Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government has been ready since March to proceed with the process to establish green ports. We are in an on-going dialogue with the UK Government with the aim of working together to ensure that green ports drive fair work practices and contribute to our journey to a net zero economy. We await a response from the UK government on their latest position with regard to agreeing a prospectus for applicants.

The intention of the Scottish Government is to publish an applicant prospectus as soon as possible, to avoid Scottish businesses being disadvantaged by any further delay.

The total cost from April 2020 to date for Scottish Government to remove car parking charges at the PFI hospital car parks at Ninewells Hospital, the Glasgow Royal Infirmary and the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh was £6.97million, inclusive of irrecoverable VAT.

We are unable to provide the cost at each of the individual hospitals as disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the commercial interests of the contracted PFI company’s business operations.

The available information is provided in the following tables which has been produced from the Scottish Government’s criminal proceedings database . The latest available criminal proceedings in Scotland data is to 2019-20.

Number of people convicted in Scottish courts receiving a financial penalty for littering offences (where main crime), 1999-00 to 2019-20.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Tayside have concluded agreements to buyout the PFI car park contracts for the Glasgow Royal Infirmary and Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, respectively. As a result, these car parks have now come under the direct control of the NHS and the Scottish Government’s policy of free hospital car parking for patients, staff and visitors will continue to apply.

Negotiations for NHS Lothian to buyout the PFI car park contract for the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh are at an advanced stage with an agreement expected to be reached in the coming months. Car parking charges there remain suspended as a result of an arrangement reached with the PFI operator in March 2020 and the Scottish Government does not expect them to be reintroduced.

(a) NHS Lothian recently submitted an updated Outline Business Case for the development of eye care services. This will be reviewed by Scottish Government’s NHS Capital Investment Group at their next meeting.

(b) The Scottish Government provided a progress update on major capital projects, including NHS infrastructure projects, to the Public Audit Committee by letter dated 23 June 2021 which can be accessed here:

Infrastructure Investment Major Capital Projects Progress Update 23 June 202 | Scottish Parliament Website .

The Covid-19 test kits are home PCR kits provided by NHS Test & Trace. The cost of the kits is set by the UK Government and the process managed through its contract with the travel management company, so we are unable to influence the cost of these.

Currently, we are not using private test providers for international travellers arriving into Scotland from green and amber list countries.

We are having on-going discussion with the UK government on using private test providers, particularly about the speed and reliability of the flow of data from private companies. We are keen to understand fully the key performance indicators (KPIs) that have been recently set for these companies and the process should these not be met.

The following table shows a breakdown of breaches of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order from 2017-18 to 2020-21 by local authority. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 5 for disclosure purposes.

Data on temporary accommodation taken from the HL3 data collection is only available for all local authorities from 2017-18. Although some local authorities have provided data prior to this, there is not enough to provide a meaningful national picture and this data has not been subject to the rigorous quality assurance procedures required to finalise the data to official statistics standards.

Important:

Over the 2020-21 reporting period i) there was a significant change to legislation and ii) temporary exceptions were put in place at very short notice in response to COVID-19, both of which have had considerable impacts on the data. The urgency of having to adapt to the revised legislation without any specific guidance means that local authorities have reported inconsistencies in the information captured regarding breaches which is likely to affect comparability. For these reasons, these figures should be treated with caution.

Changes in legislation:

Prior to 5 May 2020, a breach was encountered when a household with a pregnant woman and/or child is in unsuitable temporary accommodation for more than 7 days. From 5 May 2020, this was extended to all households. Therefore, the total number of breaches across the year 2020/21 will include those based on both old and new legislation.

Covid-19 exceptions:

Temporary exceptions were put in place to allow local authorities to provide households with accommodation in response to COVID-19.

The legislation noted that a placement was not considered unsuitable if:

• a person in the household has symptoms of coronavirus and the household requires to isolate; or
• the accommodation is required to provide temporary accommodation to ensure that a distance of 2 metres can be maintained between a member of the household and a person who is not a member of the household in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus; or
• the local authority is unable to place the household in suitable accommodation as a result of the impacts of coronavirus on temporary accommodation supply in the area, provided that where a household includes a child or a pregnant woman the household is not placed in unsuitable accommodation for more than 7 days.

(To note: the third of these only came into effect on 30th September 2020, halfway through the 2020-21 reporting period.)

A household placed in unsuitable accommodation for longer than 7 days where an exception did not apply must still be recorded as a breach.

Number of breaches of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order, by local authority: 2017-18 – 2021-2020

The Housing First Pathfinder programme started in August 2018 across six local authority areas with Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire working in partnership. Up until 30 June 2021, a total of 531 people have accessed Housing First tenancies and support through this programme. Over the course of the final year of the Housing First Pathfinder Programme, which ends on 31 March 2022, each local authority is working on the mainstreaming arrangements to deliver their Housing First programme going forwards.

In line with the objective of upscaling Housing First across Scotland outlined in the 2018 Scottish Government/COSLA Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan (and retained in the 2020 updated Action Plan), local authorities have been asked to consider and implement the Housing First model as a default approach to housing and supporting those with more complex needs as part of their Rapid Rehousing Transition Plans (RRTPs). Information on the delivery of RRTPs, including Housing First, is provided to the Scottish Government by local authorities on an annual basis.

The Scottish Government has also developed a dedicated Housing First monitoring framework to capture progress on Housing First across all 32 local authorities. The monitoring framework will collect information on Housing First tenancies from 1 April 2021 on a quarterly basis. The Scottish Government will publish the first quarterly progress update on Housing First tenancies across Scotland in September 2021.

From the Housing First monitoring framework and RRTP information, the Scottish Government can report that 22 local authorities currently have a Housing First programme in place, and a further 6 local authorities have indicated that they are in the process of developing their programme which will commence during 2021-22.

The Scottish Government has no plans to review the arrangements currently in place through which qualified clinicians, taking on board the patients’ medical history and lifestyle, agree with their patients, on a case-by-case basis, whether they would benefit from opioid substitution treatment (OST) or not. It is for patients and their clinicians to determine what is best for them and this will include agreement on the type and dosage of relevant OST. Methadone remains the most popularly used type of OST in Scotland, and there is strong evidence that supports its use.

From the recently published National Records Scotland (NRS) report on drug related deaths in 2020, methadone, on its own, was implicated in a very small number of deaths (7). However, it is increasingly implicated in deaths alongside other drugs suggesting that poly-drug use and non-compliance with treatment is the biggest factor. To increase our understanding in this area, and to inform policy making going forward, the Scottish Government is commissioning research to investigate the role and risks of methadone in drug related deaths.

Ministers are also keen to make sure as wide a range of OST and other treatment options are available, particularly long-acting buprenorphine – which has been deployed successfully in Scottish prisons throughout the pandemic. In addition, publication of the new Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) standards on 31 May 2021, emphasises the importance of allowing people to make informed choices about the type of medication and help available to them and to be supported to make an informed choice with regards to what medication to use for MAT.

Tackling empty homes remains a priority for the Scottish Government, even more so when people have been unable to take action to bring homes back into use due to the pandemic. We want to see all homes occupied and none left empty without good reason. Housing to 2040 makes a commitment to take forward a range of actions to make best use of our existing supply, including tackling the blight of empty homes.

Proposed key actions include:

• working with local authorities to audit empty homes and determine those that should be brought back into use;
• supporting the work of the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership and continuing to roll out the approach across Scotland;
• giving councils the powers they need to regulate and charge owners appropriately for homes lying empty and ensuring they have the mechanisms to bring them back into productive use;
• creating a support package for homeowners in trouble to help them stay in their home, if that is right for them, and to prevent homes falling into disrepair or becoming empty in the first place; and
• establishing a new fund for local authorities to apply to use in order to bring empty homes and potential empty homes back into residential use and convert suitable empty commercial properties in town centres.