

Decisions on non-domestic rates including the Basic Property Rate (poundage) are taken in the round of the Scottish Budget, in the context of other budgetary priorities.

With a poundage of 49.8p, the Scottish Budget 2022-23 delivered a below-inflation increase, ensuring the lowest poundage in the UK for the fourth year in a row and saving ratepayers £40 million compared to an inflationary increase. This ensures that over 95% of non-domestic properties continue to be liable for a lower property tax rate than anywhere else in the UK.

The Scottish Government engages with local authority non-domestic rates practitioners regularly including through monthly forums organised by the Institute for Revenues, Rating and Valuation.

Revaluation is a matter for Scottish assessors who are independent of central and local government.

This is a matter for NatureScot. This information is not held centrally.

The Scottish education system is set up in such a way that decision making is devolved to the most appropriate level, enabling local authorities to make choices that meet their local circumstances and needs. Within this empowered system, head teachers are responsible for ensuring that the literacy programmes used in their school are evidence-based and fit for purpose. As a result, Education Scotland, the Scottish Government agency charged with supporting quality and improvement in Scottish education, do not collect data on the literacy programmes that are selected by head teachers for use in schools.

The Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels statistical publication provides information on national performance of school pupils in literacy organisers (reading, writing and listening and talking) and numeracy. The latest data is available at the following link:

Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels 2020-21 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Our Equally Safe Strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls emphasises the importance of challenging the underpinning attitudes which enable such violence to take place. Education settings have an important role in challenging these attitudes through teaching children and young adults about healthy relationships, consent and gender stereotypes which drive gender-based violence.

Our Equally Safe at School (ESAS) project, developed by Rape Crisis Scotland and Zero Tolerance, applies a whole school approach to inequality and gender-based violence in schools. Rape Crisis Scotland have reported that 3 schools in the Glasgow region are currently registered for an ESAS account. This year, Rape Crisis Scotland anticipate the number of schools registered for ESAS will grow as they continue to focus on the promotion of ESAS and work both nationally and with local authorities to develop ESAS implementation strategies.

The Scottish Government also funds and supports other education-based programmes and initiatives aimed at preventing gender-based violence such as our Mentors in Violence peer education programme, the Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning, the Gender-Based Violence in Schools Working Group and Rape Crisis Scotland’s national sexual violence programme for secondary schools

The law on employment rights and duties is reserved to the UK Parliament and so the Scottish Government do not currently have the legal powers to set mandatory minimum rates of pay or a stand-alone right to take legal action to ensure this minimum hourly rate for workers providing direct adult social care, in commissioned services, is delivered.

This uplift is instead being delivered through Local Government contracts, and local commissioners have delivered funding for this uplift through a contract variation process with adult social care providers. This process is a means to ensure that providers who accepted the funding for the pay uplift contractually agreed to pass on that funding to eligible workers. In the event that funding is not passed onto the workforce to uplift pay, it will be for local areas commissioning teams to engage with providers to resolve any disputes where contractual obligations are not being met.

To support this, the Scottish Government and COSLA have set up mechanisms, through discussions with the Fair Work in Social Care Group, to establish and address any issues or exceptional delays in relation to delivering the funding for the uplift to providers and subsequently eligible workers.

We have regular communications with Scottish Care, the Coalition of Care and Support Providers Scotland (CCPS) and Trade Union representatives to discuss any concerns or questions around implementation of the uplift and have worked together to resolve these quickly.

We are currently working with key stakeholders to establish a webpage with details for members of the adult social care workforce to make contact with local commissioning teams directly if they are not receiving the £10.50 per hour rate so this can be investigated.

This uplift in the minimum hourly rate of pay for adult social care workers, delivering direct care, is being delivered through Local Government contracts and funding to deliver this took effect from 1 April 2022; with the Scottish Government transferring £200 million to Local Government to support investment in social care, including to deliver the £10.50 minimum hourly rate for these workers.

The Scottish Government and COSLA have set up mechanisms, through discussions with the Fair Work in Social Care Group, to establish and address any issues or exceptional delays in relation to delivering the funding for the uplift to providers and subsequently eligible workers.

We have regular communications with Scottish Care, the Coalition of Care and Support Providers Scotland (CCPS) and Trade Union representatives to discuss any concerns or questions around implementation of the uplift and have worked together to resolve these quickly. Through this process to date, we have not had any examples brought to our attention of private care providers not paying the £10.50 minimum hourly rate.

However, despite the apparently good levels of compliance, we are currently working with key stakeholders to establish a webpage with details for members of the adult social care workforce to make contact with local commissioning teams directly if they are not receiving the £10.50 per hour rate so this can be investigated.

The Scottish Government also encourages and receives communications from members of the workforce directly. To date, we have received one case where members of the workforce are not receiving £10.50 and this is currently being looked into.