Chamber and committees

The taskforce has established four subgroups to focus on attraction, education and development, leadership and culture, and wellbeing. All subgroups are considering retention as part of their remit. Each subgroup will formulate and provide recommended actions to the main taskforce. The Taskforce is making good progress with the development of its recommended actions and will continue to work until members have agreed a comprehensive action plan. We anticipate the publication of a report later in 2024.

Hotels are not listed as ‘relevant buildings’ within the meaning of the Building Scotland (Amendment) Regulations 2022. All new and converted hotels having a storey, or creating a storey at a height of 11 metres or more above the ground, must comply with the relevant mandatory functional standards, including mandatory standard 2.7 that requires the fire spread on external walls to be inhibited.

BS 8414 testing and the assessment criteria in BR 135 may be used for hotels as an alternative route to compliance with the mandatory standards. The continued use of this alternative solution for hotels over 11 metres in height is currently being considered by the Building and Fire Safety Expert Working Group.

In 2024-25 Skills Development Scotland (SDS) will receive around £200m in funding from The Scottish Government to deliver against our priorities, including our net zero ambitions as outlined in key strategies such as the upcoming Just Transition Plans and Green Industrial Strategy.

The impact assessments for the E&S portfolio were prepared collectively and reflected in the Education and Skills portfolio analysis section in Annex B of the Equality and Fairer Scotland statement available at this link Scottish Budget - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Corporate governance and accountability arrangements for public bodies are in place and built around an established series of statutory and administrative mechanisms. These ensure consistent processes and parameters, based on the principles in the Scottish Public Finance Manual, within which public bodies are required to operate in terms of the stewardship of public money, propriety and ethics.

This is supplemented by framework agreements that Scottish Government has in place with most public bodies setting out respective roles and responsibilities, including requirement for bodies to set plans which contribute to achievement of the National Performance Framework outcomes, including tackling poverty. These activities and the sponsorship and relationship arrangements the Scottish Government has with public bodies helps ensure that Scottish Ministers priorities are delivered.

Scottish Government funding to local authorities is allocated using a relative needs-based formula, taking into account disadvantage and various other considerations, including levels of deprivation. While local authorities decide how to spend their available finances they are guided by a set of national and local outcomes, with the Equality Act and associated specific duties providing a framework to help local authorities pay due regard to equality issues.

Specifically, local authorises, and other certain public bodies, in Scotland are subject to the Fairer Scotland Duty, which places a legal responsibility on them to actively consider how they can reduce inequalities of outcome caused by socio-economic disadvantage, when making strategic decisions.

The Scottish Government carries out Equality Impact Assessments on all new policies as required under the Equality Act 2010 and the associated Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED). PSED requires public authorities to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations across all the protected characteristics, including age. These assessments draw upon existing research and data on equality issues, as well as the lived experience of those impacted. Specifically for older people, the assessments analyse and identify any potential impacts using evidence from relevant sources and direct feedback from older people's organisations.

Where relevant impacts on older people are identified through this evidence-based process, mitigating actions are carefully considered. The Scottish Government also directly engages with stakeholder groups representing older people, such as our trusted partners in the Older People’s Strategic Action Forum (OPSAF), to ensure their real-world views and experiences inform policymaking from the outset.

Since the establishment, the Nursing and Midwifery taskforce has held four ministerial led meetings in April, July, December 2023 and March 2024. The taskforce has also held two official led meetings in June 2023 and March 2024.

The Scottish Government publishes the agreed minutes and actions from each meeting on its website: www.gov.scot/groups/nursing-and-midwifery-taskforce/

To meet our commitment to increasing Residential Rehabilitation capacity by 50%, from 425 beds to 650 beds by the end of the parliamentary term in 2026, over £38 million has been made available through two rounds of the Residential Rehabilitation Rapid Capacity Programme (RRRCP). Investment in these projects combined will provide a total increase of 172 beds by 2025/26, boosting the current rehab capacity in Scotland from 425 to 597 – an increase of over 40%.

Despite there being no further openings of the projects funded through the RRRCP during the time frame you asked about, some are expected to be completed later this year. Aberlour’s Mother and Child recovery unit in Dundee opened in January 2023, with their second house in Falkirk opening in summer 2024. The expansion at Maxie Richards, Tighnabruaich is due to be complete summer 2024 and CrossReach, Inverness in January 2025. There is also the development of a new Residential Rehabilitation service for the North East run by Phoenix Futures which is due to open in early 2025.

The Scottish Government recognises the devastating impact land mines have, killing and maiming thousands each year. Indiscriminate and unpredictable, their presence drives whole communities from their homes and land. That is why, in September 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Scottish Government provided £300,000 to the Halo Trust. Through this grant, teams on the ground were able to cover 206,663m2 enabling Ukrainian famers to safely farm their land again. This not only benefitted 14,000 people in Ukraine, but the clearance of agricultural land is playing a crucial role towards restoring global food security.

he Framework for Effective Cancer Management provides NHS Cancer Teams with the tools to effectively manage people with a suspicion of cancer, from the point of referral to first treatment. A refresh of the Framework will take place in 2024 to ensure each key element has been reviewed and updated, providing NHS Cancer Teams with the tools to effectively manage patients with a suspicion of cancer, from the point of referral to first treatment.

Work is underway to redesign cancer diagnostic services with new optimal cancer diagnostic pathways published for Lung Cancer and Head & Neck Cancers. Work is underway to redesign the colorectal cancer diagnostic pathway.

In addition we have now established five Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services to provide primary care with a new referral route for patients with non-specific symptoms of cancer in NHS Ayrshire & Arran, NHS Borders, NHS Dumfries & Galloway, NHS Fife and NHS Lanarkshire.

The recommendations made by the UK Government's Animal Welfare Committee are still being considered. Improving aquaculture health and welfare is an ethical responsibility and is one of the main priorities that is enshrined in our Vision for Sustainable Aquaculture.

The Scottish Government is committed to the highest possible welfare standards for animals, including fish. It is now standard practice for all farmed salmon and large farmed trout in Scotland to be killed using a percussive or electrical stunning methods delivering irreversible instantaneous unconsciousness. Small farmed trout are killed using electrical stunning methods and all salmon killing facilities in Scotland operate CCTV on a voluntary basis. These were both recommendations made by the UK Government’s Animal Welfare Committee.