Chamber and committees

The policy rationale relating to the current age cap for access to living cost loans is to ensure a 5 year gap between the age cap and the UK State Pension Age. This allows students sufficient time to complete their studies, enter repayment and pay back some/all of their student loan.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information you request regarding defibrillators in schools.

You may wish to contact Scottish Local Authorities individually for information they may hold. The Scottish local government page of the Confederation of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) has contact information for these: https://www.cosla.gov.uk/councils .

I met with the UK Government’s Minister of State for Media, Tourism and Creative Industries on 13 June 2023, to discuss the imminent publication of the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Creative Industries Sector Vision.

The UK Government have not confirmed if there will be any Barnett consequentials as a consequence of their announcement.

The legal use of electric scooters and decisions around their introduction is broadly a reserved matter for the UK Government. The UK Government has stated its intention to bring forward a new regulatory framework for vehicles such as electric scooters, however the timescales for this are unclear.

Enabling the use of electric scooters through such a regulatory framework would also require amendments to devolved legislation, therefore the Scottish Government are monitoring developments in this area and will continue to engage with the Department for Transport on this matter.

It is not illegal to sell electric scooters in the UK, however responsible vendors will give customers accurate information about the legal restrictions on their use.

The Scottish Government currently has no formal position on the regulation of electric scooters, however this position is currently under review.

In Scotland, under current water quality legislation, the initiative for fluoridation of drinking water supplies rests with local NHS Boards. There are currently no plans to fluoridate the public water supply in Scotland, and any decision to do so would be the responsibility of individual NHS Boards in consultation with the public and Scottish Water. There have been no formal discussions with NHS Boards regarding water fluoridation.

The Scottish Government’s ability to respond to the current financial context is limited due to overall UK Government cuts and by the financial restrictions of devolution, requiring extremely hard funding decisions to be made across the budget. The Scottish Government values our culture sector and the contribution of the grassroots music industry to the cultural and economic offer in Scotland. We will continue to work with the sector to identify barriers to recovery, and do everything within our powers and resources to help it overcome these.

The latest data reported from Health Boards indicates 8415 claims were made and 8413 were successful and resulted in 99.97 percent of claims being granted in 2022-23. This data relates to all but one Health Board, NHS Borders. The Scottish Government is working with NHS Borders to ensure 2022-23 data is recorded appropriately.

As part of Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2030 , we are undertaking a National Speed Management Review. The review covers comprehensive analysis of all types of speed management policies and initiatives in Scotland as well as a review of what has been introduced in other countries throughout the world.

We are about to finalise the milestone 2 report, which will contain a number of recommendations and later this year will conduct stakeholder and public consultation to consider their views of whether any changes to speed limit policies and speed management measures should be introduced as part of our speed management plan.

There have been no power purchase agreements put in place so far for the sale of self-generated renewable energy to the grid under the current national framework agreement for the supply of electricity for the Scottish public sector. However, the new framework agreement which commences in April 2024 contains provisions for various type of PPAs.

The Scottish Government Published the Stroke Improvement Plan in June 2023, which considers the recommendations made in the Progressive Stroke Pathway and sets out the Scottish Government Policy on Stroke. An update on the recommendations made in section 5 of the Progressive Stroke Pathway, produced by the National Advisory Committee for Stroke (NACS), is as follows.

Awareness raising:

• Priority two of The Stroke Improvement Plan, published June 14, 2023, commits the Scottish Government to establishing the current degree of public understanding of stroke symptoms and the action required, and whether certain at-risk groups require different messaging.
• The Stroke Improvement Plan also commits the Scottish Government to supporting the delivery of Face, Arms, Speech, Time (FAST) campaigns, ensuring this messaging reaches all at-risk groups.
• We will work with third sector organisations and health marketing colleagues to consider the most effective way of raising public awareness, including the less common symptoms of stroke

Pre-hospital assessment:

• The Stroke Improvement Plan commits Scottish Government to supporting Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) in exploring the feasibility of using video call technology prior to arrival of ambulance resource to diagnose hyperacute strokes more accurately.
• SAS is progressing the development of a quality improvement initiative for operational ambulance crews to receive clinical feedback regarding diagnostic accuracy and the application of FAST.
• Work being undertaken to re-align NHS24 and SAS clinical pathways for suspected stroke patients to ensure consistent levels of response in-line with Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS) coding.
• In collaboration with NHS Tayside, SAS is progressing work to evaluate the use of the Los Angeles Motor Scale (LAMS) stroke screening tool.
• SAS is undertaking a comprehensive review of linked clinical data to understand link between clinical outcomes and priority dispatch coding, to ensure the most appropriate use of resources for patients most likely to benefit from thrombolysis and/or thrombectomy.

Appropriate referral:

• The appropriate referral of patients experiencing stroke events, including those with acute ongoing symptoms, resolved symptoms and stroke-like events remains the responsibility of clinicians managing their care.
• Through the National Thrombectomy Planning Board (NTPB) work is being undertaken to ensure there is a robust process for appropriate referrals of patients who may benefit from thrombectomy procedures in one of the three thrombectomy hubs across Scotland.

Driving advice and secondary prevention:

• Since the publication of the Progressive Stroke Pathway, the criteria by which NHS Boards’ stroke service provision is assessed in Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme reviews has been expanded.
• NHS Boards should be able to demonstrate that the provision of tailored driving and return to driving advice is embedded in their stroke service.
• The revised Scottish Stroke Improvement programme review criteria stipulate that NHS Boards should be able to demonstrate that TIA services ensure the provision of driving advice to all patients.
• The revised Scottish Stroke Improvement programme review criteria also stipulate that NHS Boards should demonstrate pathways in place for the commencement of appropriate secondary prevention in patients presenting with TIA or minor stroke.
• We will work with third sector organisations and health marketing colleagues to consider the most effective way of raising public awareness, including the less common symptoms of stroke