Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government recognises the serious impact housebreaking has on its victims.

The Scottish Government is committed to protecting and supporting frontline services and local community policing across the whole of Scotland - supported by this Government's continued commitment to 1,000 additional officers and our ambitious Building Safer Communities Programme which seeks to reduce the number of victims of crime in Scotland by 250,000 by 2017-18.

We are working closely with Police Scotland, councils and other national partners to make Scotland safer and stronger, the evidence of which can be seen in a continued reduction in recorded crime, down by more than a quarter since 2007.

As outlined in the answer to S4W-30268 on 15 March 2016 from the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Communities and Pensioners' Rights, Scottish Ministers have expressed our concern to the UK Government about the impact on asylum seekers of proposals contained in their Immigration Bill.

In Scotland, asylum seekers are able to apply for publicly funded legal assistance under the same eligibility criteria as any applicant facing legal proceedings and their legal status is not a barrier. In general terms, residency is not considered when applying for legal aid in Scotland. Where it is available under the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986, a person can apply for and be granted legal assistance subject to the statutory tests.

For asylum cases at the Immigration and Asylum Tribunal, asylum seekers can access ‘assistance by way of representation’. In most cases only a means test is applied and all of these applications will be passed on merits.

In additional to the general availability of publicly funded legal assistance, the Scottish Government has provided £100,000 of funding in 2015-16 for a specific project run by the Legal Services Agency which works with women and children in Scotland who have an unsettled asylum/immigration position and who have experienced gender-based violence in their country of origin and/or the UK. This project can provide advice, assistance and representation on claiming asylum in the UK and immigration status.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The Minister for Housing and Welfare wrote to all local authorities in September 2015, about the issue of households containing children and pregnant women being placed in B&B accommodation.

The letter highlighted that the use of B&B accommodation for these households should only be in exceptional circumstances and for a very short period of time. Local authority responses were encouraging with all clear of the importance attached to minimising or eradicating use of B&B for these households.

The HL2 dataset gives the snapshot number of households in temporary accommodation at the end of each quarter.

Information on the number of households, broken down by local authority and type of temporary accommodation, on the last day of each quarter is available in table 4 of the following worksheet: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0049/00492173.xls.

Information on individual temporary accommodation placements is not currently held centrally. However, from 1 April 2016, local authorities will begin recording this information via the HL3 return.

Scottish Government homelessness statistics are available at:

www.gov.scot/homelessstats.

The HL2 dataset gives the snapshot number of households in temporary accommodation at the end of each quarter.

Information on the number of households, broken down by local authority and type of temporary accommodation, on the last day of each quarter is available in table 4 of the following worksheet: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0049/00492173.xls.

Information on individual temporary accommodation placements is not currently held centrally. However, from 1 April 2016, local authorities will begin recording this information via the HL3 return.

Scottish Government homelessness statistics are available at:

www.gov.scot/homelessstats.

The removal of asylum seekers is a matter for the Home Office. This is not a police function.

Home Office Immigration Enforcement (HOIE) officers may ask for Police Scotland’s assistance as a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of asylum seekers, HOIE personnel and the general public.

The Scottish Government believes that asylum seekers must be treated humanely and fairly, and with their dignity and rights upheld, at every stage of the asylum process. This is particularly important in cases where claims are not successful, where people are returned to their countries of origin and where children are involved.

This is a matter for Police Scotland.

This is an operational matter for Police Scotland. However, I understand that Police Scotland continues to treat housebreaking as a priority.

This is a matter for Police Scotland.

Immigration legislation prevents the Scottish Government from offering support to asylum seekers with children, whose applications have been refused, and who have no recourse to public funds.