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Since the late 1990s, an agreed definition of domestic abuse has been used to collate information on domestic abuse incidents within Scotland. This definition was progressed by the then Scottish Office and agreed through consultation with key justice agencies and stakeholders. It is as follows:

‘Domestic abuse is any form of physical, non-physical, or sexual abuse which takes place within the context of a close relationship, committed either in the home or elsewhere. This relationship will be between partners (married, co-habiting or otherwise) or ex-partners.’

The Scottish Government has considered the statutory definition of domestic abuse contained at Part 1 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 which relates to England and Wales. The principal practical difference between the definition contained in that Act and the Scottish definition above is that domestic abuse does not extend in Scotland so as to include abuse between certain relatives who are not partners or ex-partners.

The Scottish Government recognises that abuse can be committed by people who are not a person's partner or ex-partner, including by other family members. However, in line with the views of the majority of stakeholders who responded to Scottish Government consultations that led to the development of recent legislation concerning domestic abuse, the Scottish Government considers that it is appropriate that this legislation applies specifically to partners and ex-partners. This is because abuse committed by a person's partner or ex-partner typically has a dynamic that differs from violence or abuse more generally, including where this abuse occurs within a family between, for example, siblings or parents and their adult children. There is a range of existing legislation that can be used to address familial abuse.

While the Scottish Government keeps the law under continual review to ensure that it is effective, there are no current plans to amend the definition of domestic abuse in Scotland to cover abuse perpetrated by family members who are not partners or ex-partners.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

Ensuring that every child learns to swim is a priority for both the Scottish Government and Scottish Swimming. The National Learn to Swim Framework, which is supported by Scottish Water and delivered by aquatic partners every week, helps children to become safe, competent, and confident swimmers and these water safety themed lessons are an essential part of the Framework to help educate on water safety.

Our Programme for Government committed to double investment in sport and active living to £100 million a year by the end of the Parliament. We are working with Scottish Swimming, Education Scotland, sportscotland and Scottish Water to deliver further interventions and approaches on learn to swim with inclusion central to that approach.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

Ensuring that every child learns to swim is a priority for both the Scottish Government and Scottish Swimming. The National Learn to Swim Framework, which is supported by Scottish Water and delivered by aquatic partners every week, helps children to become safe, competent, and confident swimmers and these water safety themed lessons are an essential part of the Framework to help educate on water safety.

Our Programme for Government committed to double investment in sport and active living to £100 million a year by the end of the Parliament. We are working with Scottish Swimming, Education Scotland, sportscotland and Scottish Water to deliver further interventions and approaches on learn to swim with inclusion central to that approach.

The Scottish Government does not collect or hold this information. You may wish to contact the Scottish Housing Regulator who collect a range of information from all social landlords as part of their Annual Return on the Scottish Social Housing Charter or individual Local Authorities.

Veterans who have left the armed forces within the past two years are a priority access group for the Low Cost Initiative for First-Time Buyers (LIFT) shared equity schemes, which includes the Open Market Shared Equity and New Supply Shared Equity schemes.

As the tax authority with responsibility for the collection and management of Scotland’s devolved taxes, Revenue Scotland publishes monthly and annual data on its website regarding the number of property conveyances and non-residential leases subject to Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) and the associated tax liabilities. These are available at https://revenue.scot/news-publications/publications/statistics .

Local authority level data is published on an annual basis, as part of Revenue Scotland’s Annual Summary of Trends in the Devolved Taxes. The report for 2020-21, which provides data for the period from 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2021, is available at: Annual Summary of Trends in the Devolved Taxes 2020-2021 | Revenue Scotland .

In particular, the ‘Data for Figure 17’ tab in the figures and tables file of this publication includes an estimate of LBTT excluding ADS declared due for residential conveyances by local authority and year. The ‘Data for Figure 23’ tab in the same file gives an estimate of LBTT declared due by Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) 2 area and year for non-residential conveyances. Local authority level estimates of non-residential conveyances are not provided to minimise the risk of disclosing protected taxpayer information.

The function of Scottish Water is to treat and supply high quality drinking water as well as to collect, treat and safely dispose of wastewater for those customers who are connected to the public water and/or wastewater network. To this end, Scottish Water has delivered significant levels of investment since its creation in 2002 and local authorities would not be funding and undertaking work which falls under the specific functions of Scottish Water. Local authorities have separate responsibilities in relation to private water supplies, any private water and waste water pipes which fall under their responsibility, some roads drainage and also for flood risk management. In areas where there are inter-linking responsibilities, some partnerships have been established between Scottish Water and local authorities, such as the Metropolitan Glasgow Strategic Drainage Partnership and the Edinburgh and Lothians Drainage Partnership. In addition to this, Scottish Water has partnerships with local authorities, where appropriate, where there is an opportunity to develop and deliver innovative solutions, such as the Stirling district heating scheme and work being delivered through Clyde Gateway, among others.

Scottish Water would be happy to further discuss its partnership work with Local Authorities if the member would find that helpful.

We currently have three Early Cancer Diagnostic Centres (EDCD) live in NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Dumfries and Galloway and NHS Fife. The Centre in NHS Dumfries and Galloway has been operational since 17 th May, NHS Fife since 6 th June, and NHS Ayrshire and Arran since 21 st June 2021.

The University of Strathclyde has been contracted to undertake independent evaluation of the ECDCs, to help inform wider roll-out across Scotland. The full evaluation will cover a two-year period (this is in line with wider UK nations’ evaluation of similar rapid diagnostic centre models), and will report in September 2023. Additionally, an interim report will be provided in September 2022.

The following table shows the number of domestic abuse incidents recorded by police in Scotland, where the victim is male, from 1999-00 to 2020-21.

This information is sourced from the Official Statistics on domestic abuse incidents recorded by the police in Scotland. These note that the creation of Police Scotland altered the way in which domestic abuse data was collected, with the introduction of a new national database to capture this information for all of Scotland from 2014-15 onwards. Therefore some caution should be exercised when interpreting these statistics over years that span this change.

Table: Number of domestic abuse incidents recorded by police in Scotland, with a male victim, 1999-00 to 2020-21

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of children on foster home waiting lists.