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The Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan scheme was launched in December 2022 as an update to the Home Energy Scotland Loan and Cashback scheme.

Across these schemes, since May 2017 to August 2023, a total of 8315 applications for energy efficiency funding have been received and 5908 have been successful.

The Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan scheme was launched in December 2022 as an update to the Home Energy Scotland Loan and Cashback scheme.

Across these schemes, since May 2017 to August 2023, a total of £135,595,244.31 has been allocated in funding for renewable measures.

Prior to the launch of the Private Rented Sector (PRS) Landlord Loan in May 2021, PRS landlords could access funding through the HES Loan and Cashback scheme. This means that the total funding allocated may include funding for PRS landlords as well as owner-occupiers.

In December 2012, through the Scottish Partnership for Regeneration in Urban Centres (SPRUCE) a loan of £9.6 million was granted contributing to the development of 110 Queen Street. The loan was fully repaid in September 2014. The completed building provides over 140,000 square feet of space which is fully occupied, supporting the creation of over 1,000 jobs.

The Scottish Government is committed to making sure that robust measures are in place across Scotland to ensure our partners can identify and support victims of sexual extortion.

The National Child Protection Guidance was updated in August 2023 and supports frontline workers by defining and clarifying the roles and responsibilities for everyone working with children and young people, setting out the foundation for protective action to keep young people safe from harms including sexual exploitation.

The Scottish Government works closely with national and UK service partners including Police Scotland, the National Cyber Security Centre and the Cyber and Fraud Centre Scotland to tackle cyber-crime and online sexual extortion scams. We are also members of Police Scotland’s Multi-Agency Group on Preventing Online Sexual Abuse which helps us to recognise and respond effectively to new and emerging trends in online child sexual abuse and exploitation, such as the financially motivated sexual extortion of our young people.

I chair the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce which convenes key partners involved in tackling organised crime, disrupting the activities of organised crime groups and reducing the harm it causes our communities. In June of this year we published guidance for practitioners on criminal exploitation of children and vulnerable adults on behalf of the Taskforce.

The Scottish Government’s “Our Delivering Equally Safe” fund has awarded over £110,000 to the South West Grid for Learning to deliver advice to victims of intimate image abuse and to improve awareness of sexual exploitation – or ‘Revenge Porn’ across Scotland. The Safer Scotland website was updated earlier this year to provide information, links to support and advice for victims on reporting intimate image abuse. The Scottish Government’s Parent Club website also offers advice for parents on how to protect their children from online harms. We are currently reviewing the content of the Hub to include advice for parents and carers on sexual extortion as well as other emerging risks for children online.

The Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan Scheme received 404 applications between April 2020 and August 2023. Of those, 282 applications were successful.

Our Programme for Government confirmed the intention to introduce a Housing Bill to deliver a New Deal for Tenants, including the introduction of long-term rent controls which will apply to homes rented privately.

We welcome the report by Shelter Scotland. The Scottish Government is committed to including ongoing consideration of what more can be done to improve outcomes for BAME people within social housing.

Our Housing to 2040 strategy continues to provide the frame for our work to advance equality of outcomes in housing, with our vision for what we want homes and communities to look and feel like for the people of Scotland. In this we have recognised and committed to address the housing challenges faced by minority ethnic communities and highlighted that we must act on what we already know, as well as taking steps to improve our evidence base.

The non-legislative changes delivered to date and as a result of Dame Elish Angiolini’s review are bringing greater transparency, fairness and accessibility to systems, policies and processes that underpin the police complaints and misconduct processes. These improvements are helping to make the police complaints system easier to navigate for members of the public, as well as increasing consistency, efficiency and swifter resolution for all those involved in complaints, investigations or misconduct procedures. They provide a firm foundation on which to deliver legislative improvements and enhance scrutiny by giving more powers to the PIRC.

The Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill continues that process for improvement. It provides the framework for, and helps focus attention on, the cultural and behavioural changes that are necessary at all levels of policing. Recommendations 51, 52, 53, 55, 56, 57 and 58, relating to Police Conduct regulations and enhancing the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner’s scrutiny role, are able to be delivered in Secondary legislation from powers already held by Scottish Ministers under the Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2006 and the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012.

Recommendations requiring secondary legislation in the Bill are detailed in the Delegated Powers Memorandum , and will be developed in conjunction with policing partners, dependent on the expected parliamentary passage of the Bill.

Recommendation 52, the holding of gross misconduct proceedings in public, will be addressed through secondary legislation following the anticipated passing of the Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill. The relevant section of the Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill that relates to this is Section 8, Procedures for misconduct: senior officers which sets out the enabling power for a panel independent of the SPA to oversee hearings.

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.