Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government fully appreciate the concerns expressed about the deliberate resale of tickets for profit, known as “touting” and recognise that some events do sell out quickly and ticket touts or online sellers take the opportunity to sell tickets at significantly higher prices.

Powers in relation to secondary ticketing are reserved to Westminster and we cannot bring forward any legislation in this area under the current constitutional arrangements. I welcome the amendment that the UK Government is proposing to the Digital Services Bill in relation to ticketing bots. The UK Government’s response to Professor Waterson’s report into secondary ticketing has now been issued. We are giving careful consideration to the proposals on how to deal with secondary ticketing and in particular on how any issues relating to Scotland can be dealt with successfully. My officials are continuing to keep in touch with officials in Whitehall on this to ensure a positive outcome for Scottish consumers.

The Scottish Government is committed to introducing a social security system that is founded on dignity and respect. Throughout the consultation we heard many issues around how the assessment process works, including concerns raised about who is delivering assessments and the level of qualification, training and specialism assessors have. We are committed to designing an assessment process which prioritises the needs of the person with disabilities – not the needs of those delivering the assessment. The Disability and Carers’ Benefits Expert Advisory Group will provide recommendations and guidance on how the assessment process should work, including who should be delivering assessments. The Experience Panels will also explore this important issue, ensuring that the people who use the system are fully involved in developing the new Scottish assessments.

Yes we are committed to ensuring that Scotland’s social security is designed with and around the people who use it and that it is accessible to everyone, including those with different speech and hearing requirements. To achieve this we are continuing our extensive collaboration with people and organisations to develop an inclusive system that has dignity and respect at its core. I recently launched the social security experience panels. This is an ambitious programme that will see us work in formal partnership with at least 2000 individuals who have direct experience of the current system to design, build and refine a new and better model.

In relation to Personal Independent Payments, the Scottish Government has already committed to introducing longer-term awards for people whose conditions are unlikely to improve. We plan to do this across all disability benefits that are being devolved. How best to approach longer-term awards and re-assessment was part of our consultation and we are continuing to work closely with people who receive benefits and their representative organisations to ensure this is designed in a way that meets peoples needs. The recently established Disability and Carers' Benefits Expert Advisory Group will have a key role in providing recommendations and guidance on issues such as this. We will involve people directly in the design of our approach to longer-term awards and re-assessment through the recently launched ‘Experience Panels’. This will involve at least 2,000 people, with recent experience of applying for or receiving benefits. Employment and Support Allowance will remain reserved to the UK Government.

We said in our consultation on social security that as a minimum we will replicate the current special rules for people with terminal illnesses which establish an urgent approach to providing benefits without the need for the standard assessment process. I am happy to confirm that when the powers for disability benefits transfer to the Scottish Parliament, we will ensure a fast track system is in place for people who are terminally ill, including high-grade brain tumour patients with a terminal prognosis of fewer than six months, so that those payments get to the person as soon as possible.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) operate independently of the Scottish Government and provides advice to NHSScotland on newly licensed medicines. The independence of SMC decisions on individual drugs is well established.

Regulation for the licensing, safety and efficacy of medicines is currently reserved to the UK Government and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) who operate on a UK wide basis. The MHRA have come to the opinion that products containing cannabidiol (CBD) used for medical purposes are a medicine. MHRA is currently working with individual companies and trade bodies in relation to making sure products containing CBD, used for a medical purpose, which can be classified as medicines, satisfy the legal requirements of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012

Medicinal products must have a product licence (marketing authorisation) before they can be legally sold, supplied or advertised in the UK, unless exempt. If a company obtains such a licence for a product containing CBD then it will be for the manufacturer to make a submission to the SMC to have the medicine considered for routine use in NHSScotland.

The Mid-Market Rent Invitation, launched in 2016 as part of the More Homes Scotland approach, was open to prospective mid-market rent providers to submit proposals that will expand mid-market rented housing and contribute to the target to deliver at least 50,000 affordable homes by 2021. Since the invitation closed, the proposals received have been progressing through detailed assessment to establish whether they are deliverable and can be supported by Scottish Government. While this process is on-going details of the proposals remain commercially confidential. We continue to have specific discussions with the proposers on their models and their engagement with the house-building industry as well as regular contact with house-building industry bodies, such as Homes for Scotland to promote the wide range of Scottish Government backed initiatives that will play a vital role in delivering affordable housing, including the Mid-Market Rent Invitation.

The Mid-Market Rent Invitation, launched in 2016 as part of the More Homes Scotland approach, was open to prospective mid-market rent providers to submit proposals that will expand mid-market rented housing and contribute to the target to deliver at least 50,000 affordable homes by 2021. Since the invitation closed, the proposals received have been progressing through detailed assessment to establish whether they are deliverable and can be supported by Scottish Government. While this process is on-going details of the proposals remain commercially confidential. We continue to have specific discussions with the proposers on their models and their engagement with the house-building industry as well as regular contact with house-building industry bodies, such as Homes for Scotland to promote the wide range of Scottish Government backed initiatives that will play a vital role in delivering affordable housing, including the Mid-Market Rent Invitation.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to introduce legislation equivalent to the Social Landlords Mandatory Reduction of Service Charges (England) Directions 2014 commonly known as “Florrie’s Law”. This will be considered further when legislation in this area is next reviewed.

Property law in Scotland is fundamentally different from in England and Wales. Long residential leasehold tenure is common in England and Wales whereas it is restricted and rare in Scotland. In Scotland, procedures between homeowners on taking decisions on common repairs in tenements are either laid down in title deeds or, if the title deeds are unclear or lay nothing down on how decisions should be taken, the tenement management scheme contained in the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004. The tenement management scheme makes provision for decisions on common repairs, to be taken by majority, but not improvements unless reasonably ancillary to maintenance,

A homeowner who is aggrieved by a decision taken in relation to common repairs can apply to the sheriff to have it annulled. The sheriff may annul the decision if satisfied that it is not in the best interests of all the owners taken as a group or it is unfairly prejudicial to one or more of the owners.