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The criteria for someone being classified as homeless in Scotland were last updated by the Homelessness etc (Scotland) Act 2003 and commenced in January 2004.

Scotland’s homelessness rights mean households with children are in temporary accommodation while they wait for appropriate settled accommodation. We want this time to be as short as possible and we are increasing housing supply to help with this. We will deliver at least 50,000 affordable homes, backed by more than £3 billion investment by the end of this Parliament.

Time spent in temporary accommodation should be used positively to identify the best possible housing option for a household to ensure a sustainable outcome. We are also working with local authorities and their partners to prevent homelessness for families with children before it occurs through further strengthening of the housing options approach.

The Schools (Health Promotion and Nutrition) Act (Scotland) 2007 places a number of duties on local education authorities including ensuring that schools are health promoting. This includes promoting physical, social, mental and emotional wellbeing by supporting pupils to make positive lifestyle choices in relation to their health and wellbeing.

In addition, as part of Curriculum for Excellence, all practitioners are expected to embed aspects of health and wellbeing in their lessons, regardless of what subject specialism they are delivering. It is for the local authority and schools to decide how to develop their own approaches to implement Curriculum for Excellence and they will be using a range of approaches and resources to support children and young people with their mental and emotional wellbeing based on local needs and circumstances.

Education Scotland have developed a national resource to support the development and practice of nurturing approaches for secondary and primary schools. This aims to ensure that all schools are equipped to support all children and young people to have equal opportunities to learn and develop. Education Scotland is also supporting the delivery of ‘Scotland’s Mental Health First Aid: Young People’ training nationally in secondary school communities. This will complement the range of initiatives and approaches to support mental health and mental wellbeing that local authorities already have in place.

By working closely with schools, teachers and parents, as well as other professionals, educational psychologists have a key role in building capacity to meet the learning and mental health needs of pupils. In addition, every school has a named contact in specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) who can be contacted for advice if they have any concerns about a pupil and can provide ongoing support.

Local authorities have the duty to ensure that advice and information about homelessness and any services that may assist a homeless person or assist in the prevention of homelessness, is available free of charge to any person within the authority’s area.

The Scottish Government provides funding to the five local authority led Housing Options Hubs which facilitate the sharing of prevention of homelessness practice across Scotland. The Scottish Government also publishes PREVENT1 data which records local authorities prevention of homelessness activity.

The possible need for further regulation on commercial and non-commercial dog breeding will be considered as part of an ongoing review of pet welfare. The Scottish Government has already held a number of meetings with stakeholders around that ongoing review; and will invite further participation from them.

Scottish Ministers are currently considering all the evidence, including responses to the consultation on electronic training devices which closed earlier this year, and hope to announce a decision on the future of such devices in Scotland before the end of 2016.

Sales data for the Help to Buy (Scotland) schemes is published on the Scottish Government website quarterly in arrears. From the launch of Help to Buy (Scotland) in September 2013 to the end of December 2015 7,720 homes had been purchased using the scheme.

Further update to the published data is expected shortly.

Funding for the Help to Buy (Scotland) Affordable New Build and Smaller Developers schemes has been committed to 2018-19, bringing total support through our Help to Buy (Scotland) schemes to £0.5 Billion over 6 years.

Funding breakdown

Discussions between European Investment Bank and Scottish Government officials took place immediately after the EU referendum to underline the government's commitment to continue working with the Bank whilst its longer-term relationship with the wider UK is clarified.

The Scottish Government is keen to encourage alternative finance provision, with a range of models designed to suit the circumstances of individuals as part of our wider approach to tackling financial exclusion and creating a fairer Scotland.

We welcome the work of others in this area, including the Carnegie UK Trust which published ‘Gateway to Affordable Credit – The Report of the Affordable Credit Action Group’ earlier in 2016. The report examined the challenges faced by Scotland’s credit unions and Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) and set out recommendations to help grow not-for-profit alternative finance providers.

We have also supported credit unions in recognition of their role in tackling financial exclusion; and in providing financial services and products to a wide range of customers. The report of the Credit Union Working Group “Scotland’s Credit Unions: Investing in Our Future” was published on 10 February 2016 (http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0049/00493888.pdf). One of the recommendations related to increasing the number of sustainable, junior savers schemes in partnership with schools across Scotland. I recently announced how a £300,000 fund to support Junior Savers Schemes will be disbursed in 2016-17.

There are already three CDFIs in Scotland: DSL Finance; Social Investment Scotland; and Scotcash, and discussions have taken place with the Community Development Finance Association to consider how the CDFI model might be developed here.

Lastly, Accountant in Bankruptcy operates a Scottish Financial Health Service website (https://www.scotlandsfinancialhealthservice.gov.uk/). This contains links to a range of organisations who offer information and advice on debt, managing money, housing, homelessness and ethical lending.