Chamber and committees

In keeping with our statutory and other assessment requirements we published our Integrated Impact Assessments (IIA) alongside Draft NPF4, and invited comment. This included an Environmental Report, setting out the likely significant environmental effects of Draft NPF4 including on climatic factors. Our assessment findings and the comments received have been taken into account in finalising the Revised Draft NPF4 which was laid in Parliament on 8 November. The IIA is available from the Scottish Government’s website: www.gov.scot .

The Scottish Government is working with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) and other stakeholders to look at current and future risks associated with electric car charging points and more widely, lithium batteries. SFRS has also implemented the Lithium-Ion Partnership Group to focus on this subject of which the Scottish Government is part of, and work continues to ensure the safety of our communities in Scotland from any potential emerging risks.

The Scottish Government wants everyone to receive the best possible care and treatment from our health and care services. We have set out the wider policy within which NHS Scotland is expected to deliver services, and we expect all NHS Boards to continue to provide high quality care that is safe, effective and person-centred. Across our health service, pharmacists, the ambulance service, NHS 24, GPs and hospital staff are working hard to ensure that patients get the care they need.

In common with health services across the UK and globally, NHS Scotland is working under significant pressure as the pandemic continues to affect services, and we expect this winter to be one of the most difficult the NHS has faced. While these challenges persist, people who are unwell should always seek help.

The Scottish Government’s Winter Resilience Overview sets out £600m of investment to support winter resilience across our health and care system. These measures across will help ensure people get the right care they need at the right time and in the most appropriate setting. We will also expand our workforce, particularly registered nurses, to assist with the expected increase in workload.

On 2 November, we launched the Right Care Right Place media campaign as part of the wider Stay Well This Winter messaging. We want the public to better understand the healthcare services available to them so they can make more informed choices about the right care in the right place for their specific health care needs.

We are already taking forward a range of initiatives to support recruitment and retention of workforce in rural General Practice. The Golden Hello scheme offers a one-off bursary of £10,000 to every GP taking up an eligible post in a remote and rural area. Furthermore, ScotGEM is a four-year graduate-entry medical degree which began in 2018, with a focus on rural medicine and healthcare improvement, supporting graduates to choose careers in general practice.

Doctors completing FY2 have a variety of options to continue their careers in NHS Scotland. This includes, but is not limited to, becoming an Locum Appointment for Training physician, an SAS physician or a locum physician; time spent in which can count towards Specialty training and can be good option to gain a wider range of skills and experience and to strengthen future applications to Specialty training. While it is important for local areas to have general practice and hospital doctors which meet the needs of their populations, locums posts can play an important role within our NHS too, working flexibly in response to changes in local need or circumstances and helping to cover leave and other absences.

The Scottish Government is currently considering ICIAs in relation to proposed Highly Protected Marine Areas. Engagement with local stakeholders will be carried out during the process where appropriate. We will begin site selection next spring and will actively engage with stakeholders throughout the process.

The Scottish Government has asked for spending to end March 2022, end June 2022 and end September 2022. This will be published on the Scottish Government website in due course, once it has been collated and quality assured.

There will be some developers who are signatories to both the Scottish Safer Buildings Accord and Welsh Developers Pact. The parties to the Scottish Safer Buildings Accord will be confirmed once The Accord is signed.

Evidence and data play an important part in efficient policy delivery. Our commitment to continue to improve on our data and evaluation efforts is highlighted as part of the revised evaluation strategy to tackle child poverty. The Scottish Government publish child poverty estimates by detailed ethnic group and since March 2022, time series for ethnicity breakdowns have also been published, including for child poverty estimates by detailed ethnic group. The Scottish Government is happy to support CRER – and any stakeholders – with finding our published data and producing ad-hoc analysis.

Whilst recognising the important role of detailed statistical data, our tackling child poverty delivery plan is clear that an intersectional approach is needed to support priority families. Beyond statistical analysis, our action to tackle child poverty is based on a strong evidence base identifying the main drivers of poverty, as the CRER report acknowledges. To design policies that specifically help minority ethnic families, further evidence has been published to widen our understanding. This includes a detailed focus report on minority ethnic families, a summary update on drivers of poverty for all priority family types which fed into the development of ‘Best Start, Bright Futures’ and detailed understanding of what works to tackle child poverty.

I refer the member to the Parliamentary Statement I made on Tues 8 November 2022, which set out the Scottish Government's pathway for the future of agricultural support including the conditionality of that support. This is in line with our Vision for Scottish Agriculture, published in March 2022, in which we committed to integrate enhanced conditionality of at least half of all funding for farming and crofting by 2025. We are seeking views on that conditionality in the public consultation “Delivering our Vision for Scottish Agriculture”, which closes on 21 Nov 2022.

Agriculture support is already conditional, the current Basic Payment Scheme requires Farmers, Crofters, etc to meet Cross Compliance and Greening measures, to qualify for that payment. I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11606 on 10 November 2022 in relation to future conditionality of agricultural support. 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/written-questions-and-answers .