Chamber and committees

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) Partnership's military skills discovery tool formally launched in March 2023 after the completion of work to expand the number of military job roles within the tool as the result of feedback and testing with service leavers. As such there are limited statistics on the number of users to date, but SCQF Partnership are working with Skills Development Scotland, who host the tool on their My World of Work website, to develop usage statistics and to use them to drive future development of the tool.

The Scottish Government has drawn upon external research and evaluations which have demonstrated the impact of the Community Link Workers role and what works well, such as: Evaluation of the Glasgow 'Deep End' Links Worker Programme and Community Link Worker initiatives in primary care: key learning from UK studies. There is also good evidence from local areas of the positive impacts of CLWs.

The Scottish Government works with the Primary Care Evaluation Network and others to monitor and evaluate the impacts of the whole of the multi-disciplinary team (MDT), of which Community Link Workers are a core part. This will allow us to target investment in future years.?

The Scottish Government continues to support language learning in schools. We are maintaining grant funding to key delivery partners, such as Scotland’s National Centre for Languages, to support schools and local authorities to deliver high-quality language learning.

Local authority funding in support of implementing the 1+2 approach was originally planned to cease after 2020-21. However, it was extended for a further two years in recognition of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. This was provided to help local authorities consolidate their progress and prepare strategies to ensure language learning continues to be a normal part of the curriculum.

The implementation of the 1+2 approach has led to language learning from P1 to S3 becoming a normalised part of the Broad General Education. Our surveys of local authorities show that 98% of primary schools and 100% of secondary schools now report offering language learning within the terms of the policy.

We understand the importance of sport and physical activity for children and young people in Scotland and the positive impact that it has on their physical, mental and social health.

Through sport scotland, our national agency for sport, we are working in partnerships with Scottish Governing Bodies of sport (SGBs), local authorities, leisure trusts, sports clubs and community organisations, schools, colleges and universities to provide opportunities for all to participate in sport, to break down the barriers, financial or otherwise, that keep too many people from leading active lives.

sport scotland has provided the SFA with an investment of £1,347,400 in the current financial year to help support a wide range of grassroots activity, supporting the SFA’s Football for All strategy. This includes developing children and young people’s football, all of which aims to provide a pathway for anyone to enjoy participating in football.

As set out in the Programme for Government we are working with sport scotland to ensure that Active Schools programmes are free for all children and young people by the end of this Parliament, providing them with more opportunities to take part in sport, such as football, before, during and after school.

In the 2021-22 academic year (last full year of data - 2021-22 data reflects the return to activity following the COVID-19 pandemic), 218,000 participants made 3.5 million visits to Active Schools activities with Football being the most popular and visited activity.

Businesses of all sizes will be included in Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), which will now launch on 1 March 2024. Adjusting the launch date by over 6 months provides everyone with additional time to prepare for the launch of the scheme, with around 10 months in total to now prepare, including small businesses.

On 20 April 2023 it was announced to Parliament that any product which sells less than 5,000 articles a year in Scotland will no longer have to place a deposit on the product. This change was asked for by business and will apply to producers of all sizes. However, it will particularly help small producers, removing an estimate 44% of producers from having to place a deposit on any of their products.

The Scottish Government will continue to engage with businesses of all sizes to ensure our DRS is ready for launch on 1st March next year.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-15600 on 16 March 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/questions-and-answers

The weather conditions and condition of the vegetation on the hills and moors of Scotland at this time of year lend themselves to fires starting easily and spreading quickly. This is something the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) is very aware of, and has been working closely with a number of key partners on this for some time to establish a common understanding on the risk, prevention measures, and response procedures. Through the auspices of the Scottish Wildfire Forum (SWF), which SFRS chairs, a wildfire danger assessment is carried out every 5-7 days by a third party expert, and when the risk of wildfire reaches very high or extreme then the assessment is circulated across a wide network of key contacts, including public sector and private to ensure as wide a coverage as possible. This information is also used to produce a public facing message that is issued by SFRS across various media channels.

As stated in the response to the member to parliamentary question S6W-15750, climate change is identified as a strategic priority in the Scottish Government’s Fire and Rescue Framework for Scotland 2022. The Framework asks SFRS to continue to invest in the provision of specialist resources, technological advancements and forward thinking operational practices to enhance its response to wildfire incidents. It states that SFRS should continue to make use of local assets available to bolster its response during prolonged or widespread incidents such as wildfire.

We are already seeing warming here in Scotland, with more extreme weather events and rising sea levels. As a nation we must continue to adapt to these changes and prepare for the impacts of global climate change which are already locked in. The Scottish Government is responding to the full range of climate risks identified for Scotland through its 2019 Adaptation Programme, which sets out more than 170 policies and proposals to build resilience to the impacts of global climate change as part of our Just Transition to net zero emissions by 2045. We are also preparing our next Programme, in response to the most recent UK Climate Change Risk Assessment, for publication in 2024.

I am unable to commit to a date for delivering this journey time. The costs and benefits for delivering this need to be considered against those for delivering alternative rail enhancement projects, notably those that will contribute towards the decarbonisation of Scotland’s railway, within constrained funding.

In the meantime, as set out in our response on 16 March 2023, to PQ S6W-14784, Transport Scotland is, alongside industry partners, exploring options for lengthening passing loops on the Highland Main Line to enable longer and more frequent freight and passenger services.

Transport Scotland will consider these, and further infrastructure enhancements that would enable future journey time savings between Inverness and Edinburgh and Glasgow, within the constraints of available funding and subject to a robust business case.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring fund accessibility as part of ongoing implementation. We met with Health Boards in summer 2022 to discuss the implementation of the fund and areas for improvement, including accessibility.

The Scottish Government has worked collaboratively with partners, patients and third sector organisations in recent months to develop a ten year cancer strategy for Scotland.

Due to publish Spring 2023, the strategy will take a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways, from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care. It aims to improve cancer survival and provide excellent, equitably accessible, care across Scotland, including those affected by brain cancer.

A new earlier diagnosis vision will feature within the strategy and will include similar actions to those outlined in the Brain Tumour Charity’s report. This includes continuing to deliver our Detect Cancer Earlier Programme, working with primary care clinicians to ensure they have direct access to diagnostic tests and quality education sources; optimal cancer diagnostic pathways are designed and implemented across NHS Scotland; and public campaigns educate and empower those with possible symptoms to act early.