Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is giving consideration to how best to ensure a consistent, effective and high quality approach to social prescribing and meets the Scottish Social Prescribing Network regularly to inform its plans.

The Scottish Government is working with Creative Scotland to consider options for a National Towns of Culture scheme to build upon the Government’s strong track record of place-based cultural policy making. In developing options, the Government will consult with the cultural and creative sectors and community groups, and consider suitable means of financial support.

The Scottish Government is extremely thankful for the generosity of all those who have expressed an interest in hosting people displaced by the current conflict.

Scotland is now providing a place of safety to more displaced people per head of population than any other part of the UK. The Scottish Government is providing accommodation that is safe and sustainable whilst people are waiting to be matched suitable longer term accommodation. Significant action is underway to increase the temporary accommodation capacity as well as boost the matching system to maximise the number of people who can be placed with volunteer hosts who have completed the necessary safeguarding checks.

We want Scotland to be a safe, secure home for as long as people need and thank the people of Scotland for their continued offers of support to help us in that aim. Those homes offered are still very much needed. We are keen to see more people in Scotland volunteer as hosts if they think that they can provide a welcoming home for a displaced person or family.

For the purpose of this question, we have defined ‘appeals’ as data disputes in which either members of the public or suppliers registered to the Reaching 100% Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (R100 SBVS) have contacted us to raise a data dispute – when they believe that the data we hold on a property’s current connection speed and/or potential voucher eligibility is incorrect.

The broadband connectivity status of the 2.8 million properties in Scotland is reported on our online address checker at www.scotlandsuperfast.com . This uses data submitted by broadband infrastructure providers through regular updates known as a rolling Open Market Review. The accuracy of this data is wholly dependent on broadband providers submitting accurate data returns.

In 2021, officials received a total of 459 data disputes. In 2022, as of 24 August, officials have received 282 data disputes. These numbers represent a total for the whole of Scotland and, unfortunately, we are unable to break this down by Scottish Parliamentary region.

The Scottish Government does not hold information relating to the amount of land that has changed from agricultural use to homes.

In our draft National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) we proposed national planning policy which included that development proposals on prime agricultural land would not be supported except in certain limited circumstances. We will lay a finalised NPF4 in the Scottish Parliament for approval in the autumn.

Table 1 – deaths from liver disease (K70 – K77) by SIMD Quintile 2019-2021

We have no plans to introduce a regulatory body to provide guidelines to the operators and/or owners of retirement villages. Existing regulatory frameworks for property factors, planning, building standards already exist. Providers of housing and housing services in the private sector, including operators of retirement villages, are expected to comply with these regulations.

Where NHS dental services are provided by independent dental contractors, staff including dental nurses are employed by the practice, and not the NHS Board. Terms of service and pension arrangements are set by the practice owner(s).

Where NHS dental services are provided by the Public Dental Service, the dental team is employed by the Board on appropriate NHS terms of service.

Scottish textiles businesses can access a wide range of support through our enterprise agencies, including grants (e.g. Business Innovation and Growth Grants), other funding, advice, help and events.

The Find Business Support webpage, available at https://findbusinesssupport.gov.scot/ , directs businesses to Scotland's public sector support in a single location.

In addition, the £2m Circular Textiles Fund (CTF), administered by Zero Waste Scotland and backed by the Scottish Government was launched on 24 June 2022. This support is designed to help reduce the environmental impact of textiles and throwaway culture, and to support the development of circular supply chains in Scotland. The CTF provides opportunities for public, private and third-sector organisations of all sizes to develop and deliver solutions to reduce the waste and carbon impacts of all textiles.

ScotRail does not record passenger complaints data by region, but by rail route. The following below table shows ScotRail’s complaints data for routes which serve the North East region.