Seòmar agus comataidhean

Staffing and recruitment are operational matters for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

The management of fire appliances and their crewing are operational matters for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

The assessment of fire stations and their condition is a matter for SFRS.

Maintenance and decisions on fire stations is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

Conjoined answer for S6W-06820, S6W-06831, S6W-06832

• Severance arrangements and the scrutiny of severance cases follow the process set out in SPFM . This includes arrangements around voluntary exits and settlement agreements and use of confidentiality clauses.
• Data in relation to settlement and the number of confidentiality clauses in Scottish Government and Public bodies, NHSScotland and Scottish Funding Council overseen bodies is held from 2014 and, since then, has been provided to parliament annually – see links to previous reports . 2020-21 data will be published imminently.
• We do not hold information prior to 2014, nor do we hold information in respect of local authorities.

SG and public bodies, NHS and SFC Data. - CC = confidentiality clause.

Conjoined answer for SGW-06820, SGW-06831, SGW-06832

• Severance arrangements and the scrutiny of severance cases follow the process set out in SPFM. This includes arrangements around voluntary exits and settlement agreements and use of confidentiality clauses.
• ‎Data in relation to settlement and the number of confidentiality clauses in Scottish Government and Public bodies, NHSScotland and Scottish Funding Council overseen bodies is held from 2014 and, since then, has been provided to parliament annually – see links to previous reports. 2020-21 data will be published imminently.
• ‎We do not hold information prior to 2014, nor do we hold information in respect of local authorities.

SG and public bodies, NHS and SFC Data. - CC = confidentiality clause.

The Scottish Government collects snapshot information through the HL2 aggregate data collection on the number of households in temporary accommodation placements at the end of each quarter, by accommodation type. This information is available for all Local Authorities from 2002. This information is published as part of the Homelessness in Scotland Statistics publications. Table 29 of the ‘Main tables’ associated with the 2020/21 publication – the latest full year available – provides the number of households in bed and breakfast accommodation placements as at 31 March 2021, by local authority.

Supporting documents - Homelessness in Scotland: 2020 to 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

By its nature, snapshot data cannot provide a true reflection of the entirety of temporary accommodation usage across a period of time.

The Scottish Government also collects record level data relating to individual temporary accommodation placements through the HL3 data collection. The HL1 data collection gathers information on the number of homelessness applications and number of people associated with households making homelessness applications. Information relating to the number of people within temporary accommodation placements is not collected via the HL3 collection. Therefore, to provide an estimate of the number of people in temporary accommodation placements, this must be derived by linking household records between the HL1 and HL3 data collections.

However, it is important to note that it is not necessarily the case that all household members associated with a homelessness application will enter the associated temporary accommodation placement(s). For example, a household may make alternative arrangements for children so the children are never present in the temporary accommodation.

Comprehensive HL3 data is only available for all local authorities from 2017-18, which can include temporary accommodation placements which commenced prior to 2017-18. While some local authorities have provided HL3 data prior to 2017-18, coverage is variable across local authorities with some not providing any data prior to 2017-18 and some providing a much smaller number of placements compared to subsequent years, suggesting this data is incomplete. Therefore, only B&B placements that were live from 2017-18 onwards have been provided to give robust comprehensive statistics across Scotland and a consistent time series over the past 4 years.

Data is provided up to 2020-21 as this is the most recent full-year data available.

Temporary accommodation placements in hotels are captured within a broader ‘other’ category (via the HL2 or HL3 collections) and so this data cannot be provided separately.

The following table shows the estimated number of people in Bed and Breakfast (B&B) temporary accommodation placements by year and local authority. Where the same household has had multiple B&B placements within the same year, the people within that household have only been included once. Where the same household has had multiple B&B placements in different years, the people within the households have been included in each of the years they were in a B&B placement. his includes instances where B&B placements have spanned multiple years, with the people being included in the figures for all years in which the B&B placement was live.

Values of 1, 2, 3 or 4 are denoted by ‘<5’ for disclosure control purposes.

Estimated number of people in B&B temporary accommodation placements, by local authority: 2017-18-2020-21

An option for new rail line between Aberdeen, Ellon and onwards to Peterhead and Fraserburgh was assessed as part of the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2). The outcome of this was that this option did not form part of the strategic transport investment recommendations within STPR2. Instead, recommendations set out in STPR2 focus on the decarbonisation of the remainder of the rail network; measures to increase the amount of freight travelling by rail and on improving connectivity between our 7 cities.

However, there remains a path for regional or local rail projects to come forward, and Transport Scotland will consider these subject to a strong business case being developed in accordance with Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG) and suitable funding being available.

Improving wider public transport accessibility in the North East is a key STPR2 recommendation and Transport Scotland continues to work with Nestrans, Aberdeen City Council and Aberdeenshire Council in developing plans for Aberdeen Rapid Transit further appraisal of which is already being progressed through our Bus Partnership Fund. The rapid transit system would prioritise buses and connect key destinations on the outskirts of Aberdeen to the city centre via busy radial corridors. Bus priority is also being looked at through the Bus Partnership fund, including to Ellon. The proposed bus based rapid transit system for the region would provide a more competitive and efficient public transport into and around the Aberdeen City region. This would improve region wide connectivity and encourage a switch from car to public transport and other more sustainable travel options.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-06639 on 5 March 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 .

Following our consultation in 2019, a short-life working group was established in October 2021 to help produce a new temporary accommodation standards framework, identify if legislative changes are required, consider how the framework can be applied and regulated and produce the processes to support this.

The working group has met five times to date and aims to produce a temporary accommodation standards framework later in 2022.