Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-36418

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 25 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the findings by the Scottish Human Rights Commission in its November 2024 report, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Highlands and Islands, in areas where the Commission identified obligations that were being (a) partially and (b) not met.

We expect to issue our response to the Scottish Human Rights Commission’s report before the Scottish Parliament's summer recess. Our response will outline the actions being taken to respect, protect and fulfil economic, social and cultural rights in the Highlands and Islands.

We acknowledge that more can be done to advance rights realisation in Scotland's Highlands and Island communities. We will continue to work closely with stakeholders, duty bearers and delivery partners to achieve this.

Question reference: S6W-36753

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 25 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to withdraw from Stonewall's Diversity Champions programme.

Question reference: S6W-36763

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 25 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made any assessment of the reported competitive disadvantage faced by west coast fishermen following changes to the minimum landing size for lobster.

Scotland’s diverse fishing industry is subject to a variety of management measures including temporal and spatial restrictions on gear deployment, vessel type and catch. As with the 2017 change to minimum landing size for lobster, there are instances where management measures vary between areas, to help ensure sustainable fisheries. It should be noted that the 2017 measures were informed by scientific advice, a 12-week public consultation and engagement with our Regional Inshore Fisheries Group (RFIG) network.

Decisions made regarding the management of Scotland’s commercial fisheries are based on stock assessment advice provided by our scientific advisors and we recently shared updated reports based on landings from 2020 – 2023 with our stakeholders.

In addition, the Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics publication has information on landings and sales data, and can be accessed through the Scottish Government website. This can be used to compare the landings of different species and different geographic areas.

Question reference: S6W-36367

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 25 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-35432 by Kaukab Stewart on 19 March 2025, whether it will provide a breakdown of the costs associated with the "Connected Communities Budget Funding – Engagement with Afghan women 2022".

Question reference: S6W-36578

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 25 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people have been placed in temporary accommodation in the City of Edinburgh Council area in each year since 1999, also given as the percentage of the national number that this represents.

The following table shows the number of children and young people placed in temporary accommodation in Edinburgh at some point during each year, and as a percentage of Scotland from 2017-18 to 2023-24.

Data on temporary accommodation placements (HL3) is only available from 2017-18.

Children and young people are defined as when a household member is aged 24 and under.

Young people	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Number	2,982	3,264	3,507	3,839	4,797	5,569	5,873
% of Scotland	11%	12%	13%	14%	17%	18%	18%

Data source: Scottish Government, HL1 & HL3 Homelessness statistics

Notes:

The Scottish Government records temporary accommodation placements (HL3 data collection) and the number of people by age band associated with households making homelessness applications (HL1 data collection). HL1 and HL3 household records have been linked to provide an estimate of the number of children and young people in temporary accommodation placements.

Please note that it is not necessarily the case that all household members within a homelessness application will enter associated temporary accommodation placement(s). For example, alternative arrangements may be made for children so they are never present in the temporary accommodation.

Households can have multiple temporary accommodation placements. Only one placement per reporting period has been included. This means a child or young person will be included in each year in which they have spent time in temporary accommodation and not counted multiple times within the same year.

Question reference: S6W-36577

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 25 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people have been placed in hotels and guest houses under temporary accommodation measures in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

The Scottish Government does not collect specific information on temporary accommodation placements within hotels and guest houses. These are both captured under a broader ‘other’ category (via HL3 data collection).

Information is captured on Bed & Breakfast (B&B) temporary accommodation placements. The following table shows the number of children and young people that were placed in Bed & Breakfast (B&B) temporary accommodation at some point during each year from 2017-18 to 2023-24.

Data on temporary accommodation placements (HL3) is only available from 2017-18.

Children and young people are defined as when a household member is aged 24 and under.

Local Authority	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Scotland	4,505	4,690	4,180	3,645	4,175	5,460	7,225
Aberdeen City	85	70	55	85	30	350	385
Aberdeenshire	140	130	70	10	<4	0	0
Angus	20	15	10	35	15	10	15
Argyll & Bute	0	0	<4	35	<4	30	20
Clackmannanshire	0	0	0	15	5	15	30
Dumfries & Galloway	0	0	0	5	0	90	195
Dundee City	5	0	25	110	120	135	185
East Dunbartonshire	145	70	25	<4	5	5	5
East Lothian	230	165	190	170	175	155	170
East Renfrewshire	10	15	35	25	35	30	165
Edinburgh	1,640	1,460	855	480	765	1,115	1,320
Eilean Siar	5	15	<4	10	5	0	5
Falkirk	0	0	<4	<4	5	30	30
Fife	105	70	135	195	105	275	390
Glasgow City	935	1,295	1,765	1,320	2,050	2,140	2,895
Highland	140	275	145	75	30	15	5
Inverclyde	<4	<4	20	30	0	0	<4
Midlothian	85	20	15	15	0	0	0
Moray	30	<4	0	<4	0	55	60
Orkney	5	0	10	5	10	5	5
Perth & Kinross	15	<4	5	<4	5	10	10
Renfrewshire	20	15	<4	105	10	35	65
Scottish Borders	<4	<4	5	0	0	<4	10
Shetland	<4	<4	<4	0	0	5	0
South Ayrshire	0	0	0	15	5	40	105
South Lanarkshire	45	85	65	175	30	95	335
Stirling	235	225	170	180	95	35	10
West Dunbartonshire	0	5	15	10	10	80	155
West Lothian	610	755	555	525	660	695	655

Data source: Scottish Government, HL1 & HL3 Homelessness statistics

Values of 1, 2, 3 or 4 are denoted by ‘<5’ for disclosure control purposes.

Notes:

The Scottish Government records temporary accommodation placements (HL3 data collection) and the number of people by age band associated with households making homelessness applications (HL1 data collection). HL1 and HL3 household records have been linked to provide an estimate of the number of children and young people in temporary accommodation placements.

Please note that it is not necessarily the case that all household members within a homelessness application will enter associated temporary accommodation placement(s). For example, alternative arrangements may be made for children so they are never present in the temporary accommodation.

Households can have multiple temporary accommodation placements. Only one placement per reporting period has been included. This means a child or young person will be included in each year in which they have spent time in temporary accommodation and not counted multiple times within the same year.

Question reference: S6W-36727

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 25 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on developing a portal where people can view content posted on Twitter/X from its departments, without requiring a Twitter/X account.

The Scottish Government is not currently looking into developing such a portal.

We make decisions about channels to best meet our communications objectives and to reach target audiences with important public messages. We regularly review the accessibility and availability of those channels to help inform our communications mix. Key announcements are published across a variety of communications channels, and there is no reliance on any one platform.

Question reference: S6W-36575

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 25 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people have been placed in temporary accommodation in each year since 1999.

The following table shows the total number of children and young people that were in temporary accommodation at some point during each year from 2017-18 to 2023-24.

Data on temporary accommodation placements (HL3) is only available from 2017-18.

Children and young people are defined as when a household member is aged 24 and under.

	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Number	26,569	27,787	27,315	26,482	28,757	30,383	31,944

Data source: Scottish Government, HL1 & HL3 Homelessness statistics

Notes:

The Scottish Government records temporary accommodation placements (HL3 data collection) and the number of people by age band associated with households making homelessness applications (HL1 data collection). HL1 and HL3 household records have been linked to provide an estimate of the number of children and young people in temporary accommodation placements.

Please note that it is not necessarily the case that all household members within a homelessness application will enter associated temporary accommodation placement(s). For example, alternative arrangements may be made for children so they are never present in the temporary accommodation.

Households can have multiple temporary accommodation placements. Only one placement per reporting period has been included. This means a child or young person will be included in each year in which they have spent time in temporary accommodation and not counted multiple times within the same year.

Question reference: S6W-36854

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 25 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what legal guarantees are in place to prevent a ScotAccount becoming a mandatory requirement for access to public services.

Question reference: S6W-36419

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 25 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration was given to the Scottish Human Rights Commission’s November 2024 report, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Highlands and Islands, when allocating its 2025-26 Budget, and what the outcome was.

The Scottish Government's 2025-26 Budget was published on 4 December 2024. This was a week after the Scottish Human Rights Commission published their report on rights in the Highlands and Islands, so there was not sufficient time to fully consider and incorporate the report and its recommendations into the Scottish Government's 2025-26 Budget.

However, an Island Communities Impact Assessment was undertaken on the 2025-26 Budget, to consider the unique needs of Scottish island communities.

We are considering the Scottish Human Rights Commission’s report with a view to formally responding to its recommendations ahead of the summer recess.

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