Chamber and committees

We understand that reunion and contact with family members are vitally important to refugees living in Scotland. Although asylum and immigration are reserved matters, we want the process of family reunion to be simpler and safer for refugees in Scotland.

The legal duty for housing and homelessness, including responsibility for managing and allocating temporary accommodation, sits with local authorities and neither Ministers nor Scottish Government officials are able to intervene in those decisions. Support with finding suitable housing for refugees and their children are the responsibility of the local authority who should be contacted if housing circumstances change.

In some cases, where there is a change of circumstances, the local authority will require the individual/family to register as homeless. Refugees and their dependents, are entitled to access homelessness support from their local authority. Most funding for homelessness is provided through the local government settlement. In addition to this, the Scottish Government has provided local authorities with £60.5m since 2018 to support the implementation of rapid rehousing transition plans and provide £30.5m annually for their work to prevent homelessness.

The Scottish Government is increasing funding to the culture sector by £15.8m this financial year to £196.6m. This is the first step on the route to investing at least £100m more annually in culture and the arts by the financial year 2028-29. In 2025-2026 we aim to provide an additional £25m to the culture sector.

I appreciate the need for clarity within the culture sector regarding the £100m and I hope to set out the trajectory of spend for the remainder of this Parliament in due course.

In line with normal budgetary procedure the Scottish Government will publish a draft budget for 2025-26 later this year.

As set out in our Housing to 2040 strategy, we are committed to streamlining and accelerating the housing adaptations system and to take action to reduce the time it takes for disabled people to apply for and receive support and maximise the available resources. My officials are taking forward a review of the current housing adaptations system which will make recommendations on how best to improve and streamline the system.

We published updated practical guidance on the delivery of adaptations and equipment services in January 2023. This guidance will contribute to the housing adaptations review.

We are considering the potential implications for the delivery of adaptations and other delegated housing services arising from the establishment of a new National Care Service.

We have also developed regulations under section 37 of the Equality Act 2010 that give disabled people the right to make necessary, reasonable adaptations to common areas of their property.

At local level, responsibility for the planning, ensuring delivery of adaptations and most funding currently rests with Health and Social Care Partnerships.

In addition, funding of over £8 million is also available for 2024-2025 for adaptations for Registered Social Landlord tenants. In the period between 2007-2008 and 2022-2023, over £200 million has been provided directly to housing associations to help them provide housing adaptations.

The Scottish Government’s recent investment into diabetes technologies will allow all children living with Type 1 diabetes to get access, should they want it. This funding will also support increased provision to adults. Exact numbers in each NHS board area will be determined by local delivery plans being developed by NHS boards, working with the National Diabetes Technologies team in the Centre for Sustainable Delivery, based on waiting lists, staff capacity and affordability.

The new investment from the Scottish Government to support new access to technologies is in addition to baseline funding provided to NHS boards. It is not being allocated to boards to pay for their current delivery plans.

The Scottish Government approved £21 million of funding for the 2021-2024 period to support equality and human rights in Scotland through the Equality and Human Rights Fund Equality and Human Rights Fund: projects funded - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . Of that total, nearly £5.5 million is specifically allocated to fourteen organisations delivering a range of activities to engage with and support black and minority ethnic organisations and communities in Scotland. Overall, the funded organisations have provided support to 4,168 people, and 747 organisations.

The Scottish Government also established a short term Anti-Racism Interim Governance Group to Develop National Anti-Racism Infrastructure (AIGG), which was comprised of academic experts, young people and community leaders with specific expertise in anti-racism in Scotland. An important part of the group’s work was commissioning participatory community research Community-Report-_-Executive-Summary-September-2023.pdf (antiracismobservatoryforscotland.org) to engage with racialised communities across Scotland to ensure they are informed and engaged with the work being done to progress anti-racism in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has long-standing and continued engagement with a variety of organisations in the minority ethnic sector, including our strategic partners BEMIS, CRER and CEMVO, to collectively drive change for our diverse communities across Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-28205 on‎ 5 July 2024. 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-28205 on‎ 5 July 2024. 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 introduced asset transfer legislation as part of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. This landmark policy is the first of its kind in the UK and since its enactment on 23 January 2017 there has been more than 225 successful asset transfers agreed using these powers.

We are committed to ensuring that all our communities can access community assets, and are working with our partners to make sure our most vulnerable communities can access the assets they require to deliver important services and develop their own economies, wellbeing, and environments.

Our work with the Community Ownership Support Service (COSS) and the Barmulloch Community Development Company in Glasgow established a central hub which has supported 11 marginalised groups engage with the asset transfer process including the Bangla Centre, Spingburn, who were able to progress their asset transfer ambitions by accessing this targeted support.

As part of the current review of the Community Empowerment Act we have asked our partners and their networks to help us better understand the experiences of those involved in taking on community assets, including seeking the views of underrepresented groups.

We maintain a vision for a Scotland where all people – including black and minority ethnic communities, and migrants – have equal access to wealth, opportunities, and power.

The hospital group codes that have been quoted in the question are only present in data that are used for the Public Health Scotland ‘Costs Book’. Therefore, the figures quoted below are based on hospitals that have been assigned with one of the hospital group codes in this annual data collection to support the Scottish Health Service Costs publication. Information is available for financial years 2007-08 to 2022-23 (most recent). Group code ‘J26’ (community hospitals) was not used until the 2009-10 data collection. A mapping exercise identified that group codes ‘A5’ and ‘B10’ (both since discontinued) were previously used to define community-based hospitals up to that point, and this is reflected in the following table. It should also be noted that changes over time in the following table will reflect system reconfigurations, e.g. the Acute Services Review in Greater Glasgow, where several smaller acute facilities were reconfigured over two larger main sites, including the opening of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus in 2015.

Another important point of context is that models of patient care have changed markedly over the 17-year time period covered by the question, with initiatives such as ‘Hospital at Home’ now offering supported care at or closer to home, where possible, in place of longer hospital stays.

The following table sets out the number of hospitals by group code in financial years 2007-08, 2009-10 and 2022-23:

Currently there are no territorial NHS Boards consulting on major service change proposals on the future of hospitals.

Any major service change proposals being considered by NHS Boards are subject to at least three months formal public consultation and, ultimately, Ministerial approval; in line with national guidance which is available at:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/planning-people-community-engagement-participation-guidance-updated-2024/ .