Chamber and committees

The First Minister wrote an open letter to the Care Experienced community on the 22 October 2022 to thank all involved in preparing the Who Cares? Scotland publication and to acknowledge the points raised. The letter is available on the Scottish Government website . The Scottish Government continues to work closely with Who Cares? Scotland and the points identified in the publication are informing the ongoing work to Keep The Promise.

Keeping the Promise requires a collective approach across all of our services, including care, health, education and justice. The Scottish Government requires to lead from the front, working with partners across local government and third sector, to bring the transformational change required. The actions and commitments we will take are set out in our Promise Implementation Plan published in March 2022.

The Promise Oversight Board includes members with lived and professional experience and is responsible for holding Scotland to account on whether the Promise is being kept.

The Promise Scotland has been established to support organisations across Scotland to Keep The Promise. The Promise Scotland published its set up year report in July 2022. This includes a helpful timeline of work undertaken from the point The Promise Scotland was established.

The Scottish Government has published a child friendly version of the Promise Implementation Plan, developed with the support of Who Cares? Scotland and other stakeholders which is available on the Scottish Government website .

The Scottish Government is currently undertaking a thorough review of its options in relation to collecting data on secondary breast cancer in Scotland, taking consideration of clinical time required and how it can be used to improve services. We are currently in dialogue with Public Health Scotland, NHS England and the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership alongside breast cancer specialists and the Third Sector.

The Implementation Plan sets out our commitment to ensure the voice of people with care experience is at the heart of the work we do to Keep The Promise and we welcome all opportunities to engage. We will continue to work with local government, local Champions Boards, Who Cares? Scotland, The Promise Scotland and other partners to ensure that our approach to engagement is positive and impactful.

The importance of farming and crofting to our rural and island areas is fully appreciated by the Scottish Government.

We have committed over £580m investment for ports and vessels which will support and improve Scotland’s ferry services over the next five years, as part of our wider Infrastructure Investment Plan. We continue to work constructively with partners and key stakeholders to progress a sustainable and efficient fleet replacement programme; noting the recent purchase of the MV Loch Frisa, as well as the chartering of vessels such as the MV Arrow.

The vast majority of cancelled sailings, particularly at the start of 2022, related to weather impacts. In January and February alone, 92.75% of cancellations were due to either weather or Covid-19. Weather accounted for 16.3% of all cancellations in February alone, which is unprecedented.

It is a decision wholly for a ship’s master as to whether or not a vessel should sail and it would not be appropriate for me to question that professional judgement – which is made on safety grounds. Farmers, like the Masters who sail CalMac’s ships, make these judgments every day and it is important those with expertise are given the respect to do so.

I am aware that the NFU have raised an issue in relation to agricultural vehicles and CalMac’s systems. I am more than happy to meet with the NFU Union to discuss their concerns and to ensure systems are improved to support agricultural traffic when using the CalMac fleet.

The total spend on administration of the Tenant Hardship Loan Fund is £433,886.88.

Admin costs 2020-21 = £240,217.20 inclusive of VAT

Admin costs 2021-22 = £162,210.30 inclusive of VAT

Admin costs 2022-23 (until October 2022) = £31,459.38 inclusive of VAT

This is the administration costs for loan fund awards with a total value of £733,894.

The Tenant Hardship Loan Fund was one part of a range of support and interventions put in place to help people who were struggling with rent because of changes to their finances caused by the Pandemic.

To enable the loan fund to be delivered quickly given the infra-structure and resource requirements, an existing contract with Energy Savings Trust for administration of the loan was extended.

Administration costs for the fund are based on a contractually agreed annual management fee, dependant on whether the scheme is open or closed, combined with a cost per application, regardless of whether the application resulted in a successful award or not.

The loan fund was demand led and affordability and ability to repay a loan was a key part of the assessment of all applications to protect applicants from unsustainable borrowing.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13244 on 17 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

The Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) Regulations require all retailers who sell in-scope products into Scotland, regardless of where they are based, to apply the 20p deposit. Therefore, retailers based in Scotland will not be disadvantaged by those based elsewhere.

Local authorities have reported that in 2021-22 103 play park renewals were completed with a further 82 renewals in progress. The following table shows how many play parks were renewed in each local authority in 2021-22. Local authorities will report at the end of the financial year on the number of play parks renewed in 2022-23.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-17054 on 16 January 2015 for costs between 2010 and 2013. 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 .

All Ministerial engagements for this time period, including Bute House costs for 2007-8, are available here Ministerial Events (webarchive.org.uk) and Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Please see the following table showing the number of events and total costs for 2015 to 2022. Complete financial records are only held by Scottish Government for 7 years therefore total costs are only available from 2015.