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From April 2013 to 2015-16, the Scottish Government’s current and planned funding will result in an investment of £296 million to mitigate the effects of the UK Government’s welfare reforms.

Details are as follows:

*Welfare reform mitigation includes funding for organisations that provide advice and support services to help people affected by welfare reform. This includes funding for Citizens Advice Scotland and continued support for the Making Advice Work grant funding programme and the new Tackling Money Worries grant funding programme administered by the Scottish Legal Aid Board. The funding also supports actions to tackle poverty, particularly child poverty including activity designed to maximise household resources for vulnerable groups, and initiatives with the third sector, local authorities and others impacted by welfare reform.

There is a statutory duty on planning authorities under section 36A of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 to maintain a list of applications made to them and to publish this on the internet (Regulation 22 of the

In respect of each application the details published must include:

The reference number of the application;

The site location;

The name of the applicant and, where an agent is acting for the applicant, the name and address of that agent;

A description of the proposed development; and

The expiry date of the period for representations to be received.

The list of applications must also contain a statement as to how further information may be obtained from the planning authority.

Planning authorities are also required to maintain a register of applications for planning permission (section 36(1) of the Act). The register is to be available for public inspection at an office of the planning authority. The planning authority may make the register available on their website. The information that must be recorded in the register is set out in Schedule 2 of the Development Management Procedure Regulations. The information published in the register is more detailed than the list and includes such items as copies of plans and drawings, decision notices and a report of handling. The report of handling includes, amongst other things; information on representations made by the public and the main issues raised, details of consultation with statutory consultees, any Environmental Impact Assessment or other reports undertaken and details of development plan policies and other material consideration considering in determining the application. The register is in two parts – information on the application on part 1 and then information on the decision (e.g. decision notice, report of handling) on part 2.

Scottish Government guidance on handling planning applications and the publication of the list and register is set out in Planning Circular 3/2013: . The Scottish Government has also published guidance, in collaboration with the Information Commissioner’s Office and planning authorities, on . When making documents available, the Scottish Government encourages authorities to recognise that publishing information online provides the public with an opportunity to participate in the planning process in a way that is most convenient to them and to promote transparent decision making. The guidance provides ‘good practice’ suggestions and was intended to offer clarification on some of the uncertainties with regard to the publishing information online and complying with data protection principles.

There is no statutory time period for public scrutiny of planning applications published on the web.

Planning authorities are required to publish on the internet, as part of the list of applications, the date by which representations to the planning application must be received. This date is set by the planning authority and must be not less than 21 days after the date on which notice is sent to the owner, lessee or occupier of premises on any land neighbouring the development. Additionally, where there is a requirement to publish notice of the application in a local newspaper, it must be not less than 14 days from the date of publication.

Scottish Government guidance, set out in Planning Series Circular 3/2013: , recommends that planning authorities arrange that planning applications are published online in the list of applications on the same date as notice is sent out and, where required, published in the newspaper, and the time periods for representations in notices and newspapers are aligned.

The Scottish Government monitors a limited number of applications which it considers are of national and strategic importance.

Scottish Ministers also have a general power to intervene in the determination of a planning application where it appears there may be some matter of genuine national interest at stake. In practice, ministers will exercise this power very sparingly, recognising and respecting the role of authorities in decision making.

The Scottish Government collate and publish statistics on planning authority decision making timescales and also asks authorities to submit an annual planning performance framework setting out details of service provided and a plan for improvement. Ministers also have powers to vary planning application fees for any authority it considers is not performing adequately.

Where a member of the public is concerned about the process by which an application was handled and the decision reached they can submit a complaint to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman for consideration.

This is a matter for the organisations in question. However, in general terms, the Scottish Government considers that it is important that the views of service users are considered by the organisations which provide services and support to them.

The Scottish Government considers that it is important that those directly affected by a policy, and the organisations which represent them, are given an opportunity to contribute to its development and implementation. Consultation is an essential and important aspect of how the Scottish Government develops policy.

In general, consultation exercises aim to provide opportunities for all those who wish to express their opinions on a proposed area of work to do so in ways which will inform and enhance that work.

The Scottish Government's international development budget does not provide funding for any projects whose sole function is to deliver HIV education/awareness raising. The budget does fund projects which contain an element of HIV education/awareness raising as part of their overall remit.

An example is the Karonga Girls and Boys Empowerment Project in Malawi, to which the Scottish Government is contributing nearly £400,000. The project addresses issues that can have a wide range of negative impacts, including exacerbation of problems related to HIV and AIDS. These include: harmful cultural practices; low household income; and increased exposure to HIV.

Funding for this and other projects is provided for the projects in their entirety and specific amounts are not allocated to the HIV education/awareness raising aspects. It is therefore not possible to calculate the spend on this element of each project.

Whilst the interim results of the PROUD study of pre-exposure prophylaxis are encouraging, we should await the full results before taking any decisions. Once the full results are available we will work with the NHS and other interested stakeholders to consider our approach to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) as part of a package of HIV prevention interventions. Any decisions on PrEP will be informed by recommendations from the British HIV Association, British Association for Sexual Health and HIV and the UK Expert Advisory Group on AIDS.

Our current policy on PrEP reflects the joint position statement, issued by British HIV Association/British Association for Sexual Health and HIV on pre-exposure prophylaxis in the UK in 2012 which states that “ad hoc prescribing is avoided, and that PrEP is only prescribed in the context of a clinical research study in the UK”.

Development of the refreshed Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Framework is currently in its early stages and we are consulting with a variety of stakeholders. The refreshed framework will be published in summer 2015 but no decisions on any specific recommendations have yet been made.

Any decisions specifically relating to pre-exposure prophylaxis will be based on recommendations from the British HIV Association, British Association for Sexual Health and HIV and the UK Expert Advisory Group on AIDS.