Friday 11 March 2016 SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT Communities Jim Eadie (Edinburgh Southern) (Scottish National Party): To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to help improve existing B&B temporary accommodation in the City of Edinburgh local authority area. (S4W-30294) Margaret Burgess: The provision and use of B&B accommodation to provide temporary accommodation in meeting its legislative duties on homelessness is a matter for City of Edinburgh Council. The Homeless Persons (Unsuitable Accommodation) (Scotland) Order was strengthened by the Scottish Government in 2014, and outlines a number of standards that need to be met in temporary accommodation for households with children and pregnant women. Jim Eadie (Edinburgh Southern) (Scottish National Party): To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to help minimise the use of temporary B&B accommodation in the City of Edinburgh local authority area. (S4W-30295) Margaret Burgess: The Minister for Housing and Welfare wrote to City of Edinburgh Council about the use of B&B accommodation for households with children and pregnant women in September 2015. This correspondence made clear that such accommodation should only be used in exceptional circumstances for a short period of time. The response from City of Edinburgh Council was encouraging and the council have outlined the priority that they are giving to this issue. Jim Eadie (Edinburgh Southern) (Scottish National Party): To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support (a) households with children and (b) pregnant women in temporary accommodation. (S4W-30296) Margaret Burgess: The Scottish Government has put in place a number of measures to ensure that the experience of temporary accommodation is as positive as possible for children and pregnant women before they move to settled accommodation. This includes a strengthening of the Homeless Persons (Unsuitable Accommodation) (Scotland) Order 2014, which makes it clear that a number of standards need to be met in temporary accommodation for households with children and pregnant women. These standards ensure accommodation is ‘wind and watertight’ and also address proximity to schools and health services and provision of room to play. Local authorities have a legal duty to provide housing support to homeless households with children, where this has been assessed as being required. The Scottish Government has also published guidance on Meeting the Best Interests of Children Facing Homelessness in 2011. Jim Eadie (Edinburgh Southern) (Scottish National Party): To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to households looking for permanent accommodation. (S4W-30297) Margaret Burgess: Scotland has strong housing rights for homeless households with all those assessed as being unintentionally homeless by local authorities entitled to settled accommodation. The Scottish Government is increasing affordable housing supply to expand settled accommodation options for households. We are investing over £1.7 billion to deliver 30,000 affordable homes and we have now met and exceeded the current target, and within that the constituent parts – 20,000 social homes including 5,000 council homes. We have also increased the grant funding available for next year by over £90 million, as the first stage in our determination to boost housing supply still further. We are committed to continual improvement and consistency in the delivery of the housing options approach with guidance published on 2 March 2016. A training toolkit is being developed to assist in delivering housing options and the Scottish Government recently announced continued funding of £150,000 to the five Housing Options Hubs for 2016-17. Enterprise and Environment Jim Hume (South Scotland) (Scottish Liberal Democrats): To ask the Scottish Government for what reason a reported 2,000 fewer homes received assistance from the Home Energy Efficiency Programmes Scotland in 2014-15 than in 2013-14. (S4W-30321) Margaret Burgess: The reduction in the number of measures installed through our Home Energy Efficiency Programmes Scotland (HEEPS) schemes is primarily the result of changes made by the UK Government to the Energy Company Obligation (ECO). HEEPS funding is blended with ECO to help deliver more expensive measures such as solid wall insulation. Figures published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change indicate that, based on the share of ECO measures delivered, £184 million of ECO funding was spent in Scotland in 2013-14. However, due to changes to ECO introduced by the UK Government in December 2013, ECO spend in Scotland in 2014-15 fell to £110 million. To help mitigate against this reduction the Scottish Government increased its fuel poverty and domestic energy efficiency budget in 2014-15 and increased the levels of assistance available to households. Mark McDonald (Aberdeen Donside) (Scottish National Party): To ask the Scottish Government what correspondence exchanges it has had with the UK Government on the proposed reforms of the Renewable Heat Incentive. (S4W-30670) Fergus Ewing: Amber Rudd, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, wrote to me on 4 February 2016 setting out proposals for reforming the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) and enclosing a copy of the draft consultation paper and impact assessment. I responded on 24 February 2016 to set out the Scottish Government’s position. Whilst we have welcomed confirmation that the budget for the RHI will continue over the next five years to supports new installations, the Scottish Government has raised a number of issues around the proposed changes to the incentive scheme. This includes the uncertainty for industry from: A proposal to introduce an in year cap on the total budget available to support renewable heat generation projects; The basis for the rationale for proposals to substantively change the level of, or remove, support for new installations of certain technologies; and also The differing level of impact of proposals on households in geographies across the GB, including Scotland. I have consistently pushed for consideration of the specific concerns raised by Scottish businesses and the particular circumstances of homes in Scotland in relation to the RHI. We are further north and temperatures are therefore on average lower requiring more heat to reach similar temperatures to equivalent homes in the south. It cannot be avoided that it costs more to heat homes here. Despite my request for analysis on the impacts of proposals to include data on Scottish homes so that it can take account of Scottish housing stock and Scottish climate, the UK Government has not considered this important enough to prioritise. This means that Scottish stakeholders cannot properly assess the implications of the proposals to households and businesses in Scotland. This is another example of the UK Government failing to pay regard to distinct problems in Scotland. The UK Government published a consultation on proposals to reform the RHI on 3 March 2016, and I would encourage Scottish stakeholders to take the opportunity to respond to the consultation and request analysis from the Department of Energy and Climate Change on Scottish housing before the deadline of 27 April 2016. Health and Social Care Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S4W-30092 and S4W-30141 by Shona Robison on 26 February 2016, what the revenue allocation is for each board after deducting their share of the (a) £250 million integration fund and (b) £16 million required to make up the shortfall in alcohol and drug partnership funding and (c) funding being provided to meet the target for treating hepatitis C. (S4W-30178) Shona Robison: Details of NHS boards’ revenue resource and capital allocations for 2016-17, and details of allocations to integration authorities, are provided in the answers to questions S4W-30092 and S4W-30141. Jim Hume (South Scotland) (Scottish Liberal Democrats): To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the percentage breakdown of new doctors by specialism in each year since 2010-11. (S4W-30203) Shona Robison: The number of doctors in training in NHSScotland has increased by 526.9 whole time equivalent, or 10.0 per cent, since September 2010. Further detail on doctors in training is available on the Information Services Division Scotland website – http://www.isdscotland.org. Learning and Justice Roderick Campbell (North East Fife) (Scottish National Party): To ask the Scottish Government whether there has been an increase in the use of special measures for children and vulnerable adult witnesses since the relevant provisions of the Victims and Witnesses (Scotland) Act 2014 came into force on 1 September 2015. (S4W-30683) Michael Matheson: The Victims and Witnesses (Scotland) Act 2014 introduces various measures to improve support for victims and witnesses, putting victims' interests at the heart of the justice system and ensuring that witnesses are able to fulfil their public duty effectively. Information provided by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service indicates a marked increase in the number of applications for special measures since 1 September 2015. In particular, increases in applications for the use of screens and supporters are extremely encouraging. The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service uses a live operational case management system for the processing of court business. The information held on the system is