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The Scottish Government recognises and supports the generous offers from the people of Scotland to privately sponsor Ukrainians through the UK Government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme, as well as the work of the many charities and groups across the country who are facilitating matches between displaced Ukrainians seeking accommodation and volunteer hosts.

On Tuesday 24 and Tuesday 31 May we delivered public webinar sessions on host guidance in collaboration with the Scottish Refugee Council. A final session will take place on Thursday 9 June. These sessions allow us to address questions on our recently published guidance for hosts on our website, which includes a range of information on safeguarding, property checks, matching, funding and the roles of hosts and their guests.

Crown Estate Scotland (CES) is responsible for the ScotWind seabed leasing process and the management and collation of the information used to support its decision to review and, ultimately, change the option fee prices for seabed leasing. The Scottish Government has already released the advisory note procured from Strathclyde University ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202200277291/ ) and did not provide any further information to CES.

CES also procured additional advice that the Scottish Government do hold but these have not been released due to the ongoing nature of ScotWind clearing process and applications.

Now that the Public Inquiry is complete Scottish Ministers are considering the terms of the report received on 18 February 2022 and should be in a position to make a decision in due course.

The National Lottery is reserved to the UK Government.

The Scottish Government were advised that the Gambling Commission’s board had named Allwyn Entertainment Ltd as the preferred applicant in March 2022.

In accordance with relevant legislation, this decision has been made by the Gambling Commission’s Board.

The Super Sponsor scheme is designed to provide a quick and safe route for displaced people from Ukraine to come to a place of sanctuary by removing the need for applicants to be matched to an individual sponsor prior to being given permission to travel to the UK.

Once people have arrived, a national matching service, delivered by COSLA, will match those settling here with longer-term accommodation across Scotland.

Displaced people from Ukraine are asked to complete a short questionnaire that captures key information and preferences. This information is then used to find suitable longer-term accommodation, which will be offered as a choice.

All 32 of our local authorities are taking part in this programme, and hosts have offered up their homes right across the country. The national matching service will ensure that people are offered settlement opportunities across Scotland, recognising that people will have different preferences and available housing is limited in some local authorities.

The Super Sponsor scheme is designed to provide a quick and safe route for displaced people from Ukraine to come to a place of sanctuary by removing the need for applicants to be matched to an individual sponsor prior to being given permission to travel to the UK.

Once people have arrived, a national matching service, delivered by COSLA, will match those settling here with longer-term accommodation across Scotland.

Displaced people from Ukraine are asked to complete a short questionnaire that captures key information and preferences. This information is then used to find suitable longer-term accommodation, which will be offered as a choice.

All 32 of our local authorities are taking part in this programme, and hosts have offered up their homes right across the country. The national matching service will ensure that people are offered settlement opportunities across Scotland, recognising that people will have different preferences and available housing is limited in some local authorities.

We are carefully considering the recommendations of the Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in Scotland’s Waste Hierarchy. We will set out our initial response to the recommendations in June 2022.

Scotland has budgeted £429.4 million in total for Discretionary Housing Payments since DHPs were devolved in 2017 to the 2022-23 financial year. This is broken down into £349 million for mitigation of the bedroom tax and £80.4 million for mitigating the impact of other welfare reforms. From that national figure, £16,369,752 has been allocated to Dundee City in total for DHPs which includes (a) £13,407,801 for bedroom tax and (b) £2,961,950 for “Other DHP”, used to mitigate welfare reforms.

SG funding for DHPs for Dundee City 2017-18 to 2022-23

There are a range of factors which must be considered as part of our developing model for Scotland to effectively tackle and challenge men’s demand for prostitution, including online aspects, such as “online pimping”.

The regulation of internet and online service providers is a reserved matter and we are continuing to liaise closely with the UK Government and Ofcom on the UK Online Safety Bill.

Procuring for the purposes of prostitution is still an offence if committed online and Police Scotland will actively investigate all reports of sexual exploitation, including online sexual exploitation.

The final formal meeting of the short life working group was held on 19 April 2022. The insights from the group and it’s reference group are being taken into account in the drafting of the fundamental principles, with further targeted stakeholder engagement planned prior to their finalisation, including further discussion with the short life working group planned for later this month. The principles will be published later this year.