Chamber and committees

It is a matter for local licensing authorities to determine how to licence taxis and private hires within their areas within the powers they are provided with in the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982. This includes in terms of setting conditions as part of granting a licence. It is open to local licensing authorities to set conditions that may relate to payment methods that must be offered within taxis and private hires. For taxi and private hire operators themselves, offering card payment as an option would seem an important aspect to consider given the wide proliferation of card payment methods that are in common use.

More generally, the Scottish Government Taxi and Private Hire Car Licensing - Best Practice Guidance for Licensing Authorities and Taxi and Private Hire Car Operators recognises the importance of flexible transport services and makes clear that it is possible for taxis and private hire cars to provide flexible transport services in a number of different ways. Such services can play a valuable role in meeting a range of transport needs. Local licensing authorities are encouraged, as a matter of best practice, to play their part in promoting flexible services, so as to increase the availability of transport to the travelling public.

The Rural Delivery Plan Ministerial Working Group was established in June 2023 to oversee the development of the Rural Delivery Plan, with meetings held approximately quarterly. A date for the next meeting will be confirmed soon.

Preparatory work and engagement is underway to develop the Rural Delivery Plan. A data dashboard was published in December 2023, measurable objectives are being considered and investment mapped. The Rural Scotland Data Dashboard can be found at https://infogram.com/1pzg5qxldkwy2zf29ve97mvgdmb1dggnyrm?live .

Minutes from the Rural Delivery Plan Ministerial Working Group are publicly available and provide details of key developments of the Rural Delivery Plan. Minutes can be found online at www.gov.scot/groups/rural-delivery-plan-ministerial-working-group/ .

The Rural Delivery Plan Ministerial Working Group is supported by officials from the Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands portfolio, and a small amount of funding will be dedicated to supporting the Rural Delivery Plan.

The Rural Delivery Plan is an opportunity to set out the actions that government is and will be taking which impact rural, island and rural coastal communities, with funding from across ministerial portfolios benefiting rural Scotland.

The Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund had an annual budget of £120 million and ran from 2021-22 to 2022-23. It supported delivery of the Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan Coronavirus (COVID-19): mental health - transition and recovery plan - summary - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and funding was allocated on an annual basis to a number of different organisations and delivery partners including the Third Sector, Local Authorities and NHS Boards. From 2023-24, the Recovery and Renewal Fund annual budget has been incorporated into the overall direct programme budget for mental health.

Going forwards, the direct programme budget for mental health published in the 2024-25 Scottish budget will be used to meet the priorities set out in our recently published Mental Health and Wellbeing strategy 2023-25 Mental health and wellbeing strategy - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

We remain committed to fair regulation of short-term let accommodation, which provides assurance to guests on safety and quality such as gas and electrical safety compliance and the suitability of hosts. We have listened to the sector and we have already made a number of changes to legislation and guidance, including extending the deadline for the overall scheme, and on 16 May I will lay an amending SSI, which makes further operational updates based on a range of feedback.

I have also written to the relevant lead committee to set out the monitoring we are undertaking of the new regulations, which includes ongoing engagement with stakeholders from the sector, local authorities, and residents groups. I have listened to specific feedback from Airbnb when I have met them in recent months, and I am cognisant of their desire to continue to build confidence in Scotland’s tourism offer ,which will also be achieved by stability of the scheme, which is still in a transitional phase. The global platforms I have met have said it is too early to draw conclusions on licensing more widely, and especially difficult to attribute trends to any one of multiple factors, however I would welcome any information they are willing to share as we prepare to provide a further implementation update to Parliament in the coming months.

I have asked Janet Egdell, Chief Executive of National Records of Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

National Records of Scotland have today published: “ Scotland’s Census 2022: Ethnic group, national identity, language and religion ”.

The publication includes unrounded population estimates and the first set of topic data from the 2022 census. Topic data includes census tables for the following variables:

• Ethnic group
• National identity
• Country of birth
• Religion
• Passports held
• Main language
• Gaelic language skills
• Scots language skills
• English language skills
• British Sign Language

Topic variables are broken down by age and sex. Where possible, data will be published at the lowest geographic level possible following assessment of disclosure protection.

Scotland’s Census results are designated as National Statistics and form an integral part of the statistical system in the UK. The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR), the independent regulatory arm of the UK Statistics Authority , awards Accredited Official Statistics designation based on the quality, good practice and comprehensiveness of official statistics.

More detail about the schedule for future reports can be found at: https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/about/2022-census/census-outputs-schedule/

This question relates to recommendations in the report on HM Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland (HMIPS)’s inspection of the prosecution of summary domestic abuse cases which was instructed by the Lord Advocate and was published on 17 April 2024.

The relevant recommendations are:

Recommendation 6

COPFS should ensure that domestic abuse cases at summary level are prepared effectively. This will require that:

(a) new information is brought to the attention of deputes and acted on promptly

(b) deputes are available to deal with urgent and unexpected queries as they arise

(c) the tasking of reporting officers is followed up timeously

(d) action is taken to address any risks to the efficient progression of the case

(e) deputes have sufficient time to address issues during their case preparation.

Recommendation 11

As well as monitoring the domestic abuse waiting period, COPFS should work with its partners to monitor the overall journey time for domestic abuse cases. This monitoring should lead to action to address any barriers to progressing cases efficiently.

The Lord Advocate has accepted these recommendations.

COPFS is commencing work in relation to the areas identified in the HMIPS report and will provide updates on the work undertaken in implementing the recommendations contained within the report in due course.

The majority of NHS dental services are provided by independent contractors, including corporate entities, who not employed by the NHS but instead make ‘arrangements’ with NHS Boards to provide dental services in their area. As the Scottish Government has no direct control on recruitment within these private businesses, policy focus to date has been placed on improving the NHS offer by introducing a new fee scale and increasing the incentives available to the independent sector to provide NHS dental services. The initial impression from the sector has been encouraging in welcoming the changes to NHS fees.

In addition, we continue to make available targeted ‘golden-hello’ workforce incentives in areas where access has proved more challenging; this pays out up to £37,500 for dental trainees who join the dental list in a qualifying area.

In recognising that we have no direct levers to improve recruitment, at the national level we are focused on actions to improve the workforce supply, including leading discussions with UK and other devolved governments on our shared challenges. We therefore welcome the consultation brought forward by UK Government to vary the General Dental Council’s powers, allowing for a new provisional registration status to allow overseas dentists to enter the workforce much more quickly, and we are having preparatory discussions with stakeholders to understand how this could work in practice. Alongside work to improve international pipelines, we are also working to consider our domestic routes into dentistry and other dental care professions by ensuring that our educational offering reflects workforce need in all areas of the country.

By increasing the fees payable to NHS dentistry and improving workforce supply, the intention is to provide an improved landscape for independent contractors and dental bodies corporate to sustain NHS dental services into the medium- to longer-term.

There have been preliminary discussions at official level with the UK Government.