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We are committed to working constructively with landlords, tenants and investors in policy development and implementation. The Private Rented Sector (PRS) stakeholder group, established in March 2023 and the Housing Investment taskforce, established in April 2024 are two forums that are in place to support this engagement.

As with any grant agreement, in providing funds to Sistema Scotland, the Scottish Government and Sistema Scotland agree how funds will be used and when payments will be made. In 2024-25 the Scottish Government will provide £2.6m to Sistema Scotland from the culture budget to sustain and develop the Big Noise programmes which give almost 4,000 children and young people the opportunity to realise their potential through music education. This will be paid in three equal tranches. The first tranche was paid in August 2024. The next 2 payments will be made in November 2024 and February 2025.

A full breakdown of the organisations that received funding from the 2023-24 Ecosystem Fund, including their core project local authority areas, is available on the Scottish Enterprise website Funding outcomes and information | Scottish Enterprise (scottish-enterprise.com).

The Scottish Government ensured a comprehensive evaluation of the 2023-24 Ecosystem Fund was undertaken by Scottish Enterprise. The Fund provided vital stimulus to organisations supporting start-ups, reaching over 13,000 direct beneficiaries across Scotland.

With respect to the effect of legislative change that will affect the private rented sector, the Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment for the Housing (Scotland) Bill will be published shortly and considers the cumulative impact of policy covering the private rented sector in terms of costs, benefits and risks of proposed legislation.

Any violence – including that against public sector staff - is a concern and should not be tolerated. The Violence Prevention Framework for Scotland, with over £4 million of funding over the last two years, supports partner organisations, including the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, to deliver priority activity to help tackle violence. This is supporting the delivery of programmes to help prevent violence across Scotland, such as in the Falkirk Council area – and supports the delivery of the Mentors in Violence Prevention school-based programme, which is now operational in eight schools in the area.

We also worked with partners, including COSLA, education authorities, teaching unions and parents and carers representatives, to publish the Relationships and Behaviour in Schools National Action Plan, which includes specific actions in support of reducing violence and significant disruptive behaviour in schools.

The Scottish Government has not undertaken such a mapping exercise. Local Authorities, as the statutory housing authority for their area, are required to prepare Local Housing Strategies, informed by an assessment of Housing Need and Demand, which considers both the existing supply of housing alongside future requirements. Local Authorities are expected to develop a broad understanding of the extent and location of the Private Rented Sector across their area to support the development of the Local Housing Strategy.

We consulted in 2022 on A New Deal for Tenants – draft rented sector strategy. This set out the Scottish Government commitment to deliver a successful and high quality, affordable and fair rented sector and invited views on how we can deliver this for the rented sector as a whole.We are progressing some elements of the New Deal for Tenants through Housing (Scotland) Bill and we are committed to publishing a final rented sector strategy in due course.

We are committed to improving our data and understanding of the private rented sector including through the use of surveys. A national representative landlord survey is one of a number of approaches that could support this, however, there are no current plans to take this forward at this time.

Earlier this year I met with the UN Special Rapporteur and we welcome publication of the report.

Our strategic approach to challenge demand for prostitution and improve support for those with experience of it, published in February 2024, recognises that prostitution cannot be considered in isolation, and sets out the Scottish Government’s collective approach, working with stakeholders across the wider public and third sector.