Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government provides resource for local authorities to tackle homelessness through the annual local government finance settlement. In 2022-23, local authorities received £55.322 million [1] of homelessness grant aided expenditure. In addition, the Scottish Government has made available £100 million between 2018-19 and 2025-26 from the Ending Homelessness Together fund to transform homelessness services. Of this, £42 million supports the development and implementation of local authority rapid rehousing transition plans.

In May 2020, the Unsuitable Accommodation Order was extended to all households to ensure people are provided with suitable accommodation to support them out of homelessness. We are aware that full compliance with the Order remains challenging for some local authorities. Scottish Government officials have met with the local authorities that are facing the greatest barriers in complying with the Order to offer support. Engagement with local authorities has shown positive progress is being made in reducing the use of unsuitable accommodation and there are plans for learning to be shared more widely.

Ultimately, it is for local authorities to meet their statutory duty to provide temporary accommodation that is suitable for the needs of a household.

[1] Scottish Local Government Finance 'Green Book' 2022-23 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Fiscal Commission publish estimates and forecasts of eligibility and payments for Scottish Child Payment and Best Start Grant but only for Scotland. There are no estimates or forecasts of eligibility and take-up (the proportion of eligible children that receive payments) by area within Scotland. The following figures cannot be used to inform eligibility or take-up for East Kilbride specifically.

However, internal Scottish Government analysis suggests around 6000 children in East Kilbride are forecast to be eligible for Scottish Child Payment in each of the next 6 years and around 1000 for Best Start Grant. Also, that in 2022-23 around 4000 children are forecast to receive Scottish Child Payment, rising to 5000 from 2023-24 onwards. For Best Start Grant, around 1000 children are expected to receive payment in each of the next 6 years.

All figures have been rounded to the nearest thousand to reflect these are approximate estimates and use national level eligibility and take-up rates. See Tables 1 and 2:

Table 1: Estimated number of children in East Kilbride constituency forecast to be eligible for Scottish Child Payment and Best Start Grant.

Home Energy Scotland (HES) is the Scottish Government’s impartial, bespoke advice service for households. It acts as the gateway to various Scottish Government funding programmes to make homes warmer, greener and more energy efficient, such as the HES loan/cashback scheme. In order to ensure that work is done to the required quality and that appropriate consumer protections are in place, it is a recommendation within the HES loan/cashback scheme that applicants use a Green Deal certified installer. For solid wall, underfloor, flat roof or room-in-roof insulation, it is compulsory that an applicant’s installer is Green Deal certified.

The pace of the transition to zero emission heating requires a substantial growth in supply chains, not only within the Greater Glasgow area but across Scotland as a whole. A broad range of different skills are needed to support the transition, however we are aware that the installer skills for zero emissions heating and energy efficiency measures represent the largest gap.

Unlocking investment in the supply chain must start with clear demand for its products and services and our investment of at least £1.8 billion, as outlined in the Heat in Buildings Strategy, will strengthen demand and support an increase in jobs and skilled workers.

We have partnered with Skills Development Scotland to undertake a ‘Heat in Buildings Workforce Assessment Project’ which will help us better understand the timing of workforce growth and how best to support people transitioning into key sectors.

We are carefully considering a wide spectrum of support for supply chains to grow, transition and innovate to meet the heat in buildings challenge and have committed to publishing our Heat in Buildings Supply Chain Delivery Plan later this year which will detail actions and public support to aid workforce growth through a combination of reskilling, upskilling and youth employment.

We have published tables showing the debt advice levy funding for Scotland and the funding allocation for each year since 2019:

Debt advice levy funding: 2019 to 2020 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

https://www.gov.scot/publications/levy-funding-allocated-by-scottish-government-for-2020-21/

https://www.gov.scot/publications/levy-funding-allocated-by-scottish-government-for-2021-22/

https://www.gov.scot/publications/levy-funding-allocated-by-scottish-government-for-2022-23/

The SEPA budget position for 2020-21 was reported as part of the overall ENFOR Directorate budget monitoring return, which was reporting an underspend, providing flexibility to finance colleagues to offset any potential overspends.

Unutilised funding that is not required for purpose originally allocated is actively re-allocated across Scottish Government to mitigate emerging budget pressures. Where effective re-allocation is not possible due to late declaration of underspend, unutilised funding can be carried forward through the Scottish Reserve for utilisation in a future financial year.

As a result of the pandemic, local PPE Hubs were set up all over Scotland to provide free PPE to people providing social care support who need it, including unpaid carers. The Scottish Government continues to offer free PPE for unpaid carers and provision has been extended to September 2022. Unpaid or family carers who think they require PPE due to their caring role should contact their local carer’s centre and they will advise on how to access supplies locally. If their local carers’ centre is unavailable, they can call the Social Care PPE Support Centre on 0300 303 3020.

Where we have recommended symptomatic or regular asymptomatic testing to unpaid carers (and the population) this has always been provided free of charge. Our testing programme continues to be based on clinical advice and is kept under review.

We are committed to ensuring that people living in adult care homes can spend time with the people who are important to them. Open with Care guidance, which was updated on 1 June, emphasises the importance of maximising opportunities to spend time with others. Where a care home has an outbreak, residents should be supported to see one of their named visitors.

Using legal powers under the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act, two new statutory care standards were introduced on 31 March to ensure people living in care homes remain connected to their loved ones in order to support their health and wellbeing. The Scottish Government will further strengthen rights by including Anne’s Law as part of the forthcoming National Care Service Bill which will be introduced to Parliament shortly.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08784 on 14 June 2022. 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

The Scottish Government and its agencies collaborate closely with their counterparts in Wales and England on the control of INNS. Scottish Government officials have played an active role with their counterparts in drafting the 2022-2030 Great Britain Invasive Non- Native Species Strategy. This key document sets out our agreed, collaborative approach to preventing invasive non-native species reaching our shores, through surveillance, early detection and rapid response provisions and long terms management and control of species already established. The provisions in the Strategy will be implemented in Scotland through the Non-native Species Action Group, and similar partnerships, which has representatives from the public and voluntary sectors.

In September 2021, the Scottish Government announced £250,000 from the Humanitarian Emergency Fund (HEF) for Afghanistan. However, given the acute need and deteriorating conditions, this was subsequently increased to £360,000. £120,000 was awarded to Tearfund while £240,000 was awarded jointly to Christian Aid and Islamic Relief. These projects have now concluded and a report on their outcomes and results will be made publicly available in due course.

The Scottish Government subsequently awarded a further £240,000 from the HEF to the Disasters Emergency Committee for their Afghanistan appeal launched on 15 December, bringing our total commitment to Afghanistan to £600,000.

Following the pause on all adult screening programmes in March 2020, due to COVID-19, the Scottish bowel screening programme resumed issuing home testing kits from 12 October 2020. All those who were due to be sent a bowel screening kit during the pause were sent one after the programme restarted.

Bowel screening continues to operate in line with pre-COVID performance; the same number of invitations are being issued. However, because of COVID-19, individuals have been receiving their bowel screening kits 6 months later than in previous screening rounds. This is likely to continue until the end of the year, at which point all screening kits will go back to being issued 2 yearly as in the pre-Covid period. It should be stressed that invitations for first screenings (which are issued to participants as they turn 50 and become eligible for the programme) have continued to be sent out on time since the programme restarted and have not been affected by the pause.

As test kits are posted nationally, there is no variation on delays across the programme, and therefore it is not possible to provide figures broken down by Health Board.

We continue to emphasise the importance of being aware of the signs and symptoms of cancer, and to report any concerns to a GP as soon as possible so that these can be investigated. More information on the symptoms of bowel cancer can be found on the NHS Inform website at: https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/cancer/cancer-types-in-adults/bowel-cancer#signs-and-symptoms-of-bowel-cancer