Seòmar agus comataidhean

The National Transport Strategy, developed through a collaborative process with stakeholders, including BEMIS the National Ethnic Minorities umbrella body, recognises that feelings of safety and fear of violence can shape BAME people’s travel behaviour and the racism can be associated with the use of public transport is often intersected with other forms of abuse e.g. sexual harassment. Work undertaken by the Transport Equality Network (of which BEMIS was a member) on the Scottish Government’s response to COVID19 found that there were no new transport challenges for BEMIS, rather the pandemic has exacerbating existing challenges.

Transport Scotland has also commissioned research from the Poverty Alliance on transport and poverty. As part of this, BAME research participants related their anxiety around reaching support services, particularly those from asylum seeker families, and voiced concerns over health risks faced by ethnic minority people using public transport during a pandemic and the stigma associated with that. In response, the Scottish Government has facilitated a meeting between the participants and the Confederation for Passenger Transport, to allow the research participants to have their concerns heard directly by industry representatives.

We understand, following the completion of its ticket office opening hours consultation and Transport Focus’ findings report, that ScotRail intends to publish, in due course, its Diversity Impact Assessment.

The Scottish Government does not collect demographic data specifically on the public transport workforce nor does it do so for each mode of public transportation. If collected, this data will be held by public transport operating organisations.

Latest data from the Annual Population Survey over the period Jan-Dec 2020 provides breakdowns on employment by industry sector which includes the category “Transport and Storage”. It shows that 4% of all those aged over 16 in employment were working in Transport and Storage.

Of those employed in transport and storage industries, 21% are women. This compares to a figure of 49% for those employed in all industries who are women.

With regard to the trends in these figures from 2002, Census data from 2011 is directly comparable with the 2020 figures above. It shows that in 2011, of those working in transport and storage industries, 19% were women. This is compared to 21% for 2020.

Data from the 2001 Census is available but is not directly comparable as the industry definition was broader to include ‘transport, storage and communication ’. However, it shows that of those working in these industries in 2001, 27% were women.

The majority of funding local authorities receive for preventing and responding to homelessness is provided through the annual local government finance settlement. On top of that, we have committed £53.5 million to local authorities to support the development and implementation of local authority rapid rehousing transition plans (RRTPs). This funding also includes an investment of up to £6.5 million for the Housing First pathfinder programme to support people with multiple and complex needs. The RRTP funding distribution is agreed with COSLA.

Annually, local authorities complete an activities and spend template which provides details of all RRTP activities over the course of the year, including details of funding sources in addition to Scottish Government funding. This allows the Scottish Government to monitor how local authorities are allocating resources to deliver priorities in their RRTPs.

Alongside the funding, there are a number of supporting structures which help local authorities develop and implement their RRTPs. These include five housing options hubs which bring together all 32 local authorities to share practice and experience; RRTP co-ordinators’ meetings; and the RRTP sub-group of the Homelessness Prevention and Strategy Group.

The Scottish Government is taking action on loss and damage. On the 23rd February, The First Minister and I hosted a roundtable of international leaders and experts, including colleagues from the Global South, on Loss and Damage. The roundtable articulated the common ambitions of non-state actors to further move Loss and Damage to delivery and action.

Officials are synthesising information from the roundtable to plan and sequence further action over 2022 and at COP27, including in partnership with stakeholders from the Global South. Plans will be discussed with Scottish stakeholders and progress reported to Parliament as appropriate. Additionally, officials are currently working with the Climate Justice Resilience Fund to programme a £1m contribution to Loss and Damage as part of the world-leading £2m commitment we made at COP26.

This is a reserved policy area. Responsibility for security of supply sits with National Grid ESO (the GB electricity system operator).

The UK government has now included renewables in the Capacity Market to recognise their “measurable contribution” to security of supply. Renewables sites in Scotland have been successful in securing contracts in the latest T-4 and T-1 Capacity Market Auctions.

Renewable capacity in Scotland includes onshore and offshore wind, hydro, solar, marine technologies, bioenergy and waste.

The equivalent of 98.6% of gross electricity consumption in Scotland (around 30 GigaWatt hours, GWh) comes from renewable sources.

The Scottish Government recognises, and will continue to champion, onshore wind as a key part of Scotland’s energy mix. Continued growth in onshore wind will be a vital component in meeting our net zero ambitions.

The Onshore Wind Policy Statement consultation was launched on 28 October 2021, which includes our ambition that an additional 8-12 GW of onshore wind be installed by 2030.

The consultation considered key themes such as barriers to deployment, community benefits and shared ownership, circular economy and supply chain opportunities.

The consultation closed on 31 January 2022, and a full policy statement is expected to be published later this year with consultation analysis also to be published in due course.

Our initial estimate of £31m is still relevant. However, this will be revised in the next couple of months as further detail becomes available on Local Government staffing costs.

The Scottish Government believes it is important to support children and young people to have the knowledge and skills necessary to use social media in a positive way.

We provided the Scottish Youth Parliament and the Scottish Children’s Parliament with over £90k of funding to develop the ‘Mind Yer YTime’ web resource, launched in April 2020 and updated in September 2021. This online hub is specifically designed to give children and young people advice on the safe use of screen time and social media use and their impacts on physical and mental wellbeing.

We provided over £160k to Young Scot to deliver a range of positive messages, advice and resources to young people regarding health and mental wellbeing through the ‘Aye Feel’ hub. This includes a range of resources, stories, blog posts and targeted social media content on social media usage and managing screen time.

In February 2022 we supported Young Scot to launch the ‘ National Conversation on body image, screen time and mental wellbeing ’ , with children and young people so that their voices can directly shape our future work in this area.

We have also provided Young Scot with £124,740 to run its #DigiKnow cyber awareness and peer education programme around online safety and security, aimed at young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

More broadly, we are aware that some stakeholders have concerns that the UK Government needs to go further in using the UK Online Safety Bill to protect the population’s mental health and wellbeing. We would encourage the UK Government to listen and respond to those concerns so that we can all seek to engage in social media in a constructive and positive way.

We are working collaboratively with Community Learning and Development providers to support safe practices and behaviours through the Advanced Learning COVID-19 Recovery Group and to deliver guidance that will support the Strategic Framework. This will include encouraging local/community facilities to permit access to organisations and groups working within this sector, operating in line with their own requirements under the terms of the Strategic Framework.

We have also prepared safer workplaces guidance and the organised activities for children guidance to support and accelerate these organisations ability to safely reopen these buildings. However, the responsibility for reopening youth and community facilities ultimately rests with the owners.