Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17940 on 30 May 2023. 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

Agreement has been reached through the Police Negotiating Board for a 7% increase to officer pay across all ranks for 2023-24. It means that police officers in Scotland remain the best paid in the UK.

The agreement recognises the valuable contribution police officers make to keeping people and communities across Scotland safe. It is also cognisant of the current economic climate and seeks to recognise the fact that officers are unable to take industrial action.

This agreement ensures a cumulative 12.35% increase in police officer pay since 1 April 2022 which broadly mirrors wage growth for firefighters in the Scottish Fire Rescue Service. In 2023-24 Nurses and Paramedics received a 6.5% pay award.

The most recent sector-wide Landlord Registration data shows that in August 2023 there had been no decline in the number of registered properties for rent. While it is an administrative rather than a statistical source, the data shows that there were 342,542 private rented properties registered in Scotland, slightly more than the 339,632 properties registered in August 2022, before the introduction of the emergency Act. It is important to note however that there is likely to be a time lag on this data, particularly in relation to how frequently information from landlords is updated on the system.

The emergency Act is giving important support to tenants, providing them with much-needed stability in their housing costs. It has gone further than anywhere else in the UK in helping protect tenants across the rental sector.

As part of our ongoing duty to keep the provisions of the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 under review, a series of reports have been published setting out the evidence as to why the Scottish Government believes the Act remains necessary and proportionate. You may wish to note that the most recent report was laid in Parliament on 1 June.

We will continue to monitor the data to identify emerging impacts on the availability of properties for private rent.

Through the Block Grant, the Scottish Government's policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow them the financial freedom to operate independently. It is their responsibility to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on youth work, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The Scottish Government meets regularly with other UK Governments to discuss health security matters, including COVID-19 variants.

The Government will continue to work closely with partners across the UK to monitor, assess and be ready to respond to any new outbreaks of COVID-19.

We are currently developing detailed proposals for the Anti-Racism Observatory for Scotland (AROS). A formal remit will be drawn up (and published) in due course.

A key part of the work being done is to develop governance and oversight of the work being done to tackle racism in Scotland, as per the recommendation of the Expert Group on Ethnicity and Covid-19 (ERG). This will include consideration of how to measure, track and evaluate progress made in eradicating racism in Scotland.

The number of Cattle Identification Inspections undertaken by the Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Division on cattle keepers in the last five years, detailed per year and regional office and further detailed into originally planned to review and actually reviewed records and into four time categories is provided in the following tables.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21029 on 13 September 2023. 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 House Condition Survey (SHCS) provides estimates of the number of homes which have an EPC rating below band C. For figures at the local authority level the Scottish Government uses a three year pooled data set to ensure sufficient sample sizes.

These figures were recently provided in the answer to PQ S6W-20664 which gave the number and percentage of all homes below EPC C by local authority area for the latest available 3 year period 2017-2019.

The Scottish House Condition Survey provides a snapshot of the Scottish housing stock in each survey year including the construction age and built form of Scottish domestic buildings.

The most recent estimates of houses (specifically covering all Detached, Semi-detached and terraced houses) with an EPC below C at local authority level are for 2017-2019, and are presented in the following table.

The Neonatal Expenses Fund (NEF) and the Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) are demand-led funds and the Scottish Government has ensured full funding against demand in each year since 2018-19. Actual spend may differ from profiled spend as demand requirements change over time.