Chamber and committees

We recognise the importance of ensuring that support is available to people leaving custody, including those who have served a period on remand, to enable their reintegration. We know that short periods of imprisonment are not effective and don't address the underlying causes of offending and that is why this Government is committed to reducing the use of short sentences and remand.

For those individuals who do serve a period of remand, the Scottish Prison Service have a range of measures in place to support them during their time in custody and on release. This includes an initial induction process which assesses needs including general welfare, mental health and addiction so that support can be put in place for them during their time in custody. This is further supplemented by support for family contact, provision of housing advice (where needed), access to work and wage earning where appropriate and possible and access to social services through prison Links Centres to deal with immediate concerns regarding social issues.

It is recognised that circumstances where individuals are liberated from a period on remand straight from court can be challenging in terms of linking with local services. To support this, SPS have agreed with GEOAmey that they will provide liberation packs to those released at courts (including those who have been held on remand). These information packs are specific to the local area within which the individual is being liberated.

Specifically for women held on remand, the Shine PSP, funded by Scottish Government, provides support in the lead up to their liberation and beyond.

We will continue to work with partners to explore how we can improve support for people leaving remand.

The following tables show a breakdown of the number of children in households reassessed as homeless within one year, between one and two years, between two and three years, between three and four years and between four and five years for the years 2015-16 to 2020-21.

In order for a household with children to be reassessed as homeless all adults on the application must be the same as a previous application and children (any number of) must also have been present on the previous application. It is possible for the number of children to have changed between applications.

Information at individual household level cannot be provided due to data confidentiality.

Data on the number of cases of child abuse reported to social services are not collected centrally by the Scottish Government.

You may wish to note that Children’s Social Work Statistics are published annually, and although these do not give the information you have asked for, they do show the number of children on the child protection register and the number of concerns at the case conferences at which they were registered.

The Scottish Government plan for its first 100 days includes the commitment to agree the first allocation of funding to councils for refurbishment of play parks. We are currently working with COSLA to confirm how the funding will be allocated and to set the parameters and principles of this work.

The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 (“The 2014 Act”) first introduced and defined the term ‘early learning and childcare’ (ELC). Prior to the 2014 Act, there was no statutory duty to provide pre-school education to 2 year olds.

The 2014 Act increased the number of funded ELC hours for all 3 and 4 year olds and introduced the statutory duty to provide access to funded ELC for eligible 2 year olds.

Since 2014, data on the number of registrations of 2 year olds receiving funded ELC has been collected for the annual census of ELC [1] . Prior to 2014, data was collected on registrations for funded pre-school education . Prior to 2012, data was not collected on registrations for children aged 2.

As per the Scottish Government statement in May 2021, we will take action to ban single-use plastic cutlery (forks, knives, spoons, and chopsticks), as well as other problematic single-use plastic items such as plates, straws, balloon sticks, stirrers and expanded polystyrene food and beverage containers and cups for beverages.

The Scottish Government is committed to matching or exceeding the standards set out by the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive and recently concluded a public consultation on our draft Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products and Oxo-degradable Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 . The draft regulations will now be made available to the World Trade Organisation for comments, in compliance with our commitments under the Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement. Final regulations will be laid before Parliament later this year.

The Scottish Government currently only allows travellers returning from green and amber list countries to use NHS tests, which are reserved and paid for through the booking portal, CTM. These PCR tests are sent to individuals’ home addresses anywhere in Scotland, including rural areas. The individual should use a Royal Mail priority post box to return their test to the laboratory if they have access to one.

Individuals in Scotland are able to book PCR tests and request lateral flow home devices free of charge via the government portal, however these cannot be used for international travel.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has issued advice indicating all those aged 16 and 17 should be offered COVID-19 vaccination. Anyone's who's 16 th birthday is on or after 1 August 2021 you can self-register for an appointment at: https://www.nhsinform.scot/vaccineregistration , from 6 August, with drop in clinics available to everyone in these age groups from the week starting 9 August.

We have agreed with Health Boards and Higher and Further Education Institutions to appoint Single Points of Contacts in universities and colleges who will support the delivery of the vaccination to students across Scotland, including through the use of on-campus vaccination clinics.

Young people who will turn 18 before 31st October 2021 (the current cut-off date for Phase 2 of the vaccination programme) are now eligible for vaccination and can register on the online portal: Registering for a coronavirus vaccine | The coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine (nhsinform.scot) if they have not already received an appointment letter. Those turning 18 later in the year, will of course be part of the ongoing rolling vaccination programme. The self-registration online portal will stay open as we move into Phase 2 of vaccination in the Autumn.

For second doses, individuals will get an invitation as normal, but if, for example, it goes to a previous address (as may be the case with students), they can rearrange this online or via the Coronavirus Vaccination Helpline on 08000308013 (available 08:00 – 20:00, 7 days a week) to a new health board location. Those who can’t be vaccinated before they leave home, should register with a GP practice to allow their CHI registered address to be up to date, and use the appointment checker to ensure they have a vaccination appointment as soon as possible at their new location.

To counter the risk of letters going to old addresses, and to allow more advance notice of appointments, an appointment checker on NHS Inform will allow someone to view their scheduled appointment earlier than the letter arriving: Vaccine appointment checker | The coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine (nhsinform.scot) . They can also use the Coronavirus Vaccination Helpline to discuss their appointment.

The appointment checker also means those eligible can reschedule in advance, and can now also reschedule to anywhere in Scotland, to fit in with their work and life. In addition, there are drop-in clinics in various areas for certain age groups. Anyone looking for vaccination should check their local NHS website to see what is available in their area.

It is hoped that many new students will be vaccinated before they attend their new further or higher education location. However, as we all know, it takes time for an immune response to develop to the vaccine (2-3 weeks), so even after individuals have received their first dose vaccination, they should continue to follow the FACTS guidance to help reduce the spread of the virus, and minimise the risk to themselves and those around them.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has issued advice indicating all those aged 16 and 17 should be offered COVID-19 vaccination. Anyone's who's 16 th birthday is on or after 1 August 2021 you can self-register for an appointment at: https://www.nhsinform.scot/vaccineregistration, from 6 August, with drop in clinics available to everyone in these age groups from the week starting 9 August.

We have agreed with Health Boards and Higher and Further Education Institutions to appoint Single Points of Contacts in universities and colleges who will support the delivery of the vaccination to students across Scotland, including through the use of on-campus vaccination clinics.

For second doses, individuals will get an invitation as normal, but if, for example, it goes to a previous address (as may be the case with students), they can rearrange this online or via the Coronavirus Vaccination Helpline on 08000308013 (available 08:00 – 20:00, 7 days a week) to a new health board location. Those who can’t be vaccinated before they leave home, should register with a GP practice to allow their CHI registered address to be up to date, and use the appointment checker to ensure they have a vaccination appointment as soon as possible at their new location.

To counter the risk of letters going to old addresses, and to allow more advance notice of appointments, an appointment checker on NHS Inform will allow someone to view their scheduled appointment earlier than the letter arriving: Vaccine appointment checker | The coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine (nhsinform.scot) . They can also use the Coronavirus Vaccination Helpline to discuss their appointment.

The appointment checker also means those eligible can reschedule in advance, and can now also reschedule to anywhere in Scotland, to fit in with their work and life. In addition, there are drop-in clinics in various areas for certain age groups. Anyone looking for vaccination should check their local NHS website to see what is available in their area.

It is hoped that many new students will be vaccinated before they attend their new further education location. However, as we all know, it takes time for an immune response to develop to the vaccine (2-3 weeks), so even after individuals have received their first dose vaccination, they should continue to follow the FACTS guidance to help reduce the spread of the virus, and minimise the risk to themselves and those around them.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-01820 on
‎ 16 August 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