To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that homeless women are not safe in hostels. (S6O-03608)

It is vital that the use of emergency accommodation for women who are experiencing homelessness does not exacerbate any of the issues that may have led to them presenting as homeless, such as domestic abuse, mental health issues, substance use or a disability or impairment.

Temporary accommodation is an important safety net and, when support services are provided, care must be taken to ensure the safety of everyone who is accommodated. Our homelessness statistics show that accommodation in the social rented sector is the most common type of temporary accommodation that is used by local authorities. Social rented accommodation accounts for 55 per cent of the temporary accommodation that is used by local authorities, with hostels being used in only a small number—9 per cent—of cases.

The most recent figures, which go up to 2022, show that 67 women in Scotland had died in homeless accommodation over a three-year period. The fact that the situation is getting steadily worse as a result of systemic failure is acknowledged by the Scottish Housing Regulator.

Sinead Watson, a 33-year-old woman who spent 40 weeks in homeless accommodation, spoke of her experience. She said:

“Over the past months, I have stayed in three separate hostels. I have been threatened, assaulted and robbed. I have had no sense of security or safety, and women with addiction are bribed into sex. I saw it in all three hostels that I stayed in. The women in these hostels are fair game.”

We urgently need to provide safe and secure same-sex emergency housing to stop more women dying. That would be a simple first step in ensuring that these vulnerable women in crisis are not put at further risk of rape, sexual assault and trauma.

Ms Regan, we need a question.

Will the Government commit to protecting vulnerable women in crisis by ensuring that temporary accommodation in Scotland is single sex?

I thank Ash Regan for raising such an important point and pointing out the trauma that women are going through.

The Scottish Government is committed to dignity and respect for all. The Equality Act 2010 provides protection for women. The Scottish Government strongly supports the separate and single-sex exceptions that are in the 2010 act, which allow for women to have single-sex spaces.

I agree with Ash Regan. The Government needs to understand the facts of what people are experiencing. The minister mentioned a figure of 9 per cent, but in Edinburgh it is much higher. People are being mixed together in unacceptable situations: families, single men, and women who are experiencing homelessness. Often, those women have fled domestic abuse but are put into those situations, and they then leave them to become homeless, because they feel safer on the streets. Will the minister look at reviewing the situation, and get the third sector to be part of that? In so many options out there, we do not use the third sector, and it wants to be part of a solution.

The Scottish Government’s delivering equally safe fund is providing more than £7 million this year to local women’s aid groups for support for services for women and children.

We have introduced provisions in the Housing (Scotland) Bill that, if passed, will put a duty on social landlords to develop and implement a domestic abuse policy that outlines how they will support their tenants who are at risk of homelessness, including protecting the right of women to stay safely in their own homes. We will continue to work closely with the housing and violence against women and girls sectors to develop statutory guidance to accompany that duty.