Chamber and committees

No Scottish Government guarantees were in place.

We have sought information both on the substance of the UK Government’s policy and on its proposed approach to discussing a possible model for Scotland: we await clarity on both fronts.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of day services to adults with learning disabilities, their families and carers. Decisions about individual services are made by local authorities. However, the Scottish Government maintains regular contact with local authorities to encourage and support the re-opening of services. The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care wrote to all local authorities and Health and Social Care partnerships on 25th May 2022 requesting that they undertake a survey of registered day centre services in their area with a view to identifying which services have re-opened, which have only partially opened (or opened with reduced capacity), and why. The purpose of this was to gain insight into the challenges around re-opening and capacity to inform the development of Scottish Government policy advice and guidance.

The findings from the survey identified that Covid-19 restrictions such as physical distancing, which were in place at the time were a barrier to services returning to full capacity. Covid-19 guidance for building-based day services was updated in both May and September and there is no longer a requirement for physical distancing between services users or staff. The survey also identified challenges in relation to the workforce. These exist across social care and work is under way to improve recruitment to the sector. This has included funding to extend the Myjobscotland website, the creation of a recruitment portal with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), and working with Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) colleagues to host a series of social care job fairs across Scotland.

The survey will be repeated in November 2022 in order to establish how much progress has been made towards increasing capacity since the original survey was undertaken.

The Scottish Government is actively considering its response to the Empire, Slavery and Scotland's Museums steering group recommendations. Discussions to help inform our response are continuing with, amongst others, representatives from Museums Galleries Scotland, and members of the steering group themselves, to make sure the complexities and challenges involved are fully understood. After these discussions have concluded, a formal response will be issued in due course.

The safety and wellbeing of all fire and rescue officers is of upmost importance to the Scottish Government.

As the employer of firefighters in Scotland, the FBU DECON campaign is a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. SFRS has been engaged with this research for a number of years and met with Professor Anna Stec of the University of Central Lancashire on 1 November to hear directly of the important research she is doing and to offer SFRS cooperation on that work.

SFRS have a Management of Contaminants Group which has already made significant changes in procedures, equipment and facilities to reduce firefighter contact with equipment which could contain contaminants harmful to health and this important work will continue.

The Scottish Government engaged with the UK Government throughout the development of the National Shipbuilding Strategy Refresh and continues to engage with the National Shipbuilding Office through the National Shipbuilding Strategy Board, which is scheduled to meet again in December.

Scottish Government agencies are also members of wider structures that support the strategy. For example, representatives of Skills Development Scotland are members of the UK Shipbuilding Skills Taskforce, chaired by Dr Paul Little of City of Glasgow College.

The Scottish Government will continue to contribute to these forums and ensure that Scotland’s world class shipbuilding industry remains well represented.

Based on NRS and ONS data, the number of international migrants who have settled in Scotland in the last 10 years, and comparative UK data, is:

Budgets have been realigned to take into account the updated plan agreed between the Scottish Government and our R100 delivery partner, Openreach, following on from the 19 August announcement that coverage through the R100 North contract has been extended. This plan will see Openreach align the delivery of the R100 contracts alongside the commercial work that they carry out on a day-to-day basis. This does mean that some properties will receive access earlier than planned, while some properties will receive access later than planned. The £16 million referenced in the Emergency Budget Review is still expected to be spent as part of the overall R100 contracts.

Our address checker at https://www.scotlandsuperfast.com remains the best way to track the most up-to-date connectivity status of individual properties, including the most recent plans and timescales for R100 contract build for eligible properties.

The Scottish Government welcomed the commitment by the UK Government to introduce a Home Shipbuilding Credit Guarantee Scheme (HSCGS) as part of the National Shipbuilding Strategy Refresh.

Once the detail of the HSCGS is known, we will engage with the UK Government and the shipbuilding industry to establish how best to maximise the benefits for Scotland.

During the development of the Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Act 2022 (“the Act”) the possibility of exempting “silent” or “low noise” fireworks from the provisions which aim to address the noise and disturbance associated with fireworks was considered. However engagement with a range of stakeholders, including industry experts, has confirmed that at present there is no recognised standard or specification for identifying, and therefore distinguishing, such fireworks. It is therefore not possible to exempt “low noise” fireworks from provisions within the Act at this time.

The Act does, however, include a regulation making power to enable this to be amended in future should such standards or specifications make this possible. We are continuing to engage with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy regarding the results of noise level testing undertaken on common firework products. This will improve our understanding of whether any common firework products can be considered as low noise fireworks, as well as the scope to move towards such recognised standards or specifications.