Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government will publish the second Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan by the end of March 2022, setting out a range of actions which will put us on a critical path to the 2030 child poverty targets.

We have declared a national mission to end child poverty, recognising the need for urgent and targeted action which is underpinned by work across the Scottish Government to shape the next delivery plan.

Consultation for the plan is ongoing, in compliance with the requirements of the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017. Inputs have been received from national and community based third sector organisations, local authorities and health boards. Working in partnership with third sector organisations, the experiences and priorities of people with lived experience of poverty are informing the development of the plan.

Further consultation activity with third sector organisations and people with lived experience of poverty will take place in advance of publication of the plan. This will focus on the priority family types identified in the first Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan and the experience of those most affected by child poverty.

The Scottish Government is working with COSLA to facilitate the full engagement of local authorities.

An evaluation of the Scottish Government shared equity schemes (Help to Buy, Open Market Shared Equity (OMSE) and New Supply Shared Equity (NSSE)) was published in June 2020. The evaluation can be found on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/publications/evaluation-scottish-government-shared-equity-schemes/

The evaluation estimated that 64% of Help to Buy purchasers, 71% of NSSE purchasers and 95% of OMSE purchasers were first time buyers. All households supported by the First Home Fund include at least one first time buyer.

The annual number of households supported by the shared equity schemes since 2007, broken down by local authority, can be found on the Scottish Government website at:

OMSE and NSSE

Affordable Housing Supply Programme out-turn reports

https://www.gov.scot/policies/more-homes/affordable-housing-supply/

Help to Buy

Help to Buy (Scotland) monitoring information 2013-2016: report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Help to buy (Scotland) Spend and Units Monitoring Information Report 2020-2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

First Home Fund

First Home Fund Spend and Units Monitoring Information Report: December 2019 to March 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government has had no recent discussions with Police Scotland, or the Scottish Police Authority, regarding how much Police Scotland has spent on dealing with cases of sexual harassment and discrimination.

It is a matter for the Chief Constable, with oversight by the Scottish Police Authority, to consider all cases of sexual harassment and discrimination reported to Police Scotland. If any cases result in severance payments the severance payment costs will be set out the SPA Accounts, such as those for 2020-21, set out in the following SPA Annual Report and Accounts: https://www.spa.police.uk/spa-media/zn3niyle/35372-spa-annualreport-2021_fa-1-1.pdf .

Scottish Government officials are currently working with COSLA, Scotland Excel, Scottish Care, the Coalition of Care and Support Providers (CCPS) and the Fair Work in Social Care Group on the implementation of the uplift for adult social care workers providing direct care in commissioned services in the independent and third sector. The National Care Home Contract is managed by Scotland Excel on behalf of Local Authorities; this will be updated to reflect the pay uplift to at least £10.02 per hour and providers will receive a letter of variation to the contract. Local Authorities and Scotland Excel will work at pace to ensure care homes have all the necessary information ahead of the new rate starting on 1 December 2021. Where this is not possible, funding will be back dated and provided for all hours worked from 1 December 2021.

The list of companies set out in the privacy notice relate to the Vaccine Programme and the Covid Certification service as a whole, and not just the Covid Status App. So for example, Royal Mail are involved in posting printed certificates to individuals – they have no connection to the Covid Status App.

The Scottish Government and NHS Scotland take privacy and data security seriously. Robust measures have been put in place to ensure all systems and processes within the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccination Programme have been designed with these in mind.

As with most technology of this nature, it is necessary to share some very limited data to ensure services operate effectively. However, NHS Scotland and the Scottish Government have control of this data at all times, and service providers do not have access to the data they process.

The published privacy notice explains:

• the key organisations responsible for the data;
• how those organisations process personal information in relation to coronavirus vaccinations, exemptions and certificates;
• the rights in relation to privacy and personal data; and
• what data is shared with our trusted parties and the reason as per their role in the vaccination programme.

We will only share personal information when the law allows us to do so and to the minimum extent possible.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04124 on 24 November 2021. 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 announced investment of £580m in ports and vessels to support and improve Scotland’s ferry services over the next five years, as part of our wider Infrastructure Investment Plan, unveiled in February 2021. This builds on this Government’s commitment to our island and remote communities which, since 2007, has seen us invest more than £2bn in the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service, the Northern Isles Ferry Service and the supporting vessel and harbour infrastructure.

As part of these investment plans, the MV Utne arrived in Scotland last week from Norway and transferred to CMAL on Monday 22 November. MV Utne will undergo modification works and is expected to enter service during the summer 2022 timetable. The announcement (14 September) of the extension of the Islay vessel invitation to tender for a second vessel is welcome and these major additions to the fleet and the resulting cascade effects will bring real benefits across our island and remote communities and businesses in the coming years.

The proposed May 2022 timetable, which is subject to review of consultation responses, would provide more seats on every day of the week compared to the current timetable.

Figures for December 2019, current capacity and the proposed May 2022 timetable are shown below.

The proposed May 2022 timetable will (a) result in approximately 26,000 tonnes less CO2 emissions from ScotRail’s fleet per year than the pre-pandemic December 2019 timetable, representing a 12.5% reduction.

The proposed timetable will (b) provide around 593,000 seats per weekday and has been designed to accommodate more than 100 million passenger journeys per year. For context, when the current franchise began, the timetable provided 505,000 seats per weekday and 93.8 million passenger journeys were carried.

ScotRail has confirmed that, (c) as a business, it is currently sized to operate the planned Fit for the Future timetable. As with all businesses, it will need to manage the challenges of a post-pandemic economy, and ScotRail will ensure sufficient staff will be available to meet the Fit for the Future timetable, which will see more trains operating than now.

The fleets that are currently leased by Abellio ScotRail are noted within the Franchise Agreement (APPENDIX 1 TO SCHEDULE 1.1 - The Train Fleet - Table 1).

public-register-franchise-variation-east-kilbride-kilmarnock-and-barrhead-capacity-improvements-6-december-2018.pdf (transport.gov.scot)

The new operator, ScotRail Trains Ltd, is currently engaging with fleet owners to secure the rolling stock needed to maintain service provision.