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Simon, are you able to come in on that?

Support with rent in advance, including rent deposits, is provided through the discretionary housing payments. An individual may be awarded a discretionary housing payment for a rent deposit or rent in advance, or other lump sums for housing payments such as deposits or removal costs. For a property that an individual is yet to move into, if they are already entitled to housing benefit or universal credit—including an amount for rent in their present home—some local authorities will provide such support through schemes other than discretionary housing payments; for instance, as a budget loan.

Following an extensive period of review by the multistakeholder statutory guidance review committee, the Scottish Government has provided updated statutory guidance for the Scottish welfare fund. That revised guidance was published in April and states that decision makers can prioritise applications according to need.

Staff who deliver the fund should be able to recognise and appropriately respond to people who are escaping domestic abuse, and they must have an understanding of what constitutes domestic abuse, including coercive control and financial abuse. Staff should also establish good relations with specialist domestic abuse services. As I mentioned earlier, we are also working with organisations such as Scottish Women’s Aid via forums such as the Scottish welfare fund practitioners forum.

I certainly have. Yesterday, I took part in a four-nations discussion, during which I met my equivalents across the four nations. I specifically raised the issue of the housing pressures in Glasgow.

I am aware that the Westminster Government has put out tenders for asylum accommodation. The current contract, as you will be aware, is with Mears. That expires in 2029, I believe—although I am happy to have that fact checked. The UK Government has basically given options to manage accommodation and invest in housing in different ways, through central funding from the UK Government.

I know that Glasgow City Council has put in a bid, and I pressed the UK Government as strongly as I could yesterday to be cognisant of the pressure. We are seeing trends that, once people are given leave to remain, they choose to come to the central belt. We offer that provision under our new Scots refugee strategy, ensuring that people are welcome from day 1—although people want to be with people who are like them; they want to be in communities. Although we are very proud of the offering that we provide, additional resource pressures inevitably come with it.

I can assure you that I was doing that just yesterday—that is hot off the press, Mr Doris.

Absolutely. As I think I mentioned in my opening remarks, those matters lie in Ms Brown’s portfolio. I will absolutely do my best to give a good account, and I can certainly follow up on anything that I cannot explain today.

The civil legal aid system is, in general, effective in delivering help to those in need. However, we recognise that there are some challenges in relation to certain types of cases or locations. To go into the detail a little bit, the issue of solicitor availability, for instance, is being explored by the Scottish Legal Aid Board. Since 2014 or 2015, there has been a large variation in the number of grants of civil legal aid at council level. The local authorities with the largest increase include Shetland Islands Council, Perth and Kinross Council and West Lothian Council.

There is an increase in the number of applicants instructing solicitors outside their own council area. It is important to remember, however, that we cannot compel private solicitors to undertake work. Nevertheless, the Government has continued its investment in the legal aid system.

There were many elements to your question, so I am happy to be reminded of anything.

Absolutely. On the principle of equalities, I recognise that reform to the legal aid system is needed. We want to ensure that the system is responsive and user centred, and that it works effectively towards the delivery of the outcomes that we want in a way that we would expect of our public services. That has to be done transparently, and accountability has to be embedded across the system.

We have published “The Vision for Justice in Scotland”, which is a three-year delivery plan. It contains an action to engage with key stakeholders to inform and shape future legislative proposals in relation to the reform of legal aid. I am aware that, in February this year, the Minister for Victims and Community Safety published a legal aid reform discussion paper, which sets out the areas of work that will be undertaken to improve legal aid in the short, medium and long term. In the programme for government, we reiterated the commitment to take that forward.

I am grateful to the committee for inviting me to contribute to its consideration of the financial issues when someone leaves an abuser. Those issues are covered by many ministerial portfolios, so I will do my best to assist the committee, and I am more than happy to provide supplementary information about issues that cross into other portfolios.

I begin by stressing that the Government is resolute in its belief that coercive control, including financial abuse, has no place in Scottish society. That is why we introduced the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, which criminalises such behaviour.

As many respondents have noted, “Equally Safe: Scotland’s Strategy for Preventing and Eradicating Violence Against Women and Girls” explicitly addresses financial and economic abuse, in the recognition that perpetrators control finances and women’s access to employment and opportunities and to highlight the fact that women’s financial inequality with men enables such abuse. The strategy acknowledges that structures and systems exacerbate that inequality and act as barriers to women leaving abusive relationships. Under the auspices of the strategy, it is imperative that we continue to identify and address the barriers that hinder survivors from leaving abusers.

I recognise the importance of social security. Scotland has built a radically different social security system, which supports those who need it, including women and children who experience domestic abuse. Social Security Scotland staff, including a dedicated safeguarding team, are trained to identify and support those who are experiencing abuse. However, as the committee is aware, much of social security in Scotland—particularly universal credit—remains reserved to the United Kingdom Government. I note the many comments from stakeholders regarding UK Government benefits, and I am sure that the committee will want to engage with the Department for Work and Pensions on those matters.

We remain keen to work with the DWP—for example, on splitting the universal credit payment, which stakeholders have told us is essential to removing a major enabler of domestic abuse. Although the Scottish Government has limited powers to change how universal credit is paid in Scotland, the delivery of split payments remains entirely dependent on the DWP.

Regarding council tax, we acknowledge that joint and several liability may sometimes cause harm, which is why we are committed to supporting an amendment to the Housing (Scotland) Bill that would require a review of the impact of that in cases of domestic abuse. That is a crucial step in helping councils to handle such sensitive situations with care and understanding.

Our programme for government commits us to taking forward actions that were set out in the recently published discussion paper on legal aid reform, which include bringing forward regulations to simplify the judicare system.

We are determined to support women to get the access that they need. We have provided funding for a pilot project in Edinburgh that provides an early intervention service to offer legal advice to women and children who are impacted by domestic abuse. Next week, the Minister for Victims and Community Safety is due to give evidence to the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee on what the Government is doing on civil legal aid.

It is important to recognise that the no recourse to public funds condition is applied to people who are subject to immigration control under law that is wholly reserved to the UK Government. Our position is that the UK Government should immediately cease to apply the no recourse to public funds condition to people who are in vulnerable circumstances, including women who are experiencing domestic abuse. Through our ending destitution together strategy, we seek to mitigate and prevent destitution for people with no recourse to public funds, and we support the fair way Scotland partnership to deliver inclusive casework and emergency cash support for people who have no recourse to public funds. We continue to press the UK Government to extend the migrant victims of domestic abuse concession to make it available to anyone who is in the UK as a dependant on someone else’s visa or protection status.

The Government recognises the need to ensure that service provision is fit for purpose and responds to the needs of those whom it is designed to benefit. We are committed to ensuring that we have a process in place to keep improving and to deliver. I look forward to engaging with the committee.

You raise sensible points, Mr Doris. We have an ethos of always strongly encouraging decision makers who are awarding crisis grants to be aware that any awards made must cover the period of crisis to avoid the need for repeat applications. If it is known that the next payment for an applicant who is on universal credit is more than two weeks away, the decision maker can make an award that is longer in duration. That flexibility is there, but you make a good point about the need to ensure more consistency. Is that what you are getting at?

I will bring in Janine Kellett to answer the part of the question on housing.

Yes.

I will come back in on that one. Council tax is a local tax, and local authorities already have the power to write off council tax arrears. We are fully aware that there are unique circumstances involved in the collection of council tax, such as joint and several liabilities, which can cause harm in cases of domestic abuse. That is why we are supporting an amendment to the Housing (Scotland) Bill that requires a review of how council tax arrears can affect those people who are experiencing domestic abuse. That will be a critical step to better inform policy and improve support. As James Messis has referred to, we are exploring that issue through a partnership with local government and the joint working group on council tax reform.

The council tax reduction scheme exists to ensure that nobody in Scotland should have to meet a council tax liability—clearly, if people cannot afford it and there is no way that they will be able to pay it, they should not be expected to. The scheme reduces a household’s liability based on the assessment of their income, capital and other circumstances. The long and short of it is that councils already have the ability to write off council tax debt.