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Ensuring the wellbeing and safety of those arriving from Ukraine, who are overwhelmingly women and children is critical. That is why under the super sponsor scheme, and as outlined in the Super Sponsor Scheme and Homes for Ukraine guidance for local authorities , sponsors and members of their household aged over 16 years are required to apply for an enhanced disclosure when they register for the scheme.

While most offers of accommodation are genuine and well intentioned, there is a clear safeguarding risk posed by the UK private sponsor scheme, which puts people at risk of arriving in the UK and being placed in homes before suitable checks are carried out. I have raised these concerns with the UK Government, and called on them to replicate our super sponsor scheme to prevent vulnerable people being placed in with unsuitable hosts.

The Scottish Government has provided funding to local authorities to sustain and enhance resettlement teams and enable co-ordination of the third sector contribution to this work. We have made available more than £7 million to local authorities to support refurbishment of accommodation to support displaced people from Ukraine.

The deliverables of the rail improvement project expected to be completed by the end of 2026 will be a capability which will facilitate, subject to changing travel behaviours, timetable and stopping pattern choices, the following options:

? an average journey time of 1 hour 10 minutes or less for inter-city services between Aberdeen and Dundee;

? an average journey time of 2 hours 30 minutes or less for inter-city services between Aberdeen and Glasgow;

? half-hourly services from local stations into Aberdeen and Dundee during peak times;

? an hourly stopping service between Aberdeen and Dundee; and

? new freight paths.

The Scottish Government has provided £1.4 million to the Scottish Refugee Council for the expansion of its Refugee Integration Service including qualified helpline advisers and caseworkers. People arriving from Ukraine will also be able to access help and support on an ongoing basis from local authority resettlement officers, and they will be able to raise accommodation concerns directly to their housing association or local authority provider.

The package of enhancements identified by the project team for taking forward is currently being reviewed by Network Rail’s operations team for Scotland. It comprises signal enhancements, improvements to station approaches and specific capacity alterations to facilitate the mixed operation of faster and slower trains on the same route.

A number of City Region Deals include elements of housing infrastructure that is required to unlock wider housing delivery and regional growth ambitions including a notional £20m joint allocation for Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Councils. It is the responsibility of Councils to bring forward eligible Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) projects to the Scottish Government for consideration. Progress has been slower than anticipated and to date no eligible HIF projects have been submitted by the Councils as part of the £20m indicative allocation referred to in the 2016 agreement. Given the long-term plans for City Deal delivery in the region, and that HIF is open for new applications, Scottish Government officials will remain engaged with both Councils to support them to apply for HIF support where suitable projects through the City Deal delivery plans are identified.

The Homes for Ukraine scheme offers two routes by which displaced people can match with hosts in Scotland. Through the Home Office private sponsor scheme, people match directly with hosts in Scotland and make an application on that basis. The requirement for people to match with a private sponsor before entering the UK undoubtedly delays their progress.

This is why the Scottish Government offered to become a ‘super sponsor’. Through the Scottish super sponsor scheme, people apply to come to Scotland without being required to find a host first. Once people are safely in Scotland, they are accommodated in temporary accommodation before being matched to long term accommodation that has been through appropriate safeguarding and suitability checks.

The length of time these processes take can vary on a case by case basis. The key determinate of time remains the pace at which visas are processed and issued. If the UK Government will not follow the example of the EU and waive the requirement for visas, then they must grant them quickly. We stand ready to welcome people when they arrive in Scotland.

Due to an unexpected system error 19,881 Scottish Child Payment clients and 1,284 Child Disability Payment clients who were due to receive their regular payment throughout week commencing Monday 18 April experienced a delay of one working day. Social Security Scotland contacted those impacted to let them know in advance. For clarity, they have received all of their payments.

Implementing our improved social security system and work to continually improve this - for example further uprating benefits to help tackle the cost of living crisis - is not without its technical challenges. There are processes in place to mitigate risk and when issues do arise our priority is ensuring people get the money they are due as quickly as possible and protecting those who are the most vulnerable. The unexpected cause of this delay has been identified and rectified.

The Scottish Government has conducted extensive engagement and consultation involving a wide range of public, private and third sector organisations and individuals throughout its preparation of National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), including three formal public consultation exercises.

Our Call for Ideas in 2020 attracted over 180 stakeholders to participate at our roadshow workshops, plus around 100 at drop in sessions and over 100 at events hosted by the Royal Town Planning Institute in Scotland on our behalf. Separately, we received written responses to the Call for Ideas from nearly 350 consultees. 35 contributors also provided think piece articles, and we held a variety of sessions and meetings with a range of stakeholders including the Scottish Youth Parliament. The Scottish Government’s Position Statement consultation later in 2020 attracted around 250 written responses. We also undertook extensive collaborative work with local authorities to support their preparation of indicative Regional Spatial Strategies, which have formed the basis of the spatial strategy in the draft NPF4.

The recent Draft NPF4 consultation exercise attracted over 750 formal consultation responses, and we also encouraged participation in discussions with a broad range of stakeholders. Our engagement programme included open invitation discussions on policy themes and action areas with around 265 stakeholders participating. We held a roundtable discussion on equalities, and again worked with the Royal Town Planning Institute in Scotland to deliver roundtable discussions where 45 people participated. We also worked with PAS who hosted events for community groups (over 50 participants) and with PlayScotland to gather perspectives from children and young people.

All engagement material, including consultation responses, event overviews and analysis of consultation responses in relation to both the Call for Ideas and the Position Statement are available at www.transformingplanning.scot. Materials for the Draft NPF4 consultation will be published in due course.

The Scottish Government collects data relating to individual temporary accommodation placements (associated with homelessness applications) through the HL3 data collection. This includes information on whether or not placements have been in breach of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order (UAO).

Comprehensive HL3 data is available for all local authorities from 1 April 2017. The most recent data available is up to 30 September 2021.

Prior to 5 May 2020, a breach occurred when a household with a pregnant women and/or child was in unsuitable temporary accommodation for more than 7 days. From 5 May 2020, this was extended to all homeless households. Therefore, breaches data pre and post 5 May 2020 are not directly comparable.

Various temporary exceptions were introduced from May to September 2020 to allow local authorities to provide households with accommodation in response to COVID-19. These exceptions were still in place by September 2021. Where an exception applied, a breach did not have to be recorded.

As a result of uncertainty caused by the extension of the legislation falling at the same time as the introduction of the exceptions, there was increased scrutiny of the data. This uncovered inconsistency in the practice of reporting and recording breaches across local authorities, including prior to May 2020. Therefore, data on the number of breaches should be treated with caution.

Following identification of this inconsistent recording practice, the Scottish Government issued clarification to local authorities in January 2022. Clearer, more explicit HL3 guidance with worked examples is also being prepared to minimise different interpretations of the legislation and ensure consistent reporting.

The tables below provide the number of UAO breaches recorded in the HL3 return by local authority and by month from 1 April 2017, when comprehensive coverage began, to 30 September 2021.

Figures have been rounded to the nearest five for disclosure control purposes, with the except i on of zeroes – which are denoted by ‘.’ – and values of 1, 2 and 3 - which are denoted by ‘<4’.

The sum of the monthly totals may not match published quarterly figures due to rounding.

Only local authorities with at least one breach from April 2017 to September 2021 are included in the tables. If a local authority is not included, this is because they have no reported breaches over this period.

Number of temporary accommodation placements that have been in breach of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order, by local authority