Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally.

The Scottish Government investment has been provided to the Hearthstone Investment delivery partner, Castle Rock Edinvar Housing Association and will be captured in wider analysis work on the impact of the More Homes Scotland approach, and the delivery of at least 50,000 affordable homes by March 2021.

£4.4 million was allocated, as loan funding, to 17 Empty Homes Loan Fund projects in 2012 to help renovate empty homes and make them available as affordable housing. Beneficiaries have reported that approximately £1.5 million has been paid out to date.

Empty Homes Loan Funding was provided by the Scottish Government to beneficiary organisations, mainly local authorities and housing association. They hold comprehensive information about individual owners.

All 75 Town Centre Housing Fund units were for affordable housing. The proposed rent levels for these units were requested at application stage and considered during the assessment process, including assumed annual rent increases. No subsequent assessment has been made on the use or value of properties.

All homes renovated with the help of funding from the Empty Homes Loan Fund have been made available for affordable housing either as rentals or homes for sale. Rent levels vary depending on type; social rent, intermediate (mid-market) rent; and the private sector leasing scheme for homeless households. For intermediate rented homes, starting rents are below the current Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rate for the area/property size. Sales values are capped at the Scottish Government’s Open Market Shared Equity thresholds for the relevant area.

Legislation already exists with regard to fire safety in common areas.

Regulation 23, as applied by Regulation 24, of the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006 states that duty-holders have an obligation to maintain the common areas and the facilities in the common areas for use by (or protection of) firefighters. This duty is enforced by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS).

In addition to this, occupiers require to keep common areas clear of combustibles and obstructions. This is covered under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982, section 93.

Work is ongoing under the auspices of the ‘Building and Fire Safety: Ministerial Working Group’, to ensure that there is a clear process in place regarding the storage, removal and enforcement of combustible materials in common areas, as it relates to the above noted legislation.

This information is not held centrally. The deployment of staff outwith their usual place of work is principally a matter for NHS Scotland health boards; boards have fully delegated powers in relation to employment issues.

We are aware that boards within the North of Scotland service planning region (NHS Grampian, NHS Highland, NHS Tayside, NHS Shetland & NHS Orkney) are considering proposals to include contractual provision for regional working to enhance resilience and remove bureaucracy where staff routinely work across board boundaries. We are working with the boards concerned to ensure that any changes are developed and implemented in partnership.

Scottish Government officials are making arrangements to discuss the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme with the Mental Health Delivery Team in the Department of Health and Social Care. This team has oversight of IAPT policy. Follow up discussions with NHS England, which leads on implementation of IAPT, will also be scheduled.

The aim of these discussions will be to explore the key principles that underpin prompt access to IAPT services, bearing in mind that there are important differences which make direct comparisons between waiting times for IAPT and Scottish Psychological Therapies Waiting Times unreliable. In particular, IAPT services provide support for adults with depression and anxiety disorders that can be managed effectively in a uni-professional context. Scottish waiting times figures cover a broader range of services in primary, secondary and tertiary care, which can result in greater complexity and duration of treatment.

Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) has no plans to update its guideline on cataracts following the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence's (NICE) publication of its guideline. SIGN does not routinely do this unless it had already planned to update its own guideline on the same topic.

Where there is no SIGN guideline on a particular topic, healthcare professionals would be expected to look for another high quality, evidence-based guideline such as, in this case, NICE guideline NG77 - Cataracts in adults; management.

Under the current regime, decisions as to the use of electronic monitoring on liberation from detention or imprisonment are made by either the Parole Board for Scotland in relation to release on licence or by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) in relation to Home Detention Curfew (HDC).

In June 2018, my predecessor asked both the Chief Inspector of Prisons and the Chief Inspector of Constabulary to review arrangements for HDC. The Terms of Reference for these reviews were published on 28 June and we expect to see review findings in September 2018.

It is important we do not pre-empt the findings of these reviews to allow both Inspectorate’s to independently conclude their enquiries and make recommendations for improvement. We will carefully consider all of the recommendations including any potential shortcomings identified.