(a) NHS Lothian recently submitted an updated Outline Business Case for the development of eye care services. This will be reviewed by Scottish Government’s NHS Capital Investment Group at their next meeting.

(b) The Scottish Government provided a progress update on major capital projects, including NHS infrastructure projects, to the Public Audit Committee by letter dated 23 June 2021 which can be accessed here:

Infrastructure Investment Major Capital Projects Progress Update 23 June 202 | Scottish Parliament Website .

The Covid-19 test kits are home PCR kits provided by NHS Test & Trace. The cost of the kits is set by the UK Government and the process managed through its contract with the travel management company, so we are unable to influence the cost of these.

Currently, we are not using private test providers for international travellers arriving into Scotland from green and amber list countries.

We are having on-going discussion with the UK government on using private test providers, particularly about the speed and reliability of the flow of data from private companies. We are keen to understand fully the key performance indicators (KPIs) that have been recently set for these companies and the process should these not be met.

The Housing First Pathfinder programme started in August 2018 across six local authority areas with Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire working in partnership. Up until 30 June 2021, a total of 531 people have accessed Housing First tenancies and support through this programme. Over the course of the final year of the Housing First Pathfinder Programme, which ends on 31 March 2022, each local authority is working on the mainstreaming arrangements to deliver their Housing First programme going forwards.

In line with the objective of upscaling Housing First across Scotland outlined in the 2018 Scottish Government/COSLA Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan (and retained in the 2020 updated Action Plan), local authorities have been asked to consider and implement the Housing First model as a default approach to housing and supporting those with more complex needs as part of their Rapid Rehousing Transition Plans (RRTPs). Information on the delivery of RRTPs, including Housing First, is provided to the Scottish Government by local authorities on an annual basis.

The Scottish Government has also developed a dedicated Housing First monitoring framework to capture progress on Housing First across all 32 local authorities. The monitoring framework will collect information on Housing First tenancies from 1 April 2021 on a quarterly basis. The Scottish Government will publish the first quarterly progress update on Housing First tenancies across Scotland in September 2021.

From the Housing First monitoring framework and RRTP information, the Scottish Government can report that 22 local authorities currently have a Housing First programme in place, and a further 6 local authorities have indicated that they are in the process of developing their programme which will commence during 2021-22.

The following table shows a breakdown of breaches of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order from 2017-18 to 2020-21 by local authority. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 5 for disclosure purposes.

Data on temporary accommodation taken from the HL3 data collection is only available for all local authorities from 2017-18. Although some local authorities have provided data prior to this, there is not enough to provide a meaningful national picture and this data has not been subject to the rigorous quality assurance procedures required to finalise the data to official statistics standards.

Important:

Over the 2020-21 reporting period i) there was a significant change to legislation and ii) temporary exceptions were put in place at very short notice in response to COVID-19, both of which have had considerable impacts on the data. The urgency of having to adapt to the revised legislation without any specific guidance means that local authorities have reported inconsistencies in the information captured regarding breaches which is likely to affect comparability. For these reasons, these figures should be treated with caution.

Changes in legislation:

Prior to 5 May 2020, a breach was encountered when a household with a pregnant woman and/or child is in unsuitable temporary accommodation for more than 7 days. From 5 May 2020, this was extended to all households. Therefore, the total number of breaches across the year 2020/21 will include those based on both old and new legislation.

Covid-19 exceptions:

Temporary exceptions were put in place to allow local authorities to provide households with accommodation in response to COVID-19.

The legislation noted that a placement was not considered unsuitable if:

• a person in the household has symptoms of coronavirus and the household requires to isolate; or
• the accommodation is required to provide temporary accommodation to ensure that a distance of 2 metres can be maintained between a member of the household and a person who is not a member of the household in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus; or
• the local authority is unable to place the household in suitable accommodation as a result of the impacts of coronavirus on temporary accommodation supply in the area, provided that where a household includes a child or a pregnant woman the household is not placed in unsuitable accommodation for more than 7 days.

(To note: the third of these only came into effect on 30th September 2020, halfway through the 2020-21 reporting period.)

A household placed in unsuitable accommodation for longer than 7 days where an exception did not apply must still be recorded as a breach.

Number of breaches of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order, by local authority: 2017-18 – 2021-2020

The Scottish Government has no plans to review the arrangements currently in place through which qualified clinicians, taking on board the patients’ medical history and lifestyle, agree with their patients, on a case-by-case basis, whether they would benefit from opioid substitution treatment (OST) or not. It is for patients and their clinicians to determine what is best for them and this will include agreement on the type and dosage of relevant OST. Methadone remains the most popularly used type of OST in Scotland, and there is strong evidence that supports its use.

From the recently published National Records Scotland (NRS) report on drug related deaths in 2020, methadone, on its own, was implicated in a very small number of deaths (7). However, it is increasingly implicated in deaths alongside other drugs suggesting that poly-drug use and non-compliance with treatment is the biggest factor. To increase our understanding in this area, and to inform policy making going forward, the Scottish Government is commissioning research to investigate the role and risks of methadone in drug related deaths.

Ministers are also keen to make sure as wide a range of OST and other treatment options are available, particularly long-acting buprenorphine – which has been deployed successfully in Scottish prisons throughout the pandemic. In addition, publication of the new Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) standards on 31 May 2021, emphasises the importance of allowing people to make informed choices about the type of medication and help available to them and to be supported to make an informed choice with regards to what medication to use for MAT.

Tackling empty homes remains a priority for the Scottish Government, even more so when people have been unable to take action to bring homes back into use due to the pandemic. We want to see all homes occupied and none left empty without good reason. Housing to 2040 makes a commitment to take forward a range of actions to make best use of our existing supply, including tackling the blight of empty homes.

Proposed key actions include:

• working with local authorities to audit empty homes and determine those that should be brought back into use;
• supporting the work of the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership and continuing to roll out the approach across Scotland;
• giving councils the powers they need to regulate and charge owners appropriately for homes lying empty and ensuring they have the mechanisms to bring them back into productive use;
• creating a support package for homeowners in trouble to help them stay in their home, if that is right for them, and to prevent homes falling into disrepair or becoming empty in the first place; and
• establishing a new fund for local authorities to apply to use in order to bring empty homes and potential empty homes back into residential use and convert suitable empty commercial properties in town centres.

Local authorities are responsible for assessing the housing needs in their areas and setting out how this will be met in their Local Housing Strategies (LHS). LHS guidance published in September 2019 requires local authorities to include evidence of engagement with a wide range of people and communities of interest to inform the development of LHS priorities and outcomes. The guidance recognises the importance for housing services to be coordinated with health and social care in order to achieve joined-up, person-centred approaches.

The LHS guidance also requires each local authority to include a summary of its approach to tackling homelessness, including how its Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan (RRTP) links with LHS priorities and outcomes. The delivery of an RRTP is an important part of the implementation of the joint Scottish Government/COSLA Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan. This Plan also includes the upscaling of Housing First, a person-centred approach to providing settled accommodation to those with more complex needs.

The Scottish Government expects a local authority to reflect the identified need and priorities it has identified in its LHS through its Strategic Housing Investment Plan. In doing so, local authorities are required to work closely with communities to inform priorities.

As per the Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance, it is the responsibility of the developer to submit a business case to Transport Scotland for consideration. This will ensure the evidenced based transport challenges are appropriately addressed for the village of Winchburgh and beyond. Transport Scotland is available to offer support and guidance on the business case process.

The exact information requested is not held centrally. The most relevant and latest information available is provided below.

The Quarterly Monitoring Return, from which data on community care assessments is derived, was paused last year to reduce pressure on Local Authorities as they dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic. The Scottish Government is currently reviewing its paused social care collections and considering how best to move them forward.

Data on people receiving social care support is collected and published by Public Health Scotland (PHS). The latest publication available covers data for 2018-19. PHS have collected data for 2019-20 and data for 2020-21 is currently being collected. These data will be published in due course.

(a) how many people have been assessed for free personal care in the last 12 months

The information requested is not held centrally. The Scottish Government collects information on the number of people who have a completed community care assessment through its Quarterly Monitoring Return. The latest information shows that in January to March 2018, there were 7,326 people aged 65+ with a completed community care assessment. However, this number includes all community care assessments and does not break down to personal care assessments only. The full figures can be viewed on the Scottish Government website: https://www.gov.scot/publications/eligibility-criteria-and-waiting-times/ .

(b) how many people have been given a care package in the last 12 months

The exact information requested is not held centrally. Public Health Scotland collects social care information directly from Health and Social Care Partnerships. This covers care at home, self-directed support, telecare and care homes. The latest available data covers 2018-19.

The following table shows the available information on people receiving care packages and personal care, new and existing in 2018-19. A full account for Scotland is unavailable (as detailed in the footnotes) and the actual numbers may be higher. A ‘care package’ includes anyone receiving care at home, all care home residents 5 and/or receiving care through self-directed support. It is from this same cohort of people personal care has been counted.

Available evidence on the level of rent arrears in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic is included in the two-monthly reports on the Coronavirus Acts, in which the Scottish Government sets out the status and operation of the necessary legislation to respond to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

The latest published report (at the time of writing) can be found at Coronavirus Acts: seventh report to Scottish Parliament - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The report outlines that information published by the Scottish Housing Regulator shows that the total value of rent arrears in the social sector increased substantially from £150.0m to £165.0m in the four months between the end of April 2020 and the end of August 2020, an increase of £15.0m (10.0%). The value of arrears has subsequently stabilised across most months since then, and has decreased in the most recent month to stand at £160.7m as of the end of March 2021.

The report also outlines that in terms of evidence on rent arrears, research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that, as of June 2020, no sharp increase in rent arrears for private renters was identified, with fewer than one in ten private tenants in Scotland estimated to be in arrears as of June 2020.

A separate analysis carried out by PayProp, based on the data that it holds from the processing of rent payments from tenants in Scotland, shows that the percentage of tenants in arrears increased at the start of the pandemic period from 5% in the quarter January to March 2020 up to 9% in April to June 2020. Since then this proportion has remained relatively steady, although it has increased slightly in the latest quarter from 9% in October to December 2020 up to 10% in January to March 2021.