Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of homelessness funding provided to local authorities in the annual local government finance settlements since 1999 has been included in the block grant and is therefore not separately identifiable. It is therefore not possible to determine how much of the local government finance settlement each year supports work to tackle homelessness in any year.

However, the unquantified amounts within the block grant have been supplemented in recent years through identifiable sums added to the block grant, which are enhanced or reduced by the overall annual changes in the local government finance settlement. The additional resource, set out in the table below, was allocated to local authorities for the development and implementation of rapid rehousing transition plans and for preventing and responding to homelessness.

The Scottish Housing Regulator collects information from all social landlords on performance against the standards and outcomes of the Scottish Social Housing Charter. This includes the average length of time taken to complete emergency and non-emergency repairs during the reporting year. The published Scottish Housing Regulator Charter Data information is available at Statistical information | Scottish Housing Regulator .

The Scottish Government does not hold data on how many households have received the single person’s council tax discount in each year between 1999 and 2003, broken down by local authority.

The Scottish Government does hold data on how many households have received the single person’s council tax discount in each year between 2004 and 2021, broken down by local authority.

A copy of the table has been placed in SPICE - BIB number 63208.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6O-00814 on 3 March 2022 which is available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/ormain.aspx .

Since May 2020, the Scottish Government has invested over £48 million in our Connecting Scotland programme, which provides people on low incomes with a device, connection with unlimited data for two years, as well as training and support. Since programme launch 60,000 digitally excluded people in total have been brought online. We are now working on an extension to the programme to reach 300,000 people by the end of this Parliament.

The programme is part of our wider package of support to help everyone in Scotland benefit fully from the advantages of the digital world – from broadband connectivity to digital skills training and support for schools and business.

The 2019-20 Scottish Budget included a £29.5 million provision for implementing the Scottish Government’s commitment to extend free personal care to all those under 65 who need it. The allocation given to each local authority in 2019-20 is included in the following table. This funding has been baselined into the Local Government Settlement.

The Scottish Government remains committed to Keeping The Promise by 2030, working in partnership with Local Authorities, The Promise Scotland, third sector, health boards and importantly the care community.

On 18 February the First Minister announced that the Scottish Government would publish its Implementation Plan for Keeping The Promise before Easter. The Implementation Plan will set out our routemap to 2030 as well as key actions we will take to Keep The Promise.

That information is not held centrally.

There is no statutory requirement for local authorities to separately collect garden waste and charging for its collection is not a new option available to councils. Garden waste is included in Schedule 2 of the Controlled Waste Regulations 1992 which contains the types of waste for which a charge for collection may be made. It is up to individual councils whether to charge or not.

As set out in our update to the Climate Change Plan, we will consult on requirements to separately collect garden waste by 2023, to further promote recycling.

The current cancer plan, “Recovery and Redesign: An Action Plan for Cancer Services”, comes to completion in March 2023. Early discussions are commencing on what shape a future strategy will take. We anticipate this work will occur over the 2022-23 financial year with a view to publishing a future strategy by April 2023.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of reports made to Police Scotland of third sector or charity organisations experiencing a cyber-attack. Information is held on crimes recorded under Sections 1 to 3 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990. Sections 1 and 2 relate to unauthorised access to computers, with the intent to commit or facilitate the commissioning of further offences. Section 3 relates to unauthorised acts which impair the operation of computers, including preventing or hindering access to programs, data etc. This is shown in the following table, from 1999-00 to 2020-21. No specific information is held regarding the characteristics of victims, including whether they are private households, businesses, charity organisations etc.

As highlighted in the 2020-21 recorded crime National Statistics, a procedural change was made to the recording of international crime in 2020-21, whereby cases carried out by a perpetrator who was likely to be outside the UK are now included. This may have led to some additional crimes being recorded in the latest year, though more broadly the increase may in part be due to the significant impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, including behavioural changes with more people undertaking activities online.

Table: Number of crimes recorded by police in Scotland under Sections 1 to 3 of Computer Misuse Act 1990, 1999-00 to 2020-21.