Chamber and committees

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS does not record this information.

As part of the response to the cost crisis, the Scottish Government has engaged closely with business organisations, industry groups and individual businesses to hear their concerns during this significantly challenging time.

As noted in the Emergency Budget Statement on 2 October, this crisis is unprecedented; since the advent of devolution Scotland has not faced a situation that has combined the significant reduction in the Scottish Government's spending power with the massive impact of the cost crisis on households, businesses, public services and the third sector. We are constrained by both the limitations on our powers and on our budgets. This is why the Scottish Government has consistently called for more support from the UK Government to businesses.

Nevertheless, we committed to looking at what we do have devolved competence over, such as devolved regulation. That is why the Deputy First Minister announced that we will be establishing a Joint Regulatory Taskforce with COSLA, local authorities, regulatory agencies and businesses. This will support and drive early progress towards meeting our commitments in the National Strategy for Economic Transformation to review and improve the process of developing, implementing and reviewing regulation to meet our economic and societal aims. Reviewing regulatory burdens on business will be a critical component of this work and we will seek to balance the essential role that regulation plays on driving innovation and achieving economic, societal and environmental goals with the concerns that businesses have expressed about the impact of new regulations during the cost crisis. The intention is to bring members together as soon as possible, hopefully before the end of the year.

The procedure for handling complaints by civil servants about a current or former minister’s behaviour will be updated to improve transparency. The Deputy First Minister will discuss the updates to the procedure and the Ministerial Code with the Finance and Public Administration Committee on 22 November 2022.

In future, where the outcome is upheld or partially upheld, Ministers will be named and the outcome of the complaint published, together with an appropriately redacted version of the decision report.

The privacy and confidentiality of complainants and witnesses remain fundamental to the process. Any information that could lead to their identity being disclosed will be redacted.

The procedure applies to all Scottish Government staff and civil servants working in the Scottish Government’s executive agencies. Information on the number of formal complaints will be proactively published on the Scottish Government website every six months.

In cases where a complaint is not upheld, the Minister's name and the outcome will be published for a period of six months.

Changes to the Ministerial complaints procedure will come into effect by the end of the year.

The Scottish Ministerial Code is being updated to take account of the updated procedure and will be published in due course.

This information is not collected by Scottish Government.

We do collect information for the number of people accommodated on the MS Victoria. This is published in our monthly statistics on our website. The latest publication was on 20 October 2022 and can be found via: https://www.gov.scot/publications/ukraine-sponsorship-scheme-in-scotland-statistics-october-2022/pages/welcome-accommodation/

The Scottish Government is very much aware of the pressures high fuel costs are placing on inshore scallop fishers and the fishing industry in general. Although the fishing industry benefits from red diesel relief, fuel remains a major part of fishing business costs, no more so than in the scallop sector.

The Scottish Government has a strong track record of supporting the scallop sector, including targeted action through the impacts of Covid. Through our Modernisation of the Inshore Fishing Fleet Programme we are also funding installation of remote electronic monitoring (REM) equipment for all scallop dredge vessels. Supported by the industry, this will help enhance the inshore fisheries evidence base, improve compliance, and enable better interaction between the fishing industry and other marine users. Consumers and retailers seek confidence and accountability in our seafood products, and REM helps to satisfy this demand and deliver associated market benefits. In addition, looking to the longer term we continue to work with the industry and support research into reducing fishing vessel reliance on diesel.

The powers to offer financial support to the fishing industry on the scale required to deal with the high cost of fuel rests with Westminster. We have regularly urged the UK Government to use all the levers at its disposal to tackle the cost crisis for business and provide the necessary support, including to the seafood sector. We are doing all we can to support business and the economy at this time. However, with a fixed budget, and little scope to borrow to deal with such short term challenges, our hands are tied. We are however continuing to actively engage with the UK Government, and press for further support for all industries.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally as it is a matter for Regional Screening Centres.

Self-referral appointments have begun in a careful, phased manner. At present, women aged 71 to 74 (up to their 75 th birthday), and women over 75 with a history of breast cancer, who have completed their hospital follow-up, can ask for a screening appointment.

The screening programme recognises the desire for clarity around when eligibility will be widened. However, it is essential to understand the impact the initial re-instatement is having on both programme capacity and overall wait times before any decisions on additional eligibility are taken. The programme is monitoring impact on an on-going basis, and I will provide an update to Parliament once any further decisions on expansion are possible.

Scottish Government officials have fortnightly meetings with counterparts in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. We have committed all the consequentials so far, £400 million, to the programme of work.

The 2023 revaluations in Scotland and England will for the first time have different tone dates following the Scottish Government’s acceptance of the independent Barclay Review of Non-Domestic Rates’ recommendation to move to three yearly revaluations and a one-year tone date. This inevitably results in direct comparison between the two systems being less meaningful than in the past with Scottish rateable values more accurately reflecting contemporary market circumstances.

The Scottish Budget will set out non-domestic rates measures including the poundage, supplements and reliefs that will apply in 2023-24 based upon draft values which will be published for the first time on 30 November 2022 but it will only be possible to accurately calculate the impact of different tax rates and supplements on individual sectors when final rateable values are published on 1 April 2023.

To end of March 2021 629,335* people have accessed Self-directed Support (SDS) since April 2014, with year by year data listed in table 1.

The content of the Cancer Strategy is still being developed, however, a Breast Screening Modernisation Programme has been established which will drive forward work around the 17 recommendations that were included in the Major Review of the Breast Screening Programme, published May 2022 – Scottish Breast Screening Programme: major review - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

A Breast Screening Modernisation Programme Board has also been established with an independent chair – Dr Marzi Davies. The work of this Board will strengthen the breast screening programme and address inequalities, including additional support and equal access for all.