Chamber and committees

The second meeting in 2023 of the Homelessness Prevention and Strategy Group was scheduled for 30 March. Following the announcement of the SNP leadership contest, this meeting was postponed and rescheduled for 20 April 2023.

Invites to join our Accessible Housing and Independent Living Stakeholder group were sent in October 2022 and the group had a productive first meeting on 3 November 2022, giving constructive feedback to our Housing for Varying Needs review.

a) Membership of the group includes the following:

• Age Scotland
• Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers
• Carers Trust
• Care & Repair Scotland
• Chartered Institute of Housing
• Convention of Scottish Local Authorities
• Disability Equality Scotland
• Health and Care Directorate
• Glasgow Centre for Inclusive Living
• Glasgow Disability Alliance
• Hanover Housing Association
• Healthcare Improvement Scotland
• Housing Options Scotland
• Homes for Scotland
• Housing Support Enabling Unit
• Motor Neuron Disease Scotland
• Our Positive Voice
• Regional Networks Tenant Representatives
• Royal College of Occupational Therapists
• Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors
• Scotland’s Housing Network
• Scottish Association of Landlords
• Scottish Commission for People with Learning Disabilities
• Scottish Federation of Housing Associations
• Scottish Older People’s Assembly.

b) The Terms of Reference have yet to be agreed in detail by the group, but its purpose is to advise on the relevant commitments in the Scottish Government’s Housing to 2040 strategy document in relation to Housing for older people and disabled people.

The costs reported are for 2022-23 and they cover all project costs for that year. Costs are mainly salary related, but they are capitalised as they are part of a capital investment project.

The Scottish Government has no plans to commission such research.

The BuiltPlace article itself refers to the methodology being “limited in multiple ways”.

The Scottish Government set out in response to question on 22 May 2022 how it monitors the size of the private rented sector using data from the Scottish Landlord Register.

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 has reviewed the article Night shift work and risk of aggressive prostate cancer in the Norwegian Offshore Petroleum Workers (NOPW) cohort and notes its findings.

As an employer we adopt Fair Work practices and we take the health, safety and wellbeing of our staff very seriously including ensuring appropriate breaks and periods of rest and annual leave, as well as having a right to disconnect policy.

The typical working arrangements for staff in the Scottish Government is flexible working hours (within the hours of 7am to 7pm) with a full time working day equating to 7 hours 24 minutes.

The Scottish Government has reviewed the article Night shift work and risk of aggressive prostate cancer in the Norwegian Offshore Petroleum Workers (NOPW) cohort and notes its findings.

We strongly encourage all employers to adopt Fair Work practices and apply a flexible approach regarding continuous and prolonged night shift working to protect the health and wellbeing of the workforce.

FOI/202300342482 asked for the interim recommendations of the Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group, and the date these were received.

The response to FOI/202300342482, which included a copy of the interim recommendations, was issued to the requester on 7 March 2023 within the 20 working day timeframe. After completing the necessary pre-publication process, the FOI was published on the Scottish Government website on 16 March 2023 and can be accessed here .

Of the fifteen gateway review recommendations for the period the question relates to, eleven are complete and four are ongoing.

A table has been placed has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (BIB number 64087). The table details the recommendation and the status against each individually at this present time.

We ask for this information as part of routine monitoring of implementation of the Young Patient’s Family Fund and anticipate having this detail available at the end of the financial year. NHS Boards reported spend in these categories for 2021-22 and we are committed to working with Boards to develop a robust reporting process.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-16005 on 25 March 2023. 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 .