Chamber and committees

Funding for devices was provided to local authorities by the Scottish Government. As such, local authorities undertook their own procurement exercises and devices purchased became assets of, and are managed by, individual local authorities. Decisions on their use are taken locally. We do not hold information on how devices are used and monitored.

In 2020-21, we provided £25 million of funding to councils across Scotland to tackle digital exclusion, resulting in over 72,000 pupils receiving a device to support their learning.

The following table shows the number of devices distributed via that funding, as reported by individual local authorities.

The funding of around £145,000 was announced to establish specialist support, counselling and the introduction of peer support groups.

We have introduced a working group to assist with the implementation of peer support groups. The group includes people with lived experience, and representatives from Health in Mind and the Scottish Recovery Network. Both organisations have extensive knowledge and experience in setting up and maintaining peer-support in many different areas across the country.

The High Level Group on Planning Performance aims to improve the performance of the planning system for all types of development. The resourcing and performance of the planning system remain key priorities, and new planning application fee levels came into effect on 1 April 2022 which will increase the financial resources available to planning authorities.

Performance is not the sole responsibility of planning authorities: all parties, including applicants, have a role to play in ensuring that applications are determined efficiently and effectively. Accordingly, extending the membership of the High Level Group to include applicants has been considered on a number of occasions. It is important to recognise that the planning system is used by a wide range of applicants across a variety of sectors, so to include all industry and business representative bodies would be unmanageable. However, given the importance of performance, active consideration is being given to how the views and concerns of applicants can be more directly fed into the High Level Group. This will be investigated during the summer and we will be making contact with industry representatives shortly to discuss possible options.

The Scottish Government collects data relating to individual temporary accommodation placements (associated with homelessness applications) through the HL3 data collection. This includes information on whether or not placements have been in breach of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order (UAO).

Comprehensive HL3 data is available for all local authorities from 1 April 2017. The most recent data available is up to 30 September 2021.

Prior to 5 May 2020, a breach occurred when a household with a pregnant women and/or child was in unsuitable temporary accommodation for more than 7 days. From 5 May 2020, this was extended to all homeless households. Therefore, breaches data pre and post 5 May 2020 are not directly comparable.

Various temporary exceptions were introduced from May to September 2020 to allow local authorities to provide households with accommodation in response to COVID-19. These exceptions were still in place by September 2021. Where an exception applied, a breach did not have to be recorded.

As a result of uncertainty caused by the extension of the legislation falling at the same time as the introduction of the exceptions, there was increased scrutiny of the data. This uncovered inconsistency in the practice of reporting and recording breaches across local authorities, including prior to May 2020. Therefore, data on the number of breaches should be treated with caution.

Following identification of this inconsistent recording practice, the Scottish Government issued clarification to local authorities in January 2022. Clearer, more explicit HL3 guidance with worked examples is also being prepared to minimise different interpretations of the legislation and ensure consistent reporting.

The tables below provide the number of UAO breaches recorded in the HL3 return by local authority and by month from 1 April 2017, when comprehensive coverage began, to 30 September 2021.

Figures have been rounded to the nearest five for disclosure control purposes, with the except i on of zeroes – which are denoted by ‘.’ – and values of 1, 2 and 3 - which are denoted by ‘<4’.

The sum of the monthly totals may not match published quarterly figures due to rounding.

Only local authorities with at least one breach from April 2017 to September 2021 are included in the tables. If a local authority is not included, this is because they have no reported breaches over this period.

Number of temporary accommodation placements that have been in breach of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order, by local authority

Since May 2020, the Scottish Government has invested over £48 million in our Connecting Scotland programme, which provides people on low incomes with a device, connection with unlimited data for two years, as well as training and support. Since programme launch 60,000 digitally excluded people in total have been brought online. We are now working on an extension to the programme to reach 300,000 people by the end of this Parliament.

The programme is part of our wider package of support to help everyone in Scotland benefit fully from the advantages of the digital world – from broadband connectivity to digital skills training and support for schools and business.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on the cost to local authorities for housing homeless households in temporary accommodation. This information would need to be requested from each local authority directly.

Funding for local authorities is provided by way of a block grant. It is the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budget and to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, including any funding to combat homelessness, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Information on cases of Anglophobia is not held centrally. Data is published on the number of police recorded hate crimes that include an aggravation for race. The characteristic of race in the hate crime legislative framework includes race, colour, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origins. If an offence was motivated by prejudice based on Anglophobia (i.e. anti-English prejudice) it would therefore be recorded by the police as an offence aggravated by race.

The Scottish Government published a study on the characteristics of police recorded Hate Crime in February 2021. This included: (i) information on the number of racially aggravated hate crimes recorded by Police Scotland from 2014-15 to 2019-20 (shown in the following table), and (ii) a more detailed study of the characteristics of these cases in 2018-19 (based on a large scale review of crime records). Based on the findings of that more detailed study, Table 17 of the publication provides a breakdown of what prejudices were shown by the perpetrators. This suggested that 6% of racially aggravated hate crimes in 2018-19 included an anti-English prejudice. This would equate to an estimated 210 crimes. Please note, some of these crimes may include multiple racial (or other aggravation) prejudices.

A second study into the characteristics of police recorded hate crime is due to be published later this year. This will provide the same type of detailed disaggregated data and information on police recorded hate crimes for the year 2020-21.

Table: The number 1 of racially aggravated hate crimes recorded by police in Scotland, 2014-15 to 2019-20

The Scottish Government expects women to receive high quality, safe care including in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of pre-eclampsia.

We are working with the Scottish Perinatal Network to examine the adoption of PlGF testing for pre-eclampsia in Scotland. This will include consideration of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidance on PlGF (DG23) that is currently out for consultation and expected to be published in July 2022.

The Scottish Government expects women to receive high quality, safe care including in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of pre-eclampsia.

We are working with the Scottish Perinatal Network to examine the adoption of PlGF testing for pre-eclampsia in Scotland. This will include consideration of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidance on PlGF (DG23) that is currently out for consultation and expected to be published in July 2022.