Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03003 on 1 October 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 is committed to tackling racial inequalities. Our recently-published Immediate Priorities Plan (IPP) sets out how we will work across government and beyond to tackle deep rooted inequalities, and implements the recommendations of the Expert Reference Group on Covid-19 and Ethnicity. The IPP captures work ongoing across government, including our Fair Work First approach; the development of a race equality toolkit for employers; a Workplace Equality Fund to support minority ethnic people into employment; an ethnicity pay strategy; and a £20 increase to the Scottish Child Payment. We recognise the need for our work to tackle poverty to reach minority ethnic families in particular. That is why they are one of six priority groups we want to focus on in our national mission to eradicate child poverty in Scotland. Health inequalities are being tackled through a concurrent focus on improving Covid-19 health outcomes and targeting diseases, such as diabetes, which are overrepresented in certain minority ethnic communities.

This is a matter for the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission. The information that has been requested is not held by the Scottish Government.

Mr McArthur may be interested to know that a consultation seeking views on options for changes to the way legal services are regulated and how the legal complaints system operates is currently open and is running from 1 October to 24 December 2021. The consultation is available at: https://consult.gov.scot/justice/legal-services-regulation-reform-in-scotland .

We understand that some parents may have concerns about children and young people attending school due to the associated risk of transmission of COVID-19. We also recognise the responsibility of local authorities and the school workforce to support families with these concerns. We therefore continue to work with local authorities via CoSLA and ADES to ensure that Directors of Education receive relevant and up-to-date information on COVID-related mitigations in schools.

I would like to reassure any families with concerns that we continue to take a data-led approach to all mitigations in relation to the pandemic, and mitigations in schools specifically are developed and reviewed with the advice of the Advisory Sub-Group on Education and Children's Issues , and guidance from the COVID-19 Education Recovery Group. We are particularly reassured by recent PHS analysis indicating that of close contacts in school settings identified during the last academic year, just 5% of pupils later tested positive within 14 days of contact. This 5% includes community as well as in-school transmission. We also know that 62% of positive pupil cases had no close contacts that tested positive within 14 days.

The risk of transmission in schools is now reduced further thanks to the rollout of vaccines to pupils aged 12 and over. This sits alongside the asymptomatic testing programme, and other proportionate mitigations, such as face coverings and physical distancing in some settings, as outlined in the Reducing risks in schools guidance.

We recognise that there have been a lot of changes for local authorities and the school community throughout the pandemic. Therefore, in order to support local authorities to implement this guidance and to address education disruption caused by Covid-19, we have invested £450m to fund various actions over 2020-21 and 2021-22. This includes £90m for logistics such as enhanced cleaning, and more recently £10m to ensure that schools and childcare settings have access to CO2 monitoring.

In relation to attendance, national guidance is clear that measures of compulsion for attendance should only be used as a last resort once all other approaches to support attendance have been undertaken. Additional codes have been developed within SEEMiS to support the recording and monitoring of attendance and absence, including specific codes relating to COVID-19.

Applications from Registered Social Landlords for grant funding through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme at tender stage contain information on any projected rent levels at the date of completion which are more than 5% above the relevant social rent benchmark published by the Scottish Government. Information on the Registered Social Landlords’ applications which were approved began to be collected in 2018-19 as follows:

The total number of deer shot on Scotland’s national forests and land in the last five years is as follows:

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted our criminal justice system, and others throughout the world, in ways never seen before. Our priority was, and remains, to ensure that our system can operate as effectively as possible for everyone involved in it: victims, witnesses, accused and offenders, and for society as a whole

We have committed an additional £50 million to increase capacity across the justice system as we tackle backlogs built up while public health restrictions are in place. This includes recruitment of additional staff, greater use of digital tools and improved support for victims and witnesses. We continue to work with partners, including victims organisations, the Scottish courts and prosecution services, and the legal profession to identify the best way to deal with the backlog.

We have also taken action to ensure victims have been able to quickly access practical, emotional and financial support. This includes providing an additional £10.75 million since the start of the pandemic to frontline domestic abuse and rape crisis services and awarding £157,000 through the Victim Surcharge Fund to meet the immediate financial needs of the most vulnerable victims.

Furthermore, as part of the early release of a limited number of short-term prisoners in response to the pandemic, we ensured public protection was paramount through a ‘triple lock’ set of restrictions. These included the exclusion from the process of those in prison for the most serious crimes, including sexual offences.

We remain committed to delivering solutions which keep victims at the centre of our decision making, whilst balancing the rights of the accused to ensure a fair justice system for all.

The Scottish Government advises anyone who has experienced domestic abuse or sexual violence to report crimes committed against them, regardless of the impacts of Covid-19. Police Scotland remain committed to proactively target perpetrators and protect victims and their families from domestic abuse or further harm.

Domestic abuse cases continue to feature in the court programme as a key priority, with a view to mitigating the impact of the pandemic on timescales for these types of cases. £50m of Scottish Government Covid recovery funding was allocated this year and the recruitment and training of extra justice staff has enabled additional court capacity recently. This will support the process for reducing the backlog in criminal cases through the collaborative Recovery programme.

The Scottish Government meets regularly with Scottish Women’s Aid to discuss their concerns, and to outline the approach being taken to addressing the impact of the pandemic on all court cases. We understand the pandemic has extended waiting lists for support and have allocated £4.5 million split between Scottish Women’s Aid and Rape Crisis Scotland to address this issue.

The Cabinet Secretary for External Affairs wrote to Lord Frost on 10 September stressing the necessity of representation of Scottish stakeholders on the Domestic Advisory Group and Civil Society Forum, including the representation of remote communities, disadvantaged groups and all sectors of society and business. Prior to the Cabinet Office consultation closing, the Cabinet Secretary met with representatives of the third sector to discuss their participation in the groups and officials have encouraged stakeholders to respond to the consultation. Plans are in place for follow up discussions with stakeholders in the autumn to help ensure that they are adequately represented.

As mentioned in the previous answer S6W-03311 on 8 October 2021, we are in contact with the Cabinet Office on this matter, and have emphasised to them the need to involve representative Scottish stakeholders. We will consult the other Devolved Administrations on their approach to these institutions once we have further details from the Cabinet Office on the consultation responses and of the process to be followed in determining membership of the Civil Society Forum and Domestic Advisory Group.

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