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While Winter Fuel Payment is one of the benefits that will be devolved to the Scottish Government, we have not yet taken over responsibility for its administration. This means that the current rules governing the rate of payment, who is eligible to receive, and when and how it is paid, is set by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). This £300 change represents an increase in the base amount paid by the DWP for Winter Fuel Payment, which is normally paid in November, whereas the additional payments from 14 July are a one off payment for those in receipt of a variety of benefits, rather than an increase to the payment rates.

This is a matter for Public Health Scotland. The information requested is not held centrally.

25 of the 29 buildings we have contacted are from the 80 block 2021 Expressions of Interest group. Once we ascertain consent and key details, we will move to the contracting process.

We have begun the SBA delivery process for 15 buildings using our grant based approach, with an additional 29 contacted to offer directly commissioned assessments.

We have contacted 29 buildings so far to offer the direct provision of fire engineers. Once we ascertain consent and details, we will move to the contracting process.

All new policy commitments or changes to existing policy, that have a financial cost for local government, must be approved through the formal financial governance process which requires agreed recommendations from the joint Scottish Government and COSLA Officers’ Settlement and Distribution Group and political agreement from Scottish Ministers and COSLA political Leaders.

The latest Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service monthly statistics, published on 19 July, show that there were 37,174 scheduled trials at the end of June. It is not possible to state how many of these trials relate to sexual offence cases, due to the data being held on a live case management system that is designed to meet operational needs, rather than provide statistical breakdowns by offence type.

The Scottish Government continues to support justice agencies to address the backlog to ensure cases can be progressed, including sexual offence cases. In 2021-22 we committed an additional £50m to support our ‘Recover, Renew, Transform’ programme for the Criminal Justice System. This included setting up 16 additional solemn and summary courts from September 2021, increasing the system’s capacity to progress cases, including for the most serious offences. We have committed a further £53.2m in 2022-23 for recovery, renewal and transformation activity across the justice system. Recent statistics published by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service demonstrate that measures introduced to address the backlog, including the additional trial courts, are having a positive impact on court throughput, and the total number of scheduled trials outstanding has reduced each month in 2022.

We recognise that sexual offence cases can be particularly distressing to those involved, and we are committed to improving victims’ experiences of the justice system. We understand the value that criminal justice advocacy services offer to victims navigating the system, and that is why - following a competitive bidding process - we are providing Rape Crisis Scotland’s National Advocacy Project with more than £6 million over the next three years, through the Victim Centred Approach Fund. The National Advocacy Project provides invaluable practical and emotional support to victims of sexual crimes throughout the court process.

Since announcing the move to direct procurement for Single Building Assessments, we have tendered for and completed commissioning of an initial test and are using the learning from this to plan the scaling up of the additional surveys announced on 12 May 2022. The initial test procurement now has a fire engineer on site delivering the SBA. We expect costs to range between £20,000 and £100,000 in the first wave of buildings using our direct procurement approach.

The Scottish Government does not hold a breakdown of the requested figures by local authority area. The Scottish Empty Homes Partnership was formed in 2010 and the annual figures from 2011 onwards are shown in the following table:

Officials have engaged in conversations with a number of suppliers to look into the utilisation of digital twin surveys to enable assessment and assurance.