Chamber and committees

The focus of the Scottish Government`s communication activities and guidance during the pandemic was to ensure that, when people needed to travel, and the prevailing Covid-19 restrictions allowed them to do so, they knew to plan ahead and were informed of the guidance to follow to use public transport safely.

Typically messaging on protection levels, ventilation, physical distancing and wearing a face covering when in crowded locations or when on public transport was included within the broader Government’s public health campaign messaging or was part of an operators own communications materials. No specific SG funding was allocated for this activity therefore, it is not possible to say how much was spent specifically on public transport marketing or advertising relating to social distancing and COVID-19 protection measures.

Under the current constitutional arrangements in the United Kingdom immigration, including data related to arrivals, is fully reserved to the UK Government and is dealt with by the Home Office.

The UK Government published quarterly immigration statistics here: Immigration statistics, year ending June 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Scottish Government do not currently correlate the visa routes and homelessness status regarding displaced individuals from Ukraine or Afghanistan.

The Scottish Government's priority is to provide safe, comfortable accommodation and a wraparound support offer to the displaced people from Ukraine who have arrived in Scotland, and to those who may still arrive.

The MS Victoria I has a total of 305 Sea View Cabins and 434 inside cabins. Whilst on cruise ships some cabins have no windows we are working with our partners to address any additional wellbeing risks when living in this type of accommodation.

The MS Victoria I has been well received by people on board, and is ensuring we are providing accommodation that is safe and sustainable whilst we match people with suitable longer term accommodation.

The number of Home Energy Scotland Loan applications received during 2020-21 and 2021-22 were:

Demand for the Home Energy Scotland (HES) Advice service has risen significantly since the recent energy bill rises and other cost of living pressures have started to put pressure on households.

Earlier this year, we committed to expanding the HES service by 20% and this increase will be fully operational from October. HES capacity has increased in the last three years with the number of households targeted for advice and support rising from 77,000 in 2020-21 to 132,000 this year - an increase of 12,000 on 2021-22.

We recently allocated additional funding for energy advice services in the face of rising bills - £1.2 million to ensure households and businesses get support. This includes £280,000 to expand the Home Energy Scotland Advice Service and a further £198,000 for Home Energy Scotland to provide training to third sector organisations on energy efficiency.

We have also augmented the Home Energy Scotland Energy carer service which visits and supports extremely vulnerable households who would struggle to engage over the telephone or online. This type of work broadens and strengthens the capacity of the advice network but does not generate pro rata increases in numbers of households supported because the level of support required for these households is very intense.

We will continue to monitor demand for the Home Energy Scotland service to ensure it has the capacity to meet demand.

The number of Home Energy Scotland Loans that were accepted/rejected in 2020-21 and 2021-22:

This is a matter for Regional Screening Centres. The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally.

The Scottish Government will launch a national marketing campaign to promote the new Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel scheme in the coming weeks. The Scottish Government has allocated £400,000 to promote this campaign during this financial year.

On promoting public transport more broadly, Transport Scotland continues to work with operating partners and stakeholders to encourage people to use public transport, as a sustainable way to access work, education and services.

The Scottish Government wants to improve opportunities, outcomes and support for autistic people, people with learning disabilities, and neurodivergent people. To this end, we have committed to introducing a Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity Bill. This Bill will ensure that the rights of autistic people, people with learning disabilities, and neurodivergent people are respected and protected.

To help make sure the new legislation is championed when it is implemented, we intend to consult on the creation of a Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity Commissioner through the new law.

Further details about the timing of the public consultation on the Bill will be announced in the Programme for Government in September 2022.

A decision on the timing of the Bill’s introduction to Parliament will be taken by Cabinet in the context of setting the content of future legislative programmes.

The Scottish Government does not hold this data. Whilst there is data available on numbers of patients who receive blood transfusions each year, the majority of these patients would be unlikely to be able to donate blood due to underlying health conditions, even if they had not received a transfusion.