Chamber and committees

Opportunities for international travel between December 2019 and March 2022 were very much restricted by the pandemic. Accordingly there were no official visits made to countries outside the UK by Scottish Ministers and/or officials in this period.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04742 on 13 December 2021. 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 will publish the new Global Affairs Framework today.

The Global Affairs Framework sets out the values and principles underpinning the Scottish Government’s international work and the basis on which the Scottish Government will prioritise its international activity.

The framework aligns our international activities with our overall approach and priorities, notably: supporting progress to meet our child poverty targets, addressing climate change and securing a stronger, fairer, economy. We are also determined that Scotland should be a good global citizen, making a constructive contribution to addressing global challenges.

For any government, the global and regional context inevitably impacts on the achievement of domestic objectives. That is why it is imperative that Scotland becomes more active internationally.

The Scottish Child Payment is one of seven benefits that the Scottish Government has introduced which are not available elsewhere in the UK. We are committed to extending Scottish Child Payment to children under 16 and increasing to £25 per week, per child by the end of this calendar year.

To make payments it is essential we have data on qualification for reserved benefits that establish eligibility, which we will not have until later this year. We are reliant on the UK Government providing us with this data, because we do not have powers or controls over reserved benefit areas. Work is ongoing with the UK Government to ensure the necessary data is in place as quickly as possible, to deliver the extension of our Scottish Child Payment by the end of this calendar year.

We delivered at pace the Scottish Child Payment for under 6s in recognition that 60% of families with children in poverty have a child under 6. We also introduced our innovative Bridging Payments worth £520 across 2022, to support an estimated 144,000 children and young people of school age. This is an investment of more than £76 million.

We are taking a range of actions, within our devolved powers and with our limited resources, to help people facing the current cost of living crisis. Through our cost of living support measures, spend on Scottish social security payments that are not available elsewhere in the UK, and mitigating the UK Government’s bedroom tax, we are set to invest almost £770 million to help households tackle the cost of living pressures this year. This includes £290 million to give 1.85 million (73%) Scottish households £150 of extra support in April and we continue investment in our Fuel Insecurity Fund.

The Scottish Government responded quickly to provide support to enable SEPA to meet its highest priority and immediate requirements. This included provision of 120 laptops to enable staff delivering the most critical services to communicate easily and securely to maintain those services. The Scottish Government also authorised additional funding amounting to £2.5m to assist SEPA’s recovery efforts in the immediate aftermath of the attack, although this facility was not required and SEPA operated within its budget allocation.

The Scottish Government requires that where large scale forestry expansion is proposed, that may impact upon productive agricultural land, that consultation takes place between the applicant, Agriculture and Rural Economy (ARE) and Scottish Forestry (SF) colleagues. This ensures that potential impacts on agricultural productivity are examined and mitigated. This benefits integration with other patterns of land use and allows for the retention of agricultural enterprises. As a result of this approach, Scottish Government does not feel that additional food security impact assessments are necessary.

Conduct amounting to ‘arson’ under Scots criminal law would be prosecuted under the criminal offences of wilful fire raising and culpable and reckless fire raising. As these are common law offences, the courts in Scotland have the ability to impose a wide range of sentences, up to and including life imprisonment.

As with all sentencing decisions, the level of sentence to issue in any given case is rightly a matter for the independent court, having regard to the individual facts and circumstances of each case and any factors the court may deem to be aggravating in nature. The Scottish Government supports courts having these wide-ranging powers in dealing with conduct amounting to arson.

The independent Scottish Sentencing Council also play a valuable role in guiding the court as to the core principles of sentencing and what sentences should be imposed in certain circumstances through the development of sentencing guidelines.

The Scottish Government expects all relevant organisations to comply with the requirements of the Equality Act 2010, including published guidance and codes of practice. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is the body responsible for regulating matters related to the Equality Act 2010 and publishing associated guidance. The Scottish Government has not discussed with Police Scotland their obligations in relation to recording the sex of suspects under the 2010 Act; questions relating to obligations of public bodies under the 2010 Act could be raised with the EHRC.

Guidance published in September 2021 by Scotland’s Chief Statistician, makes it clear that the collection of data on sex and gender is a matter for public bodies. As such, the operational recording of information of those involved in crime is a matter for Police Scotland. It is intended that all Public Bodies would use this guidance to help them determine how best to record information they collect for their operational matters. In 2019, Scotland’s Chief Statistician established a working group to consider what guidance should be offered to public bodies on the collection, disaggregation and use of data on sex and gender, of which Police Scotland were a member. The office of the Chief Statistician continues to engage with a range of public bodies, including Police Scotland, to support their application of the guidance. In addition, the Scottish Government have an Equality Data Improvement Programme in place to undertake wider work on data and we will be working with Justice bodies as part of that, to support improvements in the range of the equality information that is published.

The Scottish Government Heat in Buildings Strategy was published in October 2021 and aligns with wider Scottish Government policy on housing, energy and climate change; the actions it sets out are reflected in our Housing to 2040 Strategy. In February this year the Scottish Government launched a new £300 million fund to support the development and rollout of low or zero emission heat networks across Scotland.

We understand that the intention was for the Dalmarnock development to connect to the district heating network serving the former Commonwealth Games Athletes' Village. However, after consideration, the Council concluded that a cost effective business case could not be made to achieve this. Connecting to the Clyde Gateway system was not possible due to timing; the design work for the Dalmarnock project was undertaken in 2017, which was before the Clyde Gateway District Heating system was developed.

Alternative methods were considered and the project by the Link Group therefore includes a separate communal heating system, which the 178 flats already completed are connected to, and which is managed and run on Link's behalf by Switch 2. The communal system supplies heat to all of the dwellings in the flatted blocks from a common source, providing scope to offer easy adoption of low and zero carbon technology in the future. Connecting the 57 houses in the development to the communal heating system would have required significant infrastructure work spread across the site which the Council and Link concluded was not financially viable. A further 72 flats being delivered in the current Phase 3 development and 148 flats planned in Phase 4 will also use a communal heating system.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of day services to adults with learning disabilities, their families and carers. Last year, I wrote to local authorities, encouraging services to re-open in line with Covid-19 guidance as soon as possible.

Decisions about individual services are made, and service-level data is held, by local authorities. The Scottish Government maintains regular contact with local authorities to encourage and support the re-opening of services.

Further to a recent meeting with representatives of unpaid carers, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care has undertaken to write to COSLA to ask for an audit of adult day care and respite services in every local authority i.e. which services have re-opened, which have only partially opened (or opened with reduced capacity), and why.