 To ask the Scottish government when it last met with Dumfries and Galloway Council and what was discussed. Minister Kevin Stewart. To ask the Scottish Government when it last met with Dumfries and Galloway Council and what was discussed. Minister Kevin Stewart. Thank you, ministers and officials regularly meet representatives of all Scottish local authorities, including Dumfries and Galloway, to discuss a range of issues as part of our commitment to working in partnership with local government to improve outcomes for the people of Scotland. On 13 September, the Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Jobs and Fair Work met the South of Scotland Alliance, including the leader of Dumfries and Galloway Council, to discuss the establishment of the South of Scotland Enterprise Agency. Finlay Carson. Thank you, minister, for that response. It has been announced this month that a number of regeneration projects look to receive financial support from Dumfries and Galloway Council's town centre living fund. Can the minister tell us what support the Government is providing to encourage people to move back into town centres in towns in Dumfries and Galloway to reverse decline and boost much-needed economic development? Minister. The Government has been very supportive of the town centre first principle, which is a matter for local authorities to bring forward. I would expect local authorities to look at their local planning and ensuring that the town centre first principle applies. Minister Carson will probably be aware that I was recently in Dumfries to discuss with citizens and stakeholders around about their town centre. I was very pleased to hear that citizen-led approach, which I think has led Dumfries and Galloway Council into creating that fund and investing in town centres. I would encourage them to continue to do so. Of course, the Government will continue to support them through the town centre first principle. Joan McAlpine I commend the Dumfries town centre initiative that is indeed citizen-led, as the minister has said. I thank the minister for the great interest that he has shown into it. Does the minister agree with me that one of the big barriers to developing town centres for housing and other purposes is the vat that is levied on the restoration of buildings compared to the zero-vatted status of new out-of-town developments? I thank Ms McAlpine for her question. I am sure that she and other members have heard me in this chamber on a number of occasions calling on the UK Government to get rid of that vat on repairing of houses. That would go a long way in bringing lots and lots of buildings back into use. It seems a bit of anomaly that there is no vat on new build, but vat on repairs to existing properties. I hope that at some point the UK Government will listen to what we have said and will eradicate that vat so that we can bring more properties back into use in Dumfries and in other parts of Scotland. John Mason To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it is giving to how tenement housing can be better maintained. Minister Kemp. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Responsibility for maintaining tenements is principally the responsibility of the owners and is usually governed by rules and conditions set out in the title deeds for the flats within the block. The Tenement Scotland Act 2004 provides a structure known as the tenant management scheme for the maintenance and management of tenements. The Housing Scotland Act 2006 gave local authorities discretionary powers to require owners to carry out work in substandard houses and to provide assistance with repairs and improvements to private property. The Housing Scotland Act 2014 amended those powers to make them more effective, including new provisions to allow local authorities to pay missing shares for work carried by a majority of owners in a tenement. In the private rented sector, the new private residential tenancy comes into effect in December of this year. That will significantly improve tenant security and better enable tenants to exercise their right to report a breach of the repairing standard to the housing and property chamber of the first tier tribunal. John Mason I thank the minister for a very full answer. I take his point about title deeds, but I wonder if he would agree with me that some title deeds do not have any provision for a factor, and it then becomes very difficult for owner-occupiers or landlords of private tenants to get together, to organise things and to carry out repairs. Perhaps there is a need for ensuring that there is a factor in place for every single tenement. John Mason The Scottish Government agrees that owners of tenements should ideally plan ahead for future common repairs and maintenance. Property factors can play an important role in ensuring that repairs are made and therefore the property is maintained. However, the services of a factor come at a cost, and some homeowners would not welcome the need to hand over sums of money into a sinking fund for repairs, not required at that particular point in time. I would encourage homeowners to work together to share their responsibility of looking after their properties, but to legislate to require a factor or sinking funds would place an additional financial burden on homeowners who currently do not have those in place and may be difficult to enforce. Can I refer all members in the chamber today to have a look at the under-the-one roof website, which can be immensely beneficial in helping property owners in dealing with some of the issues that Mr Mason has raised today? Graham Simpson I am hosting or sponsoring an event on this very issue next week, and there is a cross-party interest in it. I know that Ben Macpherson has tabled a motion that I have signed on this very issue. I wonder if the minister would agree with a call from the RICS that there should be tenement health checks. Does he think that there is a need for further legislation? I asked him a written question recently about whether the powers that he mentioned that councils have are being used. He referred me to councils. I have done an FOI. I will be revealing the figures next week. He is welcome to come along and hear them to see just how effective or ineffective that legislation is. Graham Simpson I thank Mr Simpson for his invitation. I cannot say now whether I will be able to attend or not, but I will take note of that invitation. To Mr Simpson, one of the things that I am absolutely adamant about is to ensure that local authorities use the legislation that is currently at their disposal. I do not see the point in coming up with a raft of new legislation when that may not be required when current legislation is not used. I thank him for his support in trying to ensure that councils use the powers that are currently at their disposal. Beyond that, the Government itself has looked at a number of things. We are running an area-based pilot of equity loan schemes that assist owners to carry out essential repairs and energy efficiency improvements in Glasgow, Persia and Argyllun Bute. I will look at the findings from that pilot and see if there is a need to establish or sufficient demand to establish support for procurement of a nationwide scheme in the future as part of the development of Scotland's energy efficiency programme to continue to upgrade Scotland's tenement properties. I thank John Mason for raising the question on an important but often overlooked issue. Although I agree with the minister that not all solutions are necessary legislative, I also agree with him that we have to help owners to come together. I ask what activity the Government has undertaken to work with credit unions to help who could potentially help owners to come together in terms of collective savings, collective loans and potentially invoice factoring, which could help the financing of much-needed repairs to tenement buildings. Mr Johnson has come up with a particularly good idea. I am more than willing to talk to credit unions about providing help if that is at all possible. We will look at all possible solutions. That is one of the reasons why we are running the pilot that we are at this moment in time, which is helpful to those who may not afford the repairs at that point in time and allows us to take an equity stake in that property. We will get the money back in the future. I am more than willing to take on board Mr Johnson's suggestion about approaching credit unions. I will let him know how I get on in that regard. I ask the minister to bear in mind when undertaking any review of tenement law or of maintenance and guidance that it is not always very old buildings, red sandstone that we often think about, but in new towns like East Kilbride and some of the peripheral housing states, we have tenements that are of a much more modern fabric. That brings its own questions and its own problems when it has been right to buy in particular, because it can end up with mixed tenure of local authority, of owners and indeed private landlords, some of whom are not always willing to take their part. It then leads to severe factoring problems, with many owners feeling that they either get good value for money or good social value, and could that be looked at as well? I am well aware that Ms Fabiani has raised a number of points about property factors and new developments in recent times. There is provision in the Title Conditions Scotland Act 2003 on manager burdens and title deeds, and those are typically used by a developer to appoint a factor in the initial years of housing development. I know that Ms Fabiani is interested in that. Once a manager burden has expired, the owners of flats and tenements have rights to act together to dismiss a new property factor. I will continue to work with Linda Fabiani and other members to try to improve the situation and, once again, I ask all members to have a look at the Under One Reef website. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact on people in Scotland of the United Kingdom Government's extended benefit cap. The latest figures from the Department of Work and Pensions show that, at May 2017, around 3,700 households containing more than 11,000 children were subject to the benefit cap in Scotland, losing on average £57 per week. Almost two thirds of those households are lone parents, with around three quarters having a child under five years old. The Scottish Government continues to oppose the benefit cap, which is clearly impacting hardest on low-income families with children. That is why we have repeatedly called on the UK Government to reverse that policy. I certainly echo the call on the UK Government to reverse that and a long list of its other vindictive and unnecessary welfare changes. While the Parliament and the Scottish Government should not be left with a position of merely mitigating the effect of those decisions, the Scottish Government has a role in protecting people. It has currently allocated £8 million for mitigation of the benefit cap, yet we have shown that the reduction in overall spend through the benefit system as a result is £11 million. Given that the impact on households is even more severe than with the bedroom tax and yet the overall budgetary impact of fully mitigating would be less, is it not clear that the Scottish Government should strain every sinew to fill this gap, which currently stands at just £3 million, and wouldn't that make a massive difference for people in Scotland who are affected by that policy? I am grateful to the member for his supplementary question. I just say gently and respectfully that, although I completely agree with him that it is not the role of this Government or, indeed, this Parliament to merely mitigate the worst effects of what the UK Government's policies inflict on the people we represent, it is a little ironic that it then goes on to suggest that we do precisely that. Future spending is a matter for the budget. As Mr Harvey rightly says, we have allocated £8.1 million to local authorities for DHPs to mitigate in part the damaging impact of lowering the benefit cap. That is a £6 million increase on the DWP allocation last year. Of course, local authorities retain discretion to top up the DHP funds. As I have said, future spending is a matter for the budget, and allocation of DHPs will be discussed by the Scottish Government with COSLA. We are very happy to hear suggestions for both the DHP allocation and overall spending, but I would say that those suggestions should also come with suggestions of how additional funding commitments can be met. If the Scottish Government is so concerned about the effect of the benefit cap in Scotland, why is there no provision in the Minister's social security bill to deal with that? In particular, why is there no provision in that bill to provide for the creation of new benefits, which was a key part of the Smith commission package on welfare devolution? We are certainly up in the irony stakes in this portfolio question time. I am almost speechless, but not quite. It is the case, as Mr Tomkins well knows, that ministers have the powers to create new benefits. Indeed, that is precisely what we are doing in replacing the sure start grant with our best start grant, bringing a considerable financial increase in support to mothers and not only the first child but all subsequent children, unlike the UK Government, which stops at the first child only. Mr Tomkins is quite wrong to say that there is somehow some failing in our condemnation of what the UK Government is doing around the benefit cap. Indeed, I concur completely with Mr Harvie. There are many other areas of the UK Government's welfare approach that require condemnation if only they would but listen to us, but he is quite wrong to suggest that we are deliberately and willfully choosing not to act in that regard. We do not require our social security bill to provide us with powers that we already have. To ask the Scottish Government what recent meetings the Cabinet Secretary has had with the community representatives in Caithness regarding concerns about the removal of services. Scottish Government ministers regularly meet the community representatives right across Scotland, including the Highland Council area, on a range of issues as part of our commitment to working in partnership to improve outcomes for the people of Scotland. Edward Mountain. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I am not sure that I answered the question. It was just that there were regular meetings. The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, but not with the people in Caithness and not necessarily by the Cabinet Secretary. The Cabinet Secretary will agree, I am sure, with me that building communities is something that we should all embrace. Communities add strength and cohesion to society. If she really wants to build and support communities, surely she needs to speak out against the possible closure of local hospitals, the possible downgrading of palliative care, the reduction of the number of residential care beds, the amalgamation of GP services, the reduction in public services. Will she join me in speaking out against those that help only to fragment communities like the communities in Caithness? Presiding Officer, I would have thought that Mr Mountain would have been better to have addressed the substantive part of his question to the Health Secretary. Nonetheless, from my portfolio, the Community Planning, Community Empowerment Act 2020 has given community planning partnerships new statutory duties. We work very closely with local government and our wider partners across the public service to look at how we can improve decision-making arrangements, strengthen local democracy, protect and renew public services and refresh the relationship between citizens, communities and councils. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support disabled people in the light of the paper published by the United Nations in October 2017, which sets out its concluding observations on its initial report about UK reforms. The United Nations concluding observations recognise the positive steps that the Scottish Government is taking, including the publication of our disability action plan involving disabled people in building a new social security system. Those are, of course, welcome. Now, in Scottish Government, we have begun a review of that action plan against those concluding observations and will move on to discuss with disabled people and organisations that represent them what we need to do to align our work to the areas highlighted by the UN. Indeed, I began that discussion this morning. In addition, I have written to the UK Government to ask them what they will do to address the concerns highlighted by the UN, in particular personal independence, payment regulations, employment and support allowance sanctions, and to involve disabled people in assessing UK Government policies, which will impact on their lives. The minister will be aware that there is a recommendation to, and I quote, ensure that legislation provides for the right to high-quality sign language interpretation and other forms of alternative communication in all spheres of life for deaf persons and hard-of-hearing persons in accordance with the convention. Can she advise how the Scottish Government will seek to ensure that it complies with this? As the member will know, the British Sign Language Scotland Act 2015 was passed and received Royal Assent in 2015. Members, I am sure, will know that, in following that up, we have published our first BSL national plan yesterday, the first such plan in the UK. We also recognise that delivering many of the improvements that we want to see depend on the availability of qualified BSL English interpreters with the right skills and experience. The Scottish Funding Council is already supporting an MA in BSL English interpreting. Over the next two years, we will sponsor two new training programmes, one at Heriot-Watt and one at Queen Margaret University, designed to support interpreters to work in the specialist fields of health, mental health and justice. We have also introduced and funded the first nationally funded BSL online interpreting video relay service. Finally, we fund an inclusive communication website that provides tools and guidance on how to make information accessible. To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to monitor and protect the social and human rights of young people. We remain committed to enhancing children's rights in all aspects of Scottish life. The Children and Young People Scotland Act 2014 places duties on Scottish ministers to consider how to give better or further effect to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and report every three years what steps they have taken and what they plan to do in the fall in three years. The first report, which will include input from children and young people, is due in 2018. The Scottish Government also reports progress through the UK State Party report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in line with the committee cycles. Children's rights and wellbeing impact assessments ensure that all portfolios consider the interests of children in developing new initiatives. In addition, the programme for government made clear our plans for a comprehensive audit on the most effective and practical ways to further embed the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in the Policy and Legislation, including the option of full incorporation into domestic law. I welcome the cabinet secretary's response. An anti-loitering device known as the mosquito, which emits a high-pitched sound effect in young people, has recently been installed at Hamilton Central Station in central Scotland region, but it is not an isolated case. The device indiscriminately affects all young people and has been roundly condemned by both the Scottish Parliament and the Children and Young People's Commissioner as being in breach of their human rights. Does the cabinet secretary agree that those devices have no place in a civilized society and that a ban on the mosquito is the only way forward to protect the social and human rights of our youngest citizens? I agree with Ms Lennon that those devices have no place in Scotland, and she might be aware that Annabelle Ewing, the Minister for Legal Affairs and Community Safety, wrote to all local authorities, public bodies and, crucially, given her constituency interest, ScotRail. In short, the Scottish Government is opposed to the use of these mosquito anti-loitering devices. We do not believe that there is a need. We do not believe that they are effective and that they do not sit well with our approach to tackling anti-social behaviour. From my perspective, I note the concerns and views of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and their concerns about whether and how measures such as those devices breach the rights of children and young people. We are currently looking at the evidence from a survey of young Scots done through young Scots. There were nearly 800 replies to that survey, and the response to Ms Ewing's correspondence will be very important as we consider what further action we may wish to take. Michelle Ballantyne National Care Leavers week runs until 28 October. Leaving care is a life-altering and often very difficult time for a young person. What action is the Scottish Government taking to promote young people's rights around continuing care and aftercare? How are those rights being effectively enforced to protect the welfare of those often very vulnerable young people? Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I thank the member for that question. Of course, the Children and Young People Act was a landmark legislation that did indeed introduce new responsibilities to the through and aftercare of looked after children. However, the essence of her point is that those children are our children and they are Scotland's parents. If people like me think that they have only got one child, they need to think again in that we have that parental responsibility towards all of our looked after children who are among some of the most disadvantaged young people in our society. There is a wealth of work taken forward by education ministers, the children and young persons ministers in particular, and there is work that is spearheaded by our own First Minister. In essence, it is about ensuring that our looked after young people at the end of the day improves their life chances and life opportunities. However, at the end of the day, like our children, they feel loved and wanted and that our responsibility is to have the same hope, dreams and ambitions for those children as we do our own. Can the minister further clarify the Government's progress towards undertaking a comprehensive audit on further embedding the principles of the UN convention on the rights of the child into policy and legislation? Given that, next year, looking ahead, it is the year of the young people, it is important that we re-look and refresh how we listen to the voices of young people and embed those voices of young people in all areas of our political and civic rights. On Ms Mackay's question, it is important that we adopt a fully participatory process and take our commitment forward in terms of the audit that she mentions. She might be interested to know that initial scoping work is under way and that includes discussions with stakeholders on the best way to include children and young people in this very important process. As outlined in last month's programme for government, the audit will start in 2018. To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to encourage more people to carry out voluntary work in their communities. The programme for government recognises the very vital role volunteers play in shaping Scotland and the positive contribution that they make to our society. We have set out our commitment to reinvigorate volunteering in Scotland, building on positive trends for youth engagement and continuing to support people in their volunteering. In June, I announced £3.8 million over the next four years for the Volunteer Support Fund to promote community-led volunteering, with a particular focus on engaging volunteers from disadvantaged groups. In addition, we continue to provide direct funding to Volunteer Scotland and to the 32 third sector interfaces to encourage, promote and support volunteers and volunteers to communities across Scotland. What else brings? I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. Is the cabinet secretary aware of the recent research from volunteer Edinburgh that indicates that the number of adults in the capital here who volunteer is continuing to rise and is now at 35 per cent, one of the highest rates in Scotland? But what specific action can be taken to encourage people who have not volunteered to give their time to charities and other organisations, especially men in Scotland, to get them involved? Is there a clear lack of male volunteering in Scotland, particularly being reported by some charities who are looking to male befrienders to work with service users? The point that Mr Briggs makes about male befrienders is an important one. It is encouraging to hear those statistics in terms of the higher participation in adult volunteering in the city of Edinburgh. The average across Scotland is 27 per cent, so it is right to applaud the civic efforts of the city. It is indoubtable that the biggest gift that we can give anyone is the gift of our time and people volunteer without fuss, fanfare or rewards. We need to be clear that volunteering very much is the golden thread through the fabric of our society. In terms of what more we can do, MSPs of all shades have responsibilities to talk about the value of volunteering and how it benefits £2 billion to our economy. It enables volunteers themselves to upskill, to perhaps increase their wellbeing and employability. In terms of the work that this Government will take forward, we will develop a framework that very much looks at the evidence of the value of volunteering, so that there is a coherent compelling narrative that identifies the key outcomes that we all want to achieve with key data and evidence, and that we will be able to have an informed debate about the interventions that are most appropriate and successful. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work of the homelessness and rough sleeping action group. Thank you, Presiding Officer. The short-life homelessness and rough sleeping action group met for the first time on 5 October and immediately started working its first objective of what we can all do to minimise rough sleeping this winter. The action group will report back shortly on the issue. Its other objectives are to provide recommendations on ending rough sleeping longer-term, transforming temporary accommodation and ending homelessness in Scotland. In November, it will be meeting as part of a much larger event involving other partners. I thank the minister for that update and welcome the progress of the group. Can the minister also set out how the Scottish Government is working with Edinburgh City Council in particular to address the standard of temporary accommodation here in Edinburgh and the supply of affordable housing for those moving on from temporary accommodation? Presiding Officer, one of the homelessness and rough sleeping action groups' main objectives will be to make recommendations on how we can transform temporary accommodation in Scotland. Currently, 82 per cent of folk in temporary accommodation are in mainstream social housing, and I would like to see that number rise. Of course, all of that is against the background of UK Government welfare cuts, which means that less funding is available for temporary accommodation, but we are already committed to ensuring that all of that accommodation is the same standard as permanent accommodation. The action group will work with local authorities, such as the City of Edinburgh Council, to ensure that temporary accommodation plays a positive role in moving people on from homelessness. We will also continue to work with local authorities on that issue longer-term, through the group and beyond. We want temporary accommodation to be as short as possible, and we are increasing housing supply to help with that. Over this parliamentary period, the Scottish Government has allocated affordable housing supply programme funding of nearly £190 million to the City of Edinburgh, which we expect to deliver around 4,000 houses, primarily focusing on the social rented sector. There has been a rise in rough sleeping the last two winters, and I do not expect that this winter will be any different. I know that we are all concerned about that, but can the minister say whether he can take any immediate action, given that we know that we are going to face it this winter? There are significant resources that are used by charities such as the Bethany Trust and the City Mission. Is there anything that the Scottish Government can do this coming winter, as we know that, sadly, there will be hundreds of people sleeping and freezing on the streets of Scotland? As I stated in my earlier answer, one of the key objectives of the action group is to look at what we need to do this winter. Already, we have the winter shelter open here in Edinburgh. I understand that the winter shelter opened in Glasgow just the other week because of the weather conditions that there were during the course of Storm Ophelia. The action group is looking at this very carefully to see exactly what we need to do over the course of this winter. The Government will look carefully at all the recommendations that the group put forward, and we will take action accordingly. I agree completely and utterly with Pauline McNeill that it is unacceptable for folk to have to sleep rough. I wish that the UK Government would change its policies in terms of social security cuts, which are putting more and more folk at risk of having to sleep in the streets. To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that rural and urban communities receive equal support. The Scottish Government seeks to support of Scotland rural and urban to create inclusive economic growth and development. We fund local authorities based on an assessment of needs, rather than geography, which ensures that local authorities receive their fair share and that the specific needs of urban and rural areas are considered. We recognise that rural communities have unique challenges that require specific support and interventions. That is why we have Highlands and Islands Enterprise and why we are creating a South of Scotland Enterprise Agency to respond to the challenges that are faced in the primarily rural areas. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. You have mentioned the rural and urban support specifically. However, the member will know that mobility is a lot harder in rural areas than in urban areas. With cuts to local council budgets, it is even harder for older people to get around rural constituencies such as the Scottish Borders. How will the Scottish Government work to ensure that older people can keep their independence without being cut off from society? Ms Hamill's question touches on an area that is a good example of cross-portfolio working. She may be aware that the Minister for Social Security is currently working on a social isolation strategy. I should stress that social isolation is not just an issue for older people. There are huge issues for some of our younger people and other groups. However, that strategy will look at how we can ensure to the good cross-government endeavour and some of the issues that she raises. The issue about mobility is an important one. Obviously, I am aware that she represents that Transport Scotland is currently looking at a border transport corridor project, which is a pre-application stage. Transport Scotland will have obligations to think about the needs of older people and people with disabilities. However, we will keep the member informed of our work on social isolation, because it is relevant to the work that the transport minister leads. To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that two thirds of people with epilepsy have had their PIP benefits downgraded or denied with some consequently reporting suicidal feelings. The roll-out of PIP has indeed been beset by delays, as has led to many people having to undergo stressful assessments. For many people, their claim for PIP has been downgraded or denied, as has been outlined yet again by epilepsy action. Our response is repeatedly to call on the UK Government to halt the roll-out of PIP in Scotland. We are not the only ones, many organisations have also said that the roll-out should be halted. Most recently, in terms of the UK programme, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which was specifically called for a review of PIP regulations, but the UK Government continues to roll out PIP. Here in Scotland, the Government is committing to building a rights-based social security system, which is precisely what we are currently undertaking. I thank the minister for that answer. Does she agree that those statistics only go to highlight the abject failure of the UK Government's running of the social security system? Can she set out exactly how the Scottish Government plans to do things differently, particularly in regard to the assessment process under the new Scottish social security system? I thank the member for that additional question. I agree that that is why I have made a number of commitments in regard to assessments, in particular including a clear commitment that profit-making companies will not be involved in delivering health assessments for disability benefits and that we will end the revolving door of repeat assessments. The expert group, chaired by Dr Jim McCormick of the Joseph Rowntey Foundation, has been specifically tasked by me to work out the detail of our assessment process, drawing on views from our experience panels, so that we gather the information that is required at first decision-making point and consequently reduce the need for the number of one-to-one health assessments.