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The Scottish Government is committed to tackling racial inequalities. Our recently-published Immediate Priorities Plan (IPP) sets out how we will work across government and beyond to tackle deep rooted inequalities, and implements the recommendations of the Expert Reference Group on Covid-19 and Ethnicity. The IPP captures work ongoing across government, including our Fair Work First approach; the development of a race equality toolkit for employers; a Workplace Equality Fund to support minority ethnic people into employment; an ethnicity pay strategy; and a £20 increase to the Scottish Child Payment. We recognise the need for our work to tackle poverty to reach minority ethnic families in particular. That is why they are one of six priority groups we want to focus on in our national mission to eradicate child poverty in Scotland. Health inequalities are being tackled through a concurrent focus on improving Covid-19 health outcomes and targeting diseases, such as diabetes, which are overrepresented in certain minority ethnic communities.

While it is up to individual social landlords to strike the best balance between rent levels and meeting the housing needs of local communities, rents for social rented homes should not be set without regard to the importance of affordability for tenants. The Scottish Government therefore considers the proposed rents for Registered Social Landlord social rented homes at the point of first let as part of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme grant assessment process

Applications from Registered Social Landlords for grant funding to deliver projects through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme at tender stage contain information on any projected rent levels at the date of completion which are more than 5% above the relevant social rent benchmark published by the Scottish Government.

Information on the number of tender applications which were approved which contained Registered Social Landlord projected rent levels at the point of completion which exceeded the relevant social rent benchmark by more than 5% began to be collected in 2018-19 as follows:

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03003 on 1 October 2021. 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 .

We have awarded a grant of £0.5 million to Care and Repair Scotland to provide additional support in relation to the new standard for fire alarms in all Scottish homes. Care and Repair Scotland will provide a report on the use of the grant funding at the end of the current business year.

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted our criminal justice system, and others throughout the world, in ways never seen before. Our priority was, and remains, to ensure that our system can operate as effectively as possible for everyone involved in it: victims, witnesses, accused and offenders, and for society as a whole

We have committed an additional £50 million to increase capacity across the justice system as we tackle backlogs built up while public health restrictions are in place. This includes recruitment of additional staff, greater use of digital tools and improved support for victims and witnesses. We continue to work with partners, including victims organisations, the Scottish courts and prosecution services, and the legal profession to identify the best way to deal with the backlog.

We have also taken action to ensure victims have been able to quickly access practical, emotional and financial support. This includes providing an additional £10.75 million since the start of the pandemic to frontline domestic abuse and rape crisis services and awarding £157,000 through the Victim Surcharge Fund to meet the immediate financial needs of the most vulnerable victims.

Furthermore, as part of the early release of a limited number of short-term prisoners in response to the pandemic, we ensured public protection was paramount through a ‘triple lock’ set of restrictions. These included the exclusion from the process of those in prison for the most serious crimes, including sexual offences.

We remain committed to delivering solutions which keep victims at the centre of our decision making, whilst balancing the rights of the accused to ensure a fair justice system for all.

As mentioned in the previous answer S6W-03311 on 8 October 2021, we are in contact with the Cabinet Office on this matter, and have emphasised to them the need to involve representative Scottish stakeholders. We will consult the other Devolved Administrations on their approach to these institutions once we have further details from the Cabinet Office on the consultation responses and of the process to be followed in determining membership of the Civil Society Forum and Domestic Advisory Group.

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 is committed to bringing in Anne’s Law to ensure people who live in adult care homes have rights to see and spend time with those who are important to them in order to support their health and wellbeing. To support the delivery of Anne’s Law, a public consultation was published on Friday 24 September seeking views on proposals. This is available at http://consult.gov.scot

The consultation builds on a programme of work to enable people living in adult care homes to maintain family and friendship connections. This includes guidance issued on 15 September on named visitors being able people to maintain contact with loved ones during managed COVID outbreaks, see: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-adult-care-homes-visiting-guidance/ .

The Scottish Government is also proposing to strengthen the Health and Social Care Standards and a consultation was launched on 16 September seeking views around ensuring people are able to spend time with their loved ones. This is available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/consultation-strengthening-health-social-care-standards-support-people-live-adult-care-homes-maintain-family-friendship-connections/

We commissioned and published in 2018 a first national independent expert report on specialist NHS dementia beds provision Transforming Specialist Dementia Hospital Care with recommendations for sector modernisation as part of wider whole-system reform in localities.

The report noted the most recent official figures at that time on numbers of NHS Old Age Psychiatry beds and Geriatric Medicine beds. These figures include people with an organic illness (dementia) and those with a functional illness (mental ill health conditions such as depression, bi-polar and schizophrenia) and the report noted that it was difficult to provide a precise number of patients with dementia in these settings, given the frequency of co-morbid conditions and under-diagnosis of dementia.

We continue to work with the author of the report as part of wider work since 2018 to support implementation of the report and to support local service modernisation, workforce planning and resourcing.

The circumstances which led to the case before the European Court of Human Rights preceded the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015. The 2015 Act introduced new protections for victims of human trafficking and exploitation offences in Scotland.

The 2015 Act requires the Lord Advocate to issue instructions regarding the prosecution of persons who are, or appear to be, the victims of trafficking, slavery, servitude or forced or compulsory labour and who have allegedly committed a criminal offence. These instructions were published in May 2016 and were updated in August 2021, following a review by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in light of the European Court of Human Rights’ decision in VCL and AN v UK. The instructions sets a strong presumption against prosecution of adult victims who have been compelled to commit an offence and the compulsion is directly attributable to trafficking or exploitation and a strong presumption against prosecution of child victims who have committed an offence in the course of, or as a consequence of, being trafficked or exploited.

Decisions in relation to prosecution are for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service which makes its decisions independently.

Both Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service continue to discharge their positive obligations to potential victims of human trafficking and exploitation.

Information on the application of the Lord Advocate’s instructions can be accessed through the Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy progress reports https://www.gov.scot/policies/human-trafficking/ .

National Referral Mechanism data is released by the Home Office Single Competent Authority.

Information is published quarterly and in an end of year summary. Data relating to 2020 and 2021 can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-referral-mechanism-statistics .