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The Minister for Local Government and Communities attended the COSLA Housing Convenors Conference on 13 December where, as part of a wide ranging discussion, tackling fuel poverty was discussed.

Scottish Government officials meet regularly with COSLA and Local Authorities to discuss fuel poverty and our programmes. Officials met with COSLA on 20 January and 21 September, no formal record of these meetings was taken. COSLA are also represented on our Scotland’s Energy Efficiency Programme Board which met on
5 September and 14 December and tackling fuel poverty is sometimes discussed at these. A note of these meetings is taken but not published. Minutes can be made available on request if needed.

Officials met with Local Authority officers working on energy efficiency on
12 September. These events are not minuted.

Local Authorities are also represented on the Fuel Poverty Forum which last met on 15 December. The minutes of the December 2016 meeting will be published following sign off by members at the next scheduled meeting on 20 April. Minutes of 2016 meetings are published via the following link

The Scottish Government’s consultation on Scotland’s Energy Efficiency Programme runs until 30 May 2017 and the Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies, and Regulation of District Heating is open until 18 April 2018. A series of workshops and events have been held to support this and numerous local authorities have been involved. Tackling fuel poverty has been discussed at these sessions but no minutes have been taken.

The Scottish Government is considering the detail of the proposals outlined by Professor Crerar, the views of the Ministerial Review Group and wider interests in taking forward the development of the Strategic Board. In line with “On Board” guidance, we have confirmed that individual Agencies will continue to employ and appoint Chief Executives to undertake their formal responsibilities in delivering the functions of the agencies. The Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work has committed to make a statement to Parliament in the coming weeks.

Public sector bodies have a duty to secure Best Value in public services, including partnership working to use resources more effectively judged across the public sector as a whole. Decisions regarding such arrangements are matters for individual boards.

On Board: A Guide for Board Members of Public Bodies in Scotland, provides essential information to Board members of public bodies in Scotland to help them understand their role. The application of “On Board" and arrangements for board meetings are matters for individual public bodies, in line with their statutory responsibilities.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-07778 on 15 March 2017. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at

The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to supporting food and drink producers from across Scotland, including those located across the islands and regions. The industry leadership body, Scotland Food and Drink, has recently facilitated an extensive engagement exercise with businesses across Scotland to help inform the development of a new national food and drink strategy - as part of that, ideas were sought on actions to further promote island and regional produce. The new strategy will be published soon and, when it is, we will set out our plans for further supporting the industry.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

Other than a prison, young people on remand can be held overnight in a Young Offenders Institution or a Legalised Police Cell (LPC). A LPC would only be used in exceptional circumstances where, for example, severe weather conditions impeded a return to the mainland from the Outer Hebrides.

The Rural Economy Hub is an internal Scottish Government mechanism that brings together all parts of Government working in areas that support Scotland's rural economy, and co-ordinates them into a single coherent framework that maximises the impact of policy interventions on the rural economy, and thus the delivery of the Scottish Government's aspirations for rural Scotland.

This co-ordinating mechanism is resourced by officials from within existing resources, with a remit to develop actions which will help to grow economic activity which flows from and directly supports rural communities, including those on the islands, which will benefit from this focused approach.

One of the actions of this work will be engagement with stakeholders on how to build on the current platform and increase the delivery of a strong sustainable rural economy and stakeholders will be asked for their views in due course.

Given that this is an internal mechanism, there are no plans to publish the names of officials who are engaged on the work or any minutes of meetings at this time. However, the Scottish Government is committed to being inclusive and transparent and therefore another action flowing for this Hub will consider how best to ensure that there is a two way flow of information on this important subject.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-07778 on 15 March 2017. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-05429 on 14 December 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

Further to the information previously provided, an additional £1.5m has been allocated for distribution amongst the 32 local authorities to support bail services for women in 2017-18.