Chamber and committees

At present no assessment has been made by the Scottish Government in relation to the Dog’s Trust recommendations.

However, it should be noted that the Scottish Government, in conjunction with the Animal Health Protection Agency (APHA), UK Government and other devolved administrations already operates a robust pet travel checking regime for animals entering the country. All non-commercial dogs, cats and ferrets entering Scotland currently under the Pet Travel rules have to undergo 100% documentary and identity checks by authorised pet checkers.

Scotland’s authorised pet checkers are trained by APHA prior to being granted approval, and receive annual audits of their checking and processing to ensure they uphold the requirements of the Pet Travel rules. They also receive regular training and work as part of a wider APHA network to identify trends in non-compliance and additional training requirements.

Pet checkers will refuse travel or share intelligence with the APHA who can intercept at the port/border if non-compliance is suspected.

The following table shows the number of domestic abuse incidents recorded by police in Scotland, where the victim is male, from 1999-00 to 2020-21.

This information is sourced from the Official Statistics on domestic abuse incidents recorded by the police in Scotland. These note that the creation of Police Scotland altered the way in which domestic abuse data was collected, with the introduction of a new national database to capture this information for all of Scotland from 2014-15 onwards. Therefore some caution should be exercised when interpreting these statistics over years that span this change.

Table: Number of domestic abuse incidents recorded by police in Scotland, with a male victim, 1999-00 to 2020-21

The presumption against short sentences was extended from 3 months or less to 12 months or less in July 2019. While relevant sentencing data is being monitored, the impact of COVID-19 on court business means it is not possible to confidently identify and attribute cause to any trends in court disposals in the period monitored to date. Caution is also required generally in attributing changes in sentencing patterns to any particular factor.

A bulletin ‘Extended presumption against short sentences: monitoring information - January - December 2020’ was published on 23 March 2021 and is available at www.gov.scot . In addition, the latest criminal proceedings bulletin presents data for the financial year 2019-2020, which includes 9 months of sentencing data after the extension.

While there is no estimate in the reduction of people receiving custodial sentences as a result of the presumption, the criminal proceedings statistics show that between 2018-19 and 2019-20, there was a 13 percent reduction in the number of custodial sentences of 12 months or less from 9,585 to 8,324. The number of custodial sentence of “up to 3 months” decreased by 19% from 3,139 in 2018-19 to 2,551 in 2019-20, and is less than half the number ten years ago.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-06524 on 25 February 2022. 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
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The Self-Isolation Support Grant is focussed on supporting those low income workers who are most likely to face hardship. Since it was launched, it has been extended to better reach those it is intended to support. This includes parents or carers of children who are required to self-isolate and people with caring responsibilities for someone over 16 who needs to isolate.

Most people qualify for the Grant because they earn less than 25% above the Universal Credit assessment or earn less than the Real Living Wage. We have protected those on lower incomes by continuing to include the £20 Universal Credit uplift within the calculation of low income despite the payments being removed by the UK Government.

Those workers who are not eligible for the Self-Isolation Support Grant may be eligible for an emergency grant from their local authority. Scottish Welfare Fund Crisis Grants are available to all people regardless of their current benefit eligibility. They are specifically designed to provide a safety net when an emergency situation occurs and there is no other way to cover costs.

In addition, support can be provided via the Local Self-Isolation Support Service which is a proactive outbound call service operated by local authorities. The service calls people who are self-isolating, and who are happy to pass on their details. This service helps with support to access food, medication, and other essentials, whilst also signposting to further advice services. Help can be provided by contacting The National Assistance Helpline on 0800 111 4000 which anyone can contact, and operates between 09.00 to 17.00 every weekday.

The Scottish Government supports the Real Living Wage. As statutory sick pay is reserved to Westminster the Scottish Government continues to engage with the UK Government to improve on the existing arrangements.

The income eligibility threshold for the Self-Isolation Grant are inclusive of our commitment to the Real Living Wage and are one of the most generous of the four home nation schemes. This ensures those low income workers and their families are supported when being asked to isolation as a result of COVID-19.

Those workers who are not eligible for the Self-Isolation Support Grant may be eligible for an emergency grant from their local authority. Scottish Welfare Fund Crisis Grants are available to all people regardless of their current benefit eligibility. They are specifically designed to provide a safety net when an emergency situation occurs and there is no other way to cover costs.

In addition, support can be provided via the Local Self-Isolation Support Service which is a proactive outbound call service operated by local authorities. The service calls people who are self-isolating, and who are happy to pass on their details. This service helps with support to access food, medication, and other essentials, whilst also signposting to further advice services. Help can be provided by contacting The National Assistance Helpline on 0800 111 4000 which anyone can contact, and operates between 09.00 to 17.00 every weekday.

The Scottish Government keeps all its policies and programmes under review to support delivery of the outcomes in the National Performance Framework.

Since the Drug Deaths Taskforce was established in July 2019, there have been 20 meetings of the core Taskforce, with the next meeting taking place on 13 April. There have also been a significant number of working groups, sub-group and deep dive sessions.

The remit of the Taskforce is to provide evidence based advice, and a link to the remit and the terms of reference can be located here - Taskforce Mission and Terms of Reference | Drug Deaths Taskforce

The key outcomes of the Taskforce meetings are the recommendations which they make to Government and other partners. The recommendations the Taskforce has made to date can be found here - DDTF - Recommendations | Drug Deaths Taskforce . The Taskforce will be producing their final recommendations by July 2022.

An update on the progress towards each recommendation was recently provided to the joint committee of the Criminal Justice, Health Social Care and Sport and Social Justice and Social Security Committees on 2 February 2022, this evidence can be found here - CJS6225 | Scottish Parliament Website . Further updates will be made to Parliament in due course.

We have kept the wholesale sector closely involved in discussions relating to the development and implementation of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), in particular through engagement with the Scottish Wholesale Association (SWA).

As table 1, page 12, paragraph 46 of the amended Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) for DRS makes clear, the SWA was consulted as part of the policy-development process that led to the amended BRIA.

As outlined in the National Transition Training Fund Year 1 report published in February 2022, 60 individuals were supported through the Energy Efficiency Transition Support and Heat Pump Training Fund in the 2021-22 academic year.

In Year 2, the project aims to support 455 individuals. The Energy Skills Partnership (ESP) commenced the project in December 2021 offering colleges the opportunity to participate in the project. Delivery of courses began in January 2022 and will run until the end of the current academic year. We will report on final outcomes upon completion of the Fund in August 2022.

Another training opportunity related to heat pumps is the Sustainable Energy Supply Chain Programme at Energy Saving Trust, which manages and administers the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) fund on behalf of the Scottish Government. This fund provides grants to assist Scottish SMEs installing heat pumps in achieving MCS certification for the first time. This funding is for installers who are not currently MCS certified for heat pumps and who want to become MCS certified for any heat pump technology (air, water, or ground source). The fund pays for 75% of the initial fees required, up to a maximum of £1,000, for both the certification and consumer codes of conduct which installers are required to join in order to become MCS certified. The fund started in September 2021 and will continue to run until March 2023 or until funds fully invested.