Chamber and committees

Data on developer led remediated buildings is not held by the Scottish Government.

As outlined in response to S6W-09197 on 24 June 2022 the Scottish Government launched a public consultation on the draft physical intervention in schools guidance on 21 June. The draft human rights-based guidance makes clear that restraint and seclusion should only ever be used as a last resort and when in the best interests of the child or young person.

The draft guidance is a result of our 2019 agreement with the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland and the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2019 that non-statutory guidance be developed as a first step to improve practice in this area.

The draft guidance has been developed carefully, over time, with extensive input from over thirty working group members and partners, including the Children’s Commissioner, young people, parents, staff, local government and third sector organisations.

The consultation period has been extended to 25 October to allow all those with an interest in this sensitive area, including children and young people, to feedback their views. We will work closely with partners, following final publication, to ensure the guidance is followed.

Details of the membership and notes of the meetings of the physical intervention working group are available on the Scottish Government’s website: Physical Intervention Working Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

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 Scottish Government is working on a package of measures in relation to cladding that will provide direct support to homeowners and details will be published in the coming months. We are taking steps to ensure a potential scheme has the appropriate funding and delivery model to adapt to demand.

The Scottish Government is monitoring in line with the Report on the work of the 2021 Affordable Housing Investment Benchmarks Working Group. The situations under which a meeting of the sector should be convened ahead of the planned 1 April 2023 publication of new benchmarks have not arisen and therefore a meeting has not been convened.

The work to design a potential homeowner assistance scheme is in the discovery phase which involves defining the scope of any potential scheme and evaluating the suitability of existing forms of assistance. This also includes identifying a resilient funding and delivery model. This discovery phase relies on existing resources until such time as a proposal is approved. This discovery phase work began during summer recess and is scheduled to completed in the coming weeks. Officials have regular engagement with potential delivery partners and homeowners as part of the overall process and additional discussions will be undertaken prior to any scheme launch.  

Scottish Ministers remain fully committed to a health service that provides timely, quality care, is free at the point of contact and true to the founding principles of the NHS. The creation of a National Care Service will bring social care in to parity of esteem with healthcare and end the postcode lottery of care provision to ensure that everyone can get the care they need across the country.

Our publicly owned and operated NHS in Scotland makes very limited use of the independent sector for targeted services and to supplement capacity, where necessary. Over the last 10 years, use of the independent sector by NHS Scotland has consistently represented less than 1% of total frontline spend, with spend in 2020-21 being just 0.5% of the total frontline health budget. This compares to 6.8% and 0.8% for NHS England and NHS Wales, respectively. Further detail on spend with independent providers for NHS Scotland is available in Health Boards’ accounts which are published annually on each Health Board’s website.

Social Care services are commissioned by Local Authorities and the information requested would require to be requested from them.

According to the latest quarterly edition of the Scottish Child Payment statistical publication, between 9 November 2020 and 30 June 2022, the number of applications received for the Scottish Child Payment benefit from people living in the Dundee City Local Authority area is 5,990. In total, 5,500 applications had been processed as of 30 June 2022.

Scottish Government published an estimate on uptake in October 2021 as part of their benefit take-up strategy. The estimate of national take-up for the Scottish Child Payment benefit was 77%. This publication did not include geographical breakdowns.

As of 30 June 2022, it is estimated that 104,000 children were in receipt of Scottish Child Payment. Whilst this 104,000 figure is included in the latest Scottish Child Payment statistical publication, we do not currently produce equivalent information by Local Authority areas.

Between 15 February 2021 when the benefit officially launched and 30 June 2022, Social Security Scotland had issued £2.9 million of Scottish Child Payments to clients living in Dundee City Local Authority area.

The welfare of all displaced Ukrainians staying across the country is the Scottish Government’s absolute priority. Before the first guests boarded the M/S Victoria, a full Joint Assurance Review was undertaken with City of Edinburgh Council and other stakeholders, covering issues like safeguarding and security. The Scottish Refugee Council and the Ukrainian Consul General were both consulted as part of preparations for displaced people to live aboard the ship. Local health partners were also closely involved in preparations for opening the ship as temporary accommodation. Additionally, in partnership with the City of Edinburgh Council, we engaged with key stakeholders, community groups and third sector partners, including Public Health Scotland, Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations' Council, Volunteer Edinburgh, Scottish Chambers of Commerce, and Capital City Partnership.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the reasons why people are reportedly using private healthcare.

However, we recognise that addressing the effects of the pandemic has inevitably disrupted the NHS’s ability to carry out routine procedures, meaning longer waits for many patients. We are resuming services as quickly and as safely as possible, while patients who need urgent care, including cancer treatment, are being prioritised.

We recognise the impact long waiting times can have on patients. That is why we have introduced a new set of ambitious targets for NHS Scotland to address the backlog of planned care. Key targets are to eliminate:

• Two-year waits for outpatients in most specialities by the end of August 2022
• 18-month waits for outpatients in most specialities by the end of December 2022
• One-year waits for outpatients in most specialities by the end of March 2023
• Two-year waits for inpatient / daycases in most specialities by the end of September 2022
• 18-month waits for inpatient / daycases in most specialities by the end of September 2023
• One-year waits for inpatient / daycases in most specialities by the end of September 2024

We are working with NHS Boards to maximise capacity to meet these targets and have increased the flexibility Health Boards and clinicians have to manage waiting lists, with a focus on eliminating long waits, as well as continuing to treat the most clinically urgent patients.

The Scottish Government remain absolutely committed to keeping our NHS true to its founding principles – publicly-owned, publicly-operated, and free at the point of need.

The Scottish Government has had very constructive discussions with AstraZeneca on Evusheld ® for the preventative treatments for COVID-19. However, throughout the pandemic, a UK-wide approach to the procurement of therapeutics has been taken and has proven vital to allow the UK to have the buying power to secure significant numbers of therapeutics in a competitive global market. A UK-wide approach has also been taken on the development and implementation of clinical prescribing policies for COVID-19 therapeutics. This has ensured patients across the UK have had equal access to safe and effective medicines for COVID-19.