Seòmar agus comataidhean

Individual Licences can be issued on land-holdings where General Licences have been restricted due to the level of control held by the licensing authority in the case of the former. General Licences by their nature require a higher degree of trust on the part of the licensing authority as the user of the licence is not required to provide details of the activities being undertaken under the licence. When an application is made for an Individual Licence details such as number of a species to be controlled, time and place are specified on the licence. The licence will also usually require the applicant to report on the activities carried out.

As this requires several tables of data to answer, a response has been provided through the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 63198). Across all crime and justice-related statistics, house burglary is not identified separately from housebreaking. As such each table shows actual and attempted crimes for theft from a motor vehicle by opening a lockfast place, theft of a motor vehicle, theft by opening a lockfast place and theft by housebreaking, including housebreaking ‘with intent’.

Table 1 shows crimes recorded by the police between 2011-12 and 2020-21. We do not hold information on the number or percentage of these crimes that were reported to the police by the public. For information the Scottish Crime & Justice Survey includes estimates of how many property crimes were committed over 2008-09 to 2019-20, and the percentage of them that were reported to the police. Further information on this has been provided alongside the tables. All crimes presented in Table 1 will have been investigated by the police as a crime was recorded by them. Table 2 and Table 3 show the number and percentage of these crime types that were cleared up the police.

Table 4 shows charges brought by Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

Tables 5 and 6 show the number of people proceeded against and the number of people convicted respectively, for these crime types over 2009-10 to 2019-20, and the overall percentage is shown in table 7. The 2020-21 National Statistics will be published later this year.

Care should be taken when comparing different data sources relating to the criminal justice system. For example recorded crime statistics count crimes and offences at the time that they came to the attention of Police Scotland while criminal proceedings statistics report on cases which have concluded in court. This means that a crime may be recorded by the police in one year, charges brought and court proceedings concluded in subsequent years. In addition, a person may be proceeded against for more than one crime, or a set of crimes with more than one victim, in a proceeding, but only the main charge is counted in these court proceedings statistics. There is also the possibility that the crime recorded by the police may be altered in the course of judicial proceedings.

The Scottish Government welcomed engagement with the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland during the revision of the National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland. The Commissioner’s Office provided permission to publish their response to the formal Scottish Government public consultation on Citizen Space .

The Commissioner asked for a comprehensive re-draft of the guidance to ensure that children’s human and statutory rights are threaded throughout; a consistent application of a rights-based approach across health, justice and local authority Children’s Services and Planning Partnerships with greater clarity that children’s rights to protection apply to all those with a duty of care; extending a trauma-informed approach to children in conflict with the law; and a request that Children’s Hearings should be extended to all children under the age of 18.

The Scottish Government met with the Commissioner’s Office to discuss their response and incorporated suggestions into the final published guidance to further strengthen the focus on rights, relationships, collaboration and support for families, building on strengths. It was noted at this meeting that forthcoming Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) support materials will support improved consistency across Scotland in appropriately balancing rights to privacy and family life with rights to be supported and protected. The Commissioner’s Office subsequently reviewed and contributed to the Guidance Supporting Narrative which sets out how our approach to child protection in Scotland aligns with and supports strategic developments including UNCRC implementation.

Some suggestions made in connection with legislation and practice relating to 16 and 17 year olds are beyond the scope of the guidance which reflects the current legislative, policy and practice context. The Scottish Government has committed to review the guidance on an annual basis to ensure that it remains consistent with wider changes.

The Scottish Government is taking action on loss and damage. On the 23rd February, The First Minister and I hosted a roundtable of international leaders and experts, including colleagues from the Global South, on Loss and Damage. The roundtable articulated the common ambitions of non-state actors to further move Loss and Damage to delivery and action.

Officials are synthesising information from the roundtable to plan and sequence further action over 2022 and at COP27, including in partnership with stakeholders from the Global South. Plans will be discussed with Scottish stakeholders and progress reported to Parliament as appropriate. Additionally, officials are currently working with the Climate Justice Resilience Fund to programme a £1m contribution to Loss and Damage as part of the world-leading £2m commitment we made at COP26.

Decisions on licence applications are taken by NatureScot on a case-by-case basis taking into account all relevant information. The arrangements for restricting the use of General Licences are set out in detail on the NatureScot website. We consider these arrangements to be a fair and proportionate response where there is evidence of wildlife crime. We do not think an automatic restriction on all other licence applications is necessary or justified.

An individual licence may be issued, where a general licence restriction has been imposed, where there is evidence that the licence is required to deliver legitimate land management or other work. Applicants must provide detail as to the requirement for an individual licence, therefore, individual licences allow more control by the licensing authority. Details such as number of a species to be controlled, time and place can be specified on the licence. The licence will also usually require the applicant to report on the activities carried out.

For example, NatureScot has previously issued individual licences to employees of landholdings where general licenses restriction are in place, for the prevention of serious damage to livestock. In this case for example the licence was for heavily restricted use only in specified locations.

The Shared Outcomes Framework is the means by which Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) will monitor and report on collaborative projects that contribute to overarching skills outcomes.

The projects in the framework support the skills actions set in the National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET) and the missions of the Future Skills Action Plan, in particular around the alignment of economic demand with current and future provision. The actions outlined in this framework also contribute to delivery of the outcomes in the National Performance Framework and recognise the findings of the SFC’s review of coherence and sustainability in tertiary education and research.

The Framework defines the collaborative projects that are geared towards the strategic intent of supporting enhanced alignment of provision with economic need, resulting in a more agile and responsive system, including a more balanced

portfolio of provision where the evidence supports this being needed.

The Shared Outcomes Framework has been published today and is available here : https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781804351789

The Shared Outcomes Framework is a live framework that is published here in its first iteration. It has been agreed with and is supported by the Chief Executives and Chairs of SDS and SFC and will form the basis for regular performance monitoring through the Shared Outcomes Assurance Group and through my regular 6 weekly meetings with the senior leaders of both agencies.

This document will be updated as we develop further measures to track the impact of the projects and will continue to evolve as the projects progress, and to align with the delivery and governance structures for the delivery of the NSET.

The Scottish Government has provided funding of £22.5m for the five National Performing Companies for 2021-22, and maintained their International Touring Fund of £350,000. The same amount of funding is in the 2022-23 budget.

The breakdown of funding is below:

The data is not available in the format requested.

Men become eligible for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) screening when they reach age 65, and should receive an initial invite before their 66 th birthday. The programme monitors the proportion of the eligible population who are sent an initial offer to screening before age 66 as a key performance indicator.

In March 2020 all adult screening programmes, including the AAA programme, were temporarily paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The AAA screening programme resumed in July 2020, prioritising men in the high risk cohort.

The latest data published on 1 March 2022 shows that the programme has maintained screening the eligible population before they turn 66 and 3 months at a rate above 75% which is similar to pre-COVID-19 rates and in line with the programmes recovery route map. 90.5% of men were invited for screening before their 66th birthday. The full report is available here: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/scottish-abdominal-aortic-aneurysm-aaa-screening-programme-statistics/scottish-abdominal-aortic-aneurysm-aaa-screening-programme-statistics-year-ending-31-march-2021/.