Chamber and committees

The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 made a number of changes to the law on marriage and civil partnership, including in particular to allow same sex couples to marry. The marriage notice form and other registration forms were amended by the Registrar General for Scotland with consent of the Scottish Ministers, in consequence of these changes, by the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Prescribed Forms) (Scotland) Regulations 2014.

We wrote to 19 organisations, including three LGBTI organisations, to seek their views on the proposed changes to the registration forms before the Regulations were made. There were 18 responses to that consultation. These responses were not published.

I would be happy to write to the member with further information about this consultation and the outcomes, if desired.

In our Ending Homelessness Together action plan we committed to developing a new legislative duty on local authorities and wider public bodies for the prevention of homelessness. We commissioned an expert group – the Prevention Review Group - in October 2019 to make recommendations.

On 18 February 2021, the Prevention Review Group published its recommendations, which were developed in consultation with relevant organisations from across the public sector and third sector, frontline workers and people with lived experience of homelessness.

The recommendations highlight the importance of a whole-system, person-centred approach to preventing homelessness, for example through the work of health, education and justice services. We are now working with COSLA and our partners across the public and third sectors to discuss how we can put these recommendations into action and create the significant legislative change required. A key early stage will be a comprehensive programme of engagement across the public sector, including a public consultation, to inform the way forward.

No one in Scotland should have to sleep rough and this is a commitment we reiterated in our updated Ending Homelessness Together action plan, published with COSLA in October 2020.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, our priority has been to keep people safe and housing people without a settled home in emergency accommodation has been a public health imperative. In partnership with local authorities and the third sector, our quick and effective response dramatically reduced the number of people sleeping rough. We will continue to build on that success as restrictions lift.

In our Ending Homeless Together action plan we committed to modifying night shelter provision with a view to ending the use of night shelter and dormitory style provision in future. In winter 2020-21, we contributed to the cost of rapid rehousing welcome centres in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The centres offered hotel room accommodation and provided under-one-roof and multi-agency assessment for people at the sharpest end of homelessness. We will work with local authority and third sector partners to ensure there is no return to dormitory style night shelters in the future.

Local authorities are working hard to ensure people move as rapidly as possible through temporary accommodation and into settled accommodation, with the appropriate support. We are investing £37.5 million to support councils to prioritise settled accommodation through the implementation of rapid rehousing transition plans and the upscaling of Housing First for those facing the most challenges.

We commissioned this work in response to the recommendations the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group made for ending homelessness. We very much welcome the Prevention Review Group recommendations and we are grateful for the commitment Crisis and other partners have shown in delivering their report, in particular the vital role people with lived experience of homelessness had in shaping the recommendations.

We accepted the recommendations in principle earlier this year and will now consult with our partners across public services, people with experience of homelessness and the wider public as we fully consider the detail of the suite of recommendations, to ensure that their introduction leads to stronger housing rights for people in Scotland. Shifting the balance of services and response towards prevention is more important than ever as we work to recover from the public health crisis.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. The Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM) provides clear guidance to public bodies on Property acquisition, disposal and management. There is no reference within that guidance to the maximising of receipts from the sale of land but rather a duty for each body subject to the SPFM to consider the most appropriate method for disposal either by:

1. obtaining the best possible price on the open market, or;

2. disposal of the asset at less than Market Value to deliver wider public benefits consistent with the principles of Best Value, or;

3. transfer under the Guidelines for the Transfer of Property within the Scottish Public Sector.

The costs and benefits of disposal via one of these routes will have been determined on a case by case basis when considering the method of disposal by the public body in question and any audit of such a transaction would be undertaken by Audit Scotland as part of their audit work. The duty of Best Value applies to all public bodies in Scotland and is a formal duty on Accountable Officers.

The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 sets out the rights for community bodies to seek to acquire rights in any land and property held by a named public body. Guidance has been published both for relevant authorities and community bodies which explains the how any such application is to be handled. The legislation does not comment on whether disposals should be at market value or at a discount. As with all publicly-owned assets, where a disposal is being considered at less than market value, the public body decisions should be consistent with the principles of Best Value.

The recommendations we received from the Prevention Review Group are comprehensive and are likely to require significant updates to existing legislation as well as the development of new duties for the public sector. We are currently considering the most appropriate vehicles for implementing these changes which we will confirm in due course.

No decision on timings has yet been taken in relation to a new housing bill within this Parliament.

We welcome this report and will review its findings in detail. We are absolutely committed to working with local government to support the realisation of the right to adequate housing.

In March 2021, the National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership published its recommendations for a new human rights framework in Scotland that brings internationally recognised human rights into domestic law. The report contains 30 progressive and ambitious recommendations for a new human rights framework that will ensure the human rights of every member of Scottish society are protected.

The Scottish Government has accepted the recommendations and a Human Rights Bill will be introduced to parliament during this parliamentary session. The involvement of the public and further consultation with stakeholders will be crucial in developing this framework. An executive board will be established comprising of senior decision makers from public authorities to ensure there is capacity across the public sector to implement the Bill.

We are also committed to introducing a new housing standard for all homes in Scotland which will include improved energy efficiency requirements. It will go beyond traditional models of fitness for human habitation to a new model that meets expectations for housing as a human right and delivers homes that underpin health and wellbeing. We will consult on the new standard this year, publish a draft standard in 2023 and introduce legislation in 2024/25, for phased introduction from 2025 to 2030.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the vital role of Scottish Hospices. In June 2020, we provided £10.1m in emergency funding to hospices to meet in full their funding requests for loss of income during the first lockdown period.

On the 24 March 2021, we confirmed that an additional £16.9m will be provided to Scottish Hospices to fully meet their requests for support relating to loss of income during the most recent lockdown. As such, the total funding allocated to hospices to support their work during the pandemic in the financial year 2020-2021 is approximately £27m.

The breakdown of payments can be viewed in the following  table.

The Scottish Government has a statutory duty under Section 30 of the Railways Act 1993 to ensure that rail services continue to operate. The cost associated with the contingency planning work for the Operator of Last Resort (OLR) for both franchises has cost, to date £4,212,914 from 2019-20 to 2020-2021.

These OLR costs incurred to date can be broken down as follows:

Arup - £3,333,955

Ernst and Young - £437,243

Bramble Hub - £95,608

MacRoberts - £346,108