Chamber and committees

As per the Scottish Government's response to S5W-35177 on 19 February 2021 and S6W-02708 on 16 September 2021, the Kickstart Scheme is a programme of work reserved to the UK Government and it is for the Department of Work and Pensions to report on it.

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

Asylum and immigration are matters reserved to the UK Parliament and handled by the Home Office. This includes the design and operation of the UK asylum system and decisions relating to asylum applications. The Scottish Government is not involved in these processes, but can provide signposting to sources of information and advice.

The Scottish Government has made clear that the UK Government must consider asylum applications from Afghan nationals quickly and compassionately.

As per the Scottish Government's response to question S5W-35177 on 19 February 2021 , the Kickstart Scheme is a programme of work reserved to the UK Government and it is for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to report on the allocation of opportunities.

Data relating to the Kickstart Scheme is collated by the UK Government and is not currently shared with the Scottish Government.

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

Following the commitment made by the Prime Minister on 18 August that the UK will not return Afghan nationals who have sought asylum in the UK, the First Minister wrote to the Prime Minister on 24 August to urge the Home Office to urgently review any cases which are in the asylum appeals process, or where people have previously been refused asylum.

The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government wrote to the Home Secretary on 1 September. She asked the UK Government to consider easing the eligibility criteria for family reunion to enable more people from Afghanistan (and elsewhere around the world) to join family members in the UK. She also called for asylum applications from Afghan nationals in the UK to be considered quickly and compassionately and pressed the Home Office to urgently review any cases which are in the asylum appeals process or where people have previously been refused asylum on the basis that Kabul is safe.

On 6 September, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government and I met with the UK Government’s Afghan Resettlement Minister, Victoria Atkins, and Lord Greenhalgh, Minister for Building Safety and Communities, as part of a devolved administrations call to discuss relocation and resettlement from Afghanistan. During that call we raised our concerns about family reunion and the position of Afghan nationals in the UK asylum system, including those whose applications have been refused, as well as those awaiting an initial decision and those in the appeal process.

Families where the mother is under the age of 25 and lone parents families are two of the six priority family types identified in the Scottish Government’s Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan as those where children are at greater risk of living in poverty.

Our Delivery Plan sets out wide ranging action to support these families, this includes making £23 million available for our Parental Employability Support Fund since 2019 – with £1 million of investment specifically targeted to enhance support for young parents – helping young parents to progress into and within employment. This is further strengthened through our £70 million investment in the Young Person’s Guarantee, offering every 16-24 year old in Scotland the opportunity of a job, apprenticeship, further or higher education, training programme or volunteering.

We are also providing direct support through our Scottish Child Payment and bridging payments, which will put over £130 million in the pockets of families this year. In addition we are continuing to support organisations such as One Parent Families Scotland and Home Start, which offer support and advice to lone parents, and providing an estimated £45.3 million available this year for awards through our Scottish Welfare Fund and £82 million through Discretionary Housing Payments, which includes £71 million to mitigate the bedroom tax in full.

Through these and other measures we are tackling child poverty head on, with investment to support children in low income households reaching nearly £1 billion in 2020-21.

We call on the UK Government to work with us to tackle child poverty, including by maintaining the £20 uplift to Universal Credit and by restoring the adult rate of benefits for young mothers under 25 – helping to protect the financial wellbeing of these priority families.

The £10,000 grant awarded to Voluntary Health Scotland (VHS) to scope the development of the Arts, Culture, Health and Wellbeing Scotland (ACHWS) supported the network to develop an infrastructure, systems and develop a brand identity that would help the network to build their network membership base and their partnerships across the UK.

The grant also supported online events, held in partnership with VHS, such as; Caring, Creativity and Connectedness, The Role of Culture in the Health and Wellbeing of Older People and The Role of Culture in the Health and Wellbeing of Young People. The events promoted knowledge exchange, raised awareness of the network and extended the reach and influence of the network.

Officials from the Scottish Government continue to attend ACHWS meetings to offer support to help build further partnerships across policy and cultural organisations.

The Scottish Government have allocated £150,000 for the Arts Alive programme for 2021-2022.

Voluntary Health Scotland was provided a one-off grant of £10,000 for the financial year 2019-2020, for the development of the Arts, Culture, Health and Wellbeing Scotland network.

The five National Performing Companies are the National Theatre of Scotland, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Ballet, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Scottish Opera.

They each receive direct funding from the Scottish Government and are committed to increasing diversity, including in the recruitment of members to their board.

In February 2020, A Culture Strategy for Scotland was published. One of the aims it sets out under the theme of strengthening culture focusses on working in partnership to increase diversity in the sector, sharing new approaches and codes of practice that ensure skills development and board membership have diversity at their core.

All the NPCs continue to demonstrate their commitment to increasing diversity on their boards.

The board of the National Theatre for Scotland has over recent years made appointments which increase representation of people with disabilities and those of ethnic diversity. The company has published its plan to become an anti-racist organisation , with transparent and ambitious targets set for the next three years, including staff and board representation, programming and audience development.

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra assembled a Diversity Committee to undertake a diversity audit following advice from London Music Masters (a charity bringing music to minority communities). They are currently engaging Roger Wilson of Black Lives in Music to lead a piece of work to identify current policy and practice in relation to race equality and diversity objectives within the organisation.

Scottish Ballet is engaged in a partnership with Intercultural Youth Scotland, to address the need for greater diversity throughout the organisation, including on the Board. They are following the guidelines set out by Ballet Black on driving anti-racism within the dance sector. They have also recently engaged with Inc Arts and are beginning to utilise their “Toolkit” programme which is expected to impact on the diversity of Board representation.

The Board of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra has recently established a working group to review progress and consider specific actions and initiatives it could embed across the organisation relating to improving Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). The Working Group is led by the Chief Executive with members drawn from the Board, Senior Management Team and the Orchestra. The Board is currently undertaking an open, advertised recruitment process for up to 2 Lay Directors. Interviews are scheduled to take place in November. A Youth Advisory Council (16-24 year olds) has also recently been established with an initial membership of 19. This aims include to advise the Board on issues and strategies relevant to a younger and increasingly diverse range of audiences and stakeholders.

Scottish Opera have recently maintained the gender balance of their Board. They currently have 7 female and 5 male Directors. They have recently recruited a new board member of Scottish/Chinese heritage. Additionally, they have recently appointed Peridot Partners to assist in their search for trustees of more diverse backgrounds, aiming to add a further new trustee to the Board by mid December 2021.

The main regulated, compulsory carbon pricing market in the UK is the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Agriculture and land-use emissions are not covered by the current scope of the UK ETS. The carbon in Scotland’s deep peat soils is however being traded through the peatland code. This is a voluntary certification mechanism which provides assurances to carbon market buyers that the climate benefits from restoring peat are real, quantifiable, additional and permanent.

Although there is no soil carbon code in place at present, there is UK-wide interest in developing a soil carbon code. This has been most recently addressed by a UK Soil Association conference on 14th July 2021 but this has not yet been translated into a co-ordinated programme of work.