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The ALACHO report reflects the significant pressure and increasing demand for homeless support in some local authority areas. However, these challenges are experienced differently across the country and are not universal across Scotland. Although 10 local authorities have declared housing emergencies, which is reflective of the pressures they are experiencing, the report states a number of local authorities are showing an improvement compared to the results in November 2023.

There are many variables for the reasons behind the increased pressure in some areas and local, targeted solutions that consider the needs of each locality are required. Since taking up my role as Housing Minister I have been meeting, and I will continue to meet, with Housing Convenors from across local authorities to discuss issues that are particular to their area and how the Scottish Government can best support them.

The report shows that, although the early prisoner release programme presented a risk in terms of potential impact on homelessness services, this was largely mitigated by early involvement of ALACHO in discussions throughout the planning and delivery of the emergency release processes. This was in addition to information on planned releases shared by the Scottish Prison Service with each local authority area prior to each tranche of releases.

This report highlights the increased demand for temporary accommodation, but not all temporary accommodation is unsuitable. Most households living in temporary accommodation are living in local authority or housing association properties. Some households chose to wait for an offer that fully meets their needs and, in some circumstances, this can take time.

Every local authority in Scotland has the legal duty to provide accommodation for people facing homelessness but we know demand for housing has been exacerbated by the pandemic, which has led to increased pressures for local authorities. When the Scottish Government declared a housing emergency in May earlier this year, we were clear that there needs to be an all-agency approach from partners – including the UK, national and local governments – to address the challenges in the housing and homelessness sector.

Scotland has an effective strategy to end homelessness (Ending Homelessness Together) and an ambitious housing strategy (Housing to 2040). There is widespread support for both from across the sector and there is confidence that they remain the right long-term plans.

We are progressing activity across the three pillars I set out in my statement to Parliament on 20 June 2024:

• delivering more high quality, permanent homes – growing the economy and supporting affordable housing as a vital public service through increased private and public sector investment;
• ensuring that the homes we are delivering are the right homes in the right places - working with local authorities so that that the Affordable Housing Supply Programme continues to support assessed investment priorities based on Local Housing Strategies and Strategic Housing Investment Plans and that the programme has maximum impact on local pressures; and
• ensuring there is a settled home for everyone who needs one#x200f#x200f – with continued effort to address high numbers of people – and particularly children – in temporary accommodation and preventing homelessness before it happens. 

In 2023-24, we invested £83 million of the Affordable Housing Supply programme to enable local authorities and registered social landlords to acquire almost 1,500 properties of the right types and in the right places for use as high quality, affordable, permanent homes. In 2024-25, we will invest almost £600 million in affordable housing, including an additional £40 million to bring existing homes into affordable use through acquisitions and, where appropriate, also bring long term voids back into effective use. By utilising these routes to boosting affordable supply we can deliver homes at pace and scale helping to reduce the number of households in temporary accommodation and the pressures local authorities are experiencing. 

However, the financial constraints we are working within requires actions to be prioritised. There are things we are doing to make the best of the resources we have, alongside taking actions which do not rely on finance, and there is lots of work already underway across the sector. Ministers and COSLA have taken action to address issues around energy supply to void and new build properties. ALACHO has agreed to work with us to take this forward national guidance on flipping and we continue to engage with stakeholders on the Housing Bill.

Work continues to support housing supply and looking for the most effective and efficient ways to deploy our resources. We want to target our efforts where the greatest harms are being experienced while considering the wider operating environment for housing and how we best sequence and phase activity. The review of the deliverability of the AHSP and the work of the Housing Investment Taskforce are also underway and will give us a further set of actions to work towards.

The action we have set out provides a solid strategic and action-focused approach from which we hope all of the key partners are willing to work together.

There are no plans to mandate the installation of solar panels on all new buildings in Scotland.

Standard 6.1 (energy demand) of Scottish building regulations set challenging overall energy targets for new homes. This has, in recent years, contributed to an increased presence of solar panels on new buildings and new homes in particular. These regulations do not, however, require the installation of such technologies.

Energy targets are set through application of a ‘notional building’ specification for domestic and non-domestic properties. Where the heating system proposed has an efficiency of no greater than 100%, this specification includes an element of onsite generation in the form of photovoltaic panels, which contributes to improved energy targets.

Following revision of standards on 1 February 2023, building regulations encourage the proportionate and effective use of on-site generation of power as part of a new building specification, recognising only that portion of generation which can be used or stored at the building, excluding any energy exported to the grid.

Jenni Minto: In September 2023, we published Mental Health Core Standards, initially applying to adult secondary mental health services. These general standards ensure high quality and safe mental health services. We are currently focusing on a phased implementation of the standards and there are no immediate plans to update them.

It is disappointing that the infant mortality rate rose last year. We are involved in a number of initiatives to help improve perinatal and infant outcomes.

The established Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP) perinatal and paediatric improvement programmes are currently supporting NHS Boards to improve outcomes for families through two ongoing collaboratives. One of the key aims of the SPSP Perinatal collaborative is to reduce neonatal morbidity and mortality. The SPSP paediatric collaborative launched in September 2023 and aims to improve the recognition and response to clinical deterioration in babies, children and young people.

Additionally, since October 2021 a National Hub has been in place to review and learn from the deaths of babies, children, and young people in Scotland. Commissioned and funded by Scottish Government, the National Hub is jointly hosted by Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Care Inspectorate. A principal aim of the National Hub is to channel the learning from child death reviews to inform change and improvement and ultimately help reduce future preventable child deaths.

The rate of stillbirth in Scotland has dropped from 5.7 stillbirths per 1000 births (live and still) in 2003 to 3.7 per 1000 births (live and still) in 2023, what this means is that 125 fewer babies were stillborn in 2023 than 2003. However, we recognise that there is still more work to do to improve stillbirth rates, and the Scottish Government is committed to participating and funding key initiatives to reduce the incidence of stillbirth in Scotland.

The Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP) perinatal improvement programme, established in 2013 has the specific aim of reducing stillbirth. Scotland continues to fund and participate in UK-wide audits including Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries – UK (MBRRACE-UK), which undertakes surveillance on stillbirth and makes recommendations for improvement, which we consider carefully with an expectation NHS Boards will review their local data and act on emerging themes. We also expect all Boards to use the Perinatal Mortality Review Tool to review all perinatal deaths in a systematic and consistent way to ensure, where possible lessons are learned to improve care.

We provide NHS Boards with information leaflets for pregnant women which include advice on important ways to help reduce the risk of stillbirth, including side sleeping, not smoking and monitoring baby’s movements. This information is also set out in Ready Steady Baby, a comprehensive guide to pregnancy, labour and birth and given to pregnant women in the ante natal period.

The Scottish Government does not hold the data requested which is a matter for health boards locally.

Recruitment and training of registered mental health professionals is a matter for employers such as NHS boards and Local Authorities. These bodies make informed decisions about recruiting counsellors and psychotherapists or training new mental health practitioners, according to the needs of local service providers and working with relevant professional bodies. The Scottish Government expects employers to apply standards and frameworks which are appropriate to the specialism being recruited for.

In September 2023, we published Mental Health Core Standards, initially applying to adult secondary mental health services. These outline national expectations to boards regarding staffing levels and appropriate skills.

For the purposes of this response we are interpreting “publicly owned bodies” to mean devolved public bodies. The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) meet on a quarterly basis with the representatives of the Society of Chief Officers in Environmental Health who work in local authorities to discuss issues in relation to food safety, food standards and nutrition in Scotland. The last time they met was on 17 July. They also attend and present at the Society’s annual congress.

FSS are members of the Environmental Health Policy Co-ordination Group, who meet monthly and have the Environmental Health Officer (EHO) vacancies and workforce shortages as standing agenda item for each meeting

.Since vesting, FSS has provided an annual grant to the Society which it disperses to local authorities who apply for funding assistance in training and recruitment of trainee Environmental Health and Food Safety Officers. The amount has averaged at between £20,000 - £60,000 per annum and a one-off payment of £300,000 was provided in 2022 – 23 to assist with the acute shortage in student and EHO numbers.

FSS also provide a number of speciality training packages to local authorities to ensure EHOs are trained on numerous technical subjects. These courses are reviewed and updated regularly.

I, in my capacity as Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health, met with Geoff Ogle, CEO of FSS on 20 June to discuss the current state of local delivery in relation to food law and the proposed reform programme that would introduce digital capabilities, as well as an overhaul of the food law delivery system.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-28882 on 26 August 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.