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The Scottish Government is committed to increasing our knowledge of the possible links between neurodegenerative disease (including dementia) and sports-related brain injury.

We recognise a call to establish a working group on this issue and we will respond directly in due course as part of our on-going consideration of this issue.

A University of Glasgow study on lifelong health outcomes in former professional footballers, especially in relation to dementia, was published in 2019 and contained evidence of a possible increased risk of dementia for professional ex-footballers. Further work is underway to establish why footballers and rugby-players may be at greater risk and we will also give full consideration to the report published in August led by Dr Willie Stewart.

We remain in close contact on these issues with experts at the sportscotland Institute of Sport and the Chief Medical Officer at the Scottish FA and will work with partners, including PFA Scotland, to carefully consider emerging evidence on former footballers developing dementia.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of Neighbourhood Watch schemes before 2012. In 2012, there were approximately 1,500 Neighbourhood Watch Schemes in Scotland and the most recent figures to June 2021 show that there are now 1,976 Schemes registered.

Since March this year, 36 new Watches have been registered. Additionally, there has been an increase in the number of people signing up to receive free ALERTS, both as individuals and as points of contact for organisations, with total current figures at 26,832 individual registrations.

The Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 provides local authorities with a discretionary power to set up workplace parking licensing (WPL) schemes.

As set out in our Climate Change Plan Update, we remain committed to plans to take forward policy consultation in advance of drafting regulations and guidance to enable local authorities to implement WPL schemes, should they wish to do so.WPL schemes have the potential to encourage the use of more sustainable travel modes, reducing congestion, improving air quality and reducing emissions.

The Scottish Government is currently consulting on the regulatory framework and supporting guidance which will underpin local authorities’ WPL schemes, with a view to this being in force in 2022. The consultation is available here:

It will then be for local authorities to decide whether they wish to implement WPL locally and to shape proposals to suit local circumstances. Local authorities will be required to undertake a public consultation and impact assessments before implementing a WPL scheme.

Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit is currently delivered by the UK Government. The UK Government do not currently consider dementia as an industrial injury.

A University of Glasgow study on lifelong health outcomes in former professional footballers, especially in relation to dementia, was published in 2019 containing evidence of possible increased risk of dementia for this group. Further work is underway to establish why footballers may be at greater risk and we will give full consideration to the report published into this subject in August 2021 led by Dr Willie Stewart.

We remain in close contact on these issues with experts at the sportscotland Institute of Sport and the Chief Medical Officer at the Scottish FA and will work with partners, including PFA Scotland, to carefully consider emerging evidence on former footballers developing dementia.

We are funding a new body, Brain Health Scotland, for five years , to embed brain health within clinical services and across public health. As part of this, we are exploring links between pilot brain health clinics from next year and the feasibility of additional national work focussing specifically on brain injury.

Statistics detailing a range of information on the Scottish Welfare Fund including application numbers and awards are published on the Scottish Government website monthly, quarterly and annually. The annual update for 2020-21 lists application numbers and awards by local authority area for each year since the Fund began in 2013. These statistics can be found here:

Our Housing to 2040 strategy includes a vision that everyone who can is enabled to live independently in a home of their choice. Local authorities are responsible for assessing the housing needs in their areas and setting out in their Local Housing Strategies how this will be met. Local Housing Strategy guidance published in September 2019 also requires local authorities to set targets for wheelchair accessible housing across all tenures, including reporting annually on progress.

Through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP), we provide a range of housing including new build, off the shelf purchases and rehabilitation projects. For new build projects, wherever possible, all affordable homes are built to Housing for Varying Needs standards. This standard sets out good practice on the design of housing to achieve flexibility and suitability for people of all abilities. Our annual AHSP Outturn Reports publish the percentage of affordable new build home completions meeting Housing for Varying Needs standards.

The following table shows, of the information returned, the percentage of new build social rent, mid-market rent and low cost home ownership homes supported through the AHSP, which have met that standard since 2005.

In addition to supporting new accessible affordable homes, in the period between 2007-08 and 2019-21 a total of £175 million has been provided directly to housing associations to help them provide adaptations for older and disabled tenants.

The Covid emergency gave rise to an unprecedented number of enquiries, questions and correspondence from members of the public. These covered a broad range of topics, including issues relevant to civil, political, economic, social and cultural human rights.

As announced on 24 August, the Scottish Government will establish an independent Scottish public inquiry this year to consider matters in relation to Scotland’s handling of the pandemic. The Scottish public inquiry is expected to adopt a person-centred, human rights based approach.

The Scottish Government is currently inviting views on the draft aims and principles of the public inquiry. Further information about how ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and other interested parties can submit their views can be found at .

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of antisocial behaviour cases reported since 1999.

Since its formation as a national force in 2013/14, Police Scotland publish information on the number of publicly reported antisocial behaviour incidents. This is provided in the table below though should be interpreted with some caution as it is drawn from a live operational database, and not produced as Official Statistics. As the Highlands & Islands division was not added to Police Scotland’s National Command and Control system until 2018/19, data for this year onwards is not comparable with preceding years. Furthermore Police Scotland have noted that the reported increase in 2020-21 is mainly due to the exceptional circumstances of the pandemic, with a rise in complaints and neighbour disputes relating to potential breaches of Covid-19 restrictions.

As not all antisocial behaviour is reported to the police, measuring change over time is best done using population-based statistics. The Scottish Crime & Justice Survey shows the proportion of adults who feel people behave in an antisocial manner in their area has fallen from 46% in 2008-09 to 33% in 2019-20 (with no change identified between 2018-19 and 2019-20).

The exact information is not available, as National Records of Scotland only began collecting this data from 2017 onwards. The latest report, ‘Deaths of People Experiencing Homelessness in Scotland’, can be found here: .

Please note that these are experimental statistics and remain under development. Users should refer to the limitations section of each report before interpreting these statistics.

Earlier reports can be found here: .

Supplementary data tables can be found here: .

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