Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many Scottish households are on the Priority Services Register(PSR). However, we would encourage all consumers who think they may be eligible to join the PSR to contact their energy supplier or the energy advice agencies.

The Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) has been available since July 2021. We ask NHS Boards to report on the number of young inpatients (and therefore families) who benefit from the Fund. This data informs the funding that each Health Board receives.

In 2021-22, NHS Boards reported that 3,130 families received support under YPFF. We have yet to receive full year returns for 2022-23.

Spending data on additional support for learning (ASL) is provided below. This data is collected from local authorities via the Local Financial Returns (LFR). In addition to 2021-22 expenditure data, figures for 2020-21 have also been provided due to revisions in LFR statistics since the response to S6W-08040 in April 2022. These revisions reflect an upward revision in ASL spending reported by Clackmannanshire Council, and an upward revision in total education expenditure reported by Renfrewshire Council.

Local authorities are asked to provide this data in line with guidance to ensure returns are completed on a consistent basis to allow for a reasonable degree of comparability. However, these figures may be affected by variations in local accounting practices and education strategies. It is important to bear this in mind when making comparisons between local authorities and years.

Local authorities are asked to record all centrally funded ASL expenditure under Special Education, irrespective of where it is delivered. Decisions about prioritisation and budgets, including those for the provision of services for pupils with additional support needs, are a matter for individual councils. We recognise the challenges facing authorities in balancing their need to meet a wide range of statutory duties, local priorities and local circumstances.

Tables 1 and 2 show gross revenue expenditure on additional support for learning (ASL) education from 2021-22 and 2020-21 respectively, split by Pre-Primary, Primary, Secondary and Special Education.

Table 1 – 2021-22 ASL expenditure by Local Authority (£000)

Scottish Government is pleased to be supporting City of Edinburgh Council to purchase Ministry of Defence owned properties at Dreghorn, Edinburgh as part of our Affordable Housing Supply Programme. The Council has also indicated interest in exploring the purchase of Ministry of Defence properties at Craigiehall, Edinburgh as one of a number of sites they are exploring. Officials have had outline discussions with them on this- including attending an initial site visit. City of Edinburgh Council are currently considering the site in more detail. Scottish Government has put in place a £50m Ukraine Longer Term Resettlement Fund to bring additional properties into use to boost the supply of homes for those fleeing conflict in Ukraine and we have noted the Council’s interest in applying to this Fund, and/or the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, should they decide to pursue the site. As the strategic housing authority it is for the Council to enter into discussions with the Ministry of Defence on potential site purchases.

The Scottish Government are fully aware that rising energy costs are a significant issue for leisure centres and swimming pools. We recognise the positive financial and environmental benefits to increasing the energy efficiency of leisure centres and swimming pools throughout Scotland.

Following the announcement by the UK Government of the financial package to support swimming pools in England, we are considering what support, including ensuring the longer term sustainability and energy efficiency of these facilities, can be provided to the sport and leisure sector in Scotland.

On 9 December 2022 the Scottish Government jointly published our Anti-Racist Employment Strategy and refreshed Fair Work Action Plan. The Anti-Racist Employment Strategy offers clear and practical guidance for employers from all sectors to improve the recruitment and representation of racialised minority staff and build fair, diverse and inclusive workplaces. The Strategy was developed in collaboration with stakeholders from a wide-range of backgrounds. This included representatives of the private sector. The Strategy is underpinned by a series of actions working in continued partnership with these stakeholders to address issues affecting racialised minorities.

The Fair Work Action Plan explains how the Scottish Government will work collaboratively to support private and public sector employers to utilise the resources and support available to embed Fair Work in their organisations and build capability among employers, employability providers and partners. By the end of 2023 we will have worked with partners to further join up provision of advice and support for employers in all sectors by establishing a central Fair Work resource. We will also develop a communications strategy to highlight and promote to all employers the benefits of Fair Work and diverse workplaces including recruiting, employing and supporting workers from racialised minorities. By the end of 2023 we will have also further updated the Fair Work First criteria that must be taken into consideration by employers seeking public sector support to better reflect priority action required to address labour market inequalities faced by people from racialised minorities and other groups to help ensure more people can enter, remain and progress in work.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of children placed in unregulated accommodation.

The Digital Planning Transformation programme is a £35 million programme to transform the planning service and realise £200 million economic benefits to the sector. Work is progressing to deliver outputs from five missions as set out in the

Digital Strategy for Planning that underpins the programme.

The eDevelopment service currently has 52,000 registered users.

In the last 5 years the eDevelopment homepage has been accessed 3,294,533 times. The figures in the following table set out the number of times that users have accessed the homepage. The information is broken down into each of the 5 years.

As of January 2023, over 1.41m planning and building standards applications have been submitted online via eDevelopment since the service went live in 2016.

The service regularly receives over 5,500 submissions each week.

We estimate that in 2021-2022, up to 95% of all planning submissions and 90% of building warrant applications are submitted online through the service.

The Scottish Government does not hold or collect information about the format of meetings local authorities have with people who make homeless applications.