Chamber and committees

The monitoring of the Dounreay foreshore area is undertaken by Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd (DSRL) which is a subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and is agreed and regulated by SEPA.

All radioactive particle finds are removed, analysed and reported on the DSRL website. The finds in February and March 2022 were reported on the DSRL website in March and April 2022. The Dounreay Stakeholder Group was also provided with information regarding the particle finds in a written update from SEPA at one of its subgroup meetings in April 2022.

The NDA and SEPA remain content that the monitoring and retrieval programme in place continues to provide appropriate protection for the public.

The Scottish Government’s aim is to support high quality, relevant, appropriate and accessible ESOL provision that meets learner need.

The Scottish Government’s ESOL funding is currently provided through colleges. Colleges are instructed to work with Community Planning Partnerships to determine the level of need for provision and agree with partners how this need can be met.

The Local Government Settlement provides a block grant to local authorities which they can then use to meet the learning needs of refugees and asylum seekers in their areas.

Grant funding awarded to third sector organisations has enabled ESOL providers to use asset based approaches to work with adult learners to plan and co-design their learning.

In 2020-21 colleges received £2,323,504 funding for digital inclusion. Community Learning and Development organisations received £250,000. Devices were distributed to best meet the needs of all learners, regardless of the type of learning or their legal status.

Our Adult Learning Strategy commits to continuing to increase access to digital devices and connectivity for adult learning. In 2022-3, £500,000 of Digital Inclusion funding has been made available to community learning providers through the Community Learning and Development Device Fund. The Fund is supporting over forty community-based projects throughout Scotland to acquire digital devices for learning. These projects support a range of learner groups including refugees and asylum seekers, with several specifically focusing on providing access to ESOL courses.

To tackle student digital poverty an allocation of £2.9 million has been distributed among the college sector by the Scottish Funding Council. Institutions manage these funds and applications for support at their own discretion to best support their learners. ESOL students can apply directly to their college for support with a digital device.

The Scottish Government began supporting efforts to implement online testing in 2020. Since then, we have provided over £0.5m for the development of a “once for Scotland” approach to STI home testing. This was rolled out in NHS Lothian in December, and work is underway to explore further roll-out. This service allows people to request a test online and perform home self-sampling, while providing clinicians with comprehensive, real-time data. We are aware that in addition to the work supported by the Scottish Government that a number of NHS Boards have also progressed work in this area. The Scottish Government does not directly collect data on the numbers of people who have directly accessed such services.

Since 2021, we have also provided funding to pilot the provision of at home HIV self-testing kits. Two methods of testing for HIV have been offered, encompassing HIV self-testing (in which the individual tests their own blood sample and interprets the results) and HIV self-sampling (in which a laboratory tests and processes the blood sample). The most current data from HIV Scotland shows that over 10,000 kits have been requested through this Scottish Government-funded project. This further breaks down to 8,545 self-testing kits and 1,752 self-sampling kits.

The published 2023-24 Stage 1 budget showed at level 4, a total investment of over £1.2 billion in Social Care support and NCS delivery. The £61.9m additional funding will help support a number of areas as noted in the response provided for S6W-13643 on 19 January 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/written-questions-and-answers

We acknowledge the immense, highly skilled and unique contribution made by social workers to support individuals and families across Scotland. The Scottish Government is committed to establishing a National Social Work Agency (NSWA), as part of the National Care Service, that will support and invest in the social work profession. However we are not waiting for the NSWA to be established to start this work.

The Scottish Government is committed to developing an advanced practice framework that meets the professional development needs of social workers in Scotland. The Scottish Government is working with stakeholders across the sector to develop a framework which sets out the structures that will support social workers to progress through different career phases.

A sub-group to develop the advanced practice framework has been established and a draft framework for engagement/co-design activity with frontline social workers is due from February 2023. It is important that this work is done with the workforce and not to the workforce. We are committed to getting this right for social workers across the country.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with partners to increase the number of social workers in the profession, as well as developing rewarding career pathways and improving terms and conditions.

The development of a Graduate Apprenticeship in Social Work is currently being considered for investment along with other routes into the profession. Discussions are underway with Skills Development Scotland on requirements to proceed with a pilot scheme.

The breakdown of the 356.1 whole time equivalent posts recruited within GP practices by NHS Health Board is as follows;

Many people who report that they have never worked are suffering from long-term sickness or disability, or are looking after family. Just because someone does not have a job does not mean they are not making a valuable contribution to our economy and society.

The Scottish Government’s devolved employment support service, Fair Start Scotland, helps people with disabilities, long term health conditions and other barriers to progress into sustainable employment.

Through our Fair Work policy we are supporting the development of a labour market that is open, inclusive and offers good quality and rewarding jobs for everyone.

We are committed to developing life-long skills training opportunities, which support people to enter the workforce and enjoy valuable and rewarding careers.

The published 2023-24 Stage 1 budget showed at level 4, a total investment of over £1.2 billion in Social Care support and NCS delivery. This is made up of a number of areas including an additional £100 million for adult social care pay up to £10.90, on top of the £200 million in 2022-23 for £10.50 and £144 million for the £10.02 before that, £124 million for care at home investment,
‎ £60 million for the Carers Act and inflationary uplifts for Free Personal Nursing Care Rates and others. All of the areas above underpin increasing the sustainability of the social care sector ahead of implementation of the NCS. It is important therefore to look at all areas of spend rather than one in isolation.

In the previous Parliament, the then Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Michael Matheson, announced on 18 June 2019 that the Cycling Action Plan for Scotland vision that, by 2020, 10% of all journeys in Scotland would be made by bike would not be met. In this Parliamentary term, the Cycling Action Plan for Scotland will be succeeded by the Cycling Framework for Active Travel. A draft version of the cycling framework was put to public consultation in late 2022 and the final version will be published this year. The Framework takes account of the independent review of the previous Cycling Action Plan, which was carried out by Professor Tom Rye in 2020 and which made recommendations for the future priorities for cycling for active travel in Scotland.

Based on the latest Annual Cycling Monitoring Data, the cycling mode share broken down by local authority is as follows: