Chamber and committees

As outlined in my answer to question S6W-23137 on 4 December 2023, I expect to provide a further update on this in the coming weeks.

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

Older people can be particularly vulnerable to being targeted by criminals intent on carrying out fraudulent activity. The Scottish Government is committed to working with partners on the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce (SOCT) to disrupt fraudsters and protect our elderly from being exploited.

The SOCT recently published its Progress Report which highlighted the success of the Banking Protocol. This has prevented the loss of £29 million since its introduction in 2018. The Scottish Government also funds and supports a range of campaigns, and online and in-person workshops, such as ‘ DigiKen ’ which aims to raise awareness of how to stay secure online, and Digital Skills Education , which supports older people on how to spot and avoid scams, and how to protect personal information.

The Scottish Government is working to make information around the development and delivery of chronic pain more publicly available and we are currently reviewing the information on the Scottish Government website. We will be updating the chronic pain webpage to provide information, including membership of the Pain Management Task Force and relevant working groups, on how we are developing and delivering the Pain management service delivery framework: implementation plan update .

The Scottish Government is not aware of any plans to move the Scottish National Pain Management Programme from its current site. We are working with stakeholders to ensure that the delivery of the SNPMP is sustainable and the services offered still meet the needs of people in Scotland living with chronic pain.

The Ask for ANI scheme is an initiative led by the Home Office, and as such they oversee the UK wide rollout alongside key partners. This includes in Scotland, where Ask for ANI is currently operational in 430 pharmacies.

A campaign ‘UK Says No More’ encourages pharmacies to sign up to the scheme, however geographical variations will exist as it’s a voluntary scheme and for each pharmacy to decide upon participation. The member may wish to note that Ask for ANI is available in Highland locations such as Fort Willian and Ullapool, but also on Scottish Islands locations, including Lerwick, Shetland.

Our consultations on proposals for a Heat in Buildings Bill and a new Social Housing Net Zero Standard are designed to reduce emissions and improve the energy efficiency of Scotland’s buildings – helping to deliver a just transition that protects those living in fuel poverty by reducing their energy bills.

We are asking for views on a minimum energy efficiency standard for privately-owned homes and rental properties. This standard would not need to be met by owner occupied homes that have ended their use of polluting heating by 2033.

For those that do need to meet the standard, they could do so by installing a list of straightforward measures (such as loft insulation and draught-proofing) or, alternatively, based on the result of an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) assessment.

The list of measures would prioritise those that could have most impact on reducing a home’s energy demand and therefore energy bills, with the lowest amount of cost and disruption.

According to the most recent representative data from the Scottish House Condition Survey conducted in 2019, the number of dwellings that do not meet the current EPC C or better are:

• Owner occupied: 910,000
• Private rented: 187,000
• Social rented: 281,000

We estimate that a majority of homes would need to take no or very limited action to meet the proposed standard because they will have either already installed as many of the proposed list of measures as are appropriate or possible for their property type, or already meet the minimum level of fabric efficiency. We are undertaking further analysis to quantify the total number of properties across all tenures that will need to take action.

Some homes will have specific characteristics which might affect their ability to meet the standard. For example, traditional properties, which make up a significant proportion of Scotland’s homes and buildings, may have different requirements based on their construction type, location or status (e.g. listed buildings). We are working with partners, including Historic Environment Scotland, to find the best solutions for these buildings while being sympathetic to their character and features.

The Scottish Government requires its staff to register any outside occupation or activity where there is the potential for a conflict of interest to arise. Senior Civil Servants are required to register all relevant outside occupations and activities. Those who are not civil servants but are undertaking work for the Scottish Government are also required to register all relevant outside occupations and activities. Outside occupations and activities in other organisations which require attendance during official working hours must not be accepted unless part of official duties.

We are committed to listening to the needs of people with chronic pain as we deliver the actions in the recently published Pain management service delivery framework: implementation plan update - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The updated plan includes details on the governance structure for delivery including how we will involve those with lived experience most effectively.

We recognise there is a need to ensure that people with chronic pain themselves are in involved in decision making on services. We will be recruiting additional lived experience representatives to the Pain Management Task Force which oversees implementation of the actions in the plan, including work involving the Scottish National Residential Pain Management Programme.

The Scottish Government provides over £2m of our Equality and Human Rights Fund to older people’s organisations to deliver work focused on tackling inequality and enable older people to live independent and fulfilling lives. These organisations deliver work to highlight abuse and neglect of older people, offering advice and help.

The concept of elder abuse is very broad. The World Health Organisation has defined it as ‘a single or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust, which causes harm or distress to an older person' ( Elder abuse (who.int) ). The Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 is designed to protect people; aged 16 years and over who are unable to safeguard their own well-being, property, rights or other interests; are at risk of harm; and, because they are affected by disability, mental disorder, illness or physical or mental infirmity, are more vulnerable to being harmed than adults who are not so affected.

While the Scottish Government doesn’t hold information on elder abuse, specifically, it does hold information on adults at risk of harm (or who have been harmed) by age; where an Adult Support and Protection investigation commenced. The figures, along with many data quality issues explained, were published on our website on 9 May 2023. The release indicated that, in 2021-22, about 40% of those subject to an ASP investigation were over the age of 75 (15% were men and 25% were women). These figures are national estimates due to differing local processes.

In addition, there are a number of data developments aimed at strengthening the information available, including:

• The Scottish Government has developed an improvement plan for adult support and protection which includes reviewing current ASP data to develop more robust, meaningful and comparable data. The review and development of an ASP minimum dataset is being taken forward by The Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (IRISS). The minimum dataset will provide a clearer picture of Adult Support and Protection in Scotland.
• The Official Statistics on police recorded crime and criminal proceedings do not include details on whether the victim was an older person, or their relationship to the perpetrator. However, the new crime system will allow crime stats by victim age, therefore a measure of recorded crimes against older people.
• The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey are developing a new Fraud and Computer Misuse module. This module will help estimate the prevalence of victimisation from these crimes in Scotland for the first time and will allow for a breakdown by age.
• The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 requires information about police recorded hate crime and convictions data to be published annually, and with greater detail where known. When the Act comes into force it will, for the first time, introduce new protections against offences aggravated by prejudice towards a person’s age.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to the National Fraud Initiative and looks forward to hearing the results of the data pilot currently being run with local councils in London on this issue. The Scottish Government will await confirmation from Audit Scotland who run the National Fraud Initiative in Scotland if it intends to undertake a similar pilot exercise in Scotland.