Chamber and committees

Since August 2021, there have been nine Cabinet Secretaries (including the Deputy First Minister), and 17 junior Ministers.

The following table sets out the numbers of (a) Cabinet Secretaries (Ministers appointed under section 47 of the Scotland Act 1998) and (b) junior Ministers (appointed under section 49 of the same Act) in each year since 1999, with the dates from which any changes were made:

Following the election, the First Minister chose to appoint a special adviser to work on behalf of her and the Deputy First Minister across government, and with stakeholders, to ensure delivery at pace of the key transformational aspects of the Scottish Government’s programme. The role reports directly to First Minister and works alongside and in partnership with the First Minister's Chief of Staff. The role provides leadership of the work of other Special Advisers in the team as required.

The position of Strategic Policy and Political Adviser was filled on 23 August 2021. Special advisers are temporary civil servants appointed in accordance with Part 1 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010.

The First Minister’s former Chief of Staff resigned on the suspension of parliament for the 2021 Scottish Parliament election in line with the Special Advisers Code of Conduct and ceased receiving a salary at that point.

Salary bands for current Special Advisers, including the Strategic Policy and Political Adviser, can be found in the answer to S6W-00255 answered on 23 August 2021. In line with GDPR requirements the Scottish Government publishes the number of special advisers in each salary band and does not provide personal data such as specific salary levels or comparative salary levels.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02466 on 28 September 2021. 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02466 on‎ 28 September 2021. 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 Government understands that those with long term health conditions such as psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis may also need support to deal with the impact this may have on their mental wellbeing.

GPs or local healthcare teams are best placed to offer further advice or treatment if needed and we’d advise people to contact their GP if they have concerns. Further information outlining this is available on our NHS Inform website at NHS Inform.

Improving timely access to local care and support for mental health is an existing priority. As of 1 January 2021, through action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-27 and the Primary Care Improvement Fund, 193 additional Mental Health Worker posts have been created in GP settings.

We’ve also made a longer term commitment that by 2026, every GP Practice will have access to a mental health and wellbeing service, funding 1,000 additional dedicated staff who can help grow community mental health resilience and offer social prescribing opportunities on a wide range of different community based services such as arts and cultural activities, green space and physical activity and leisure etc.

Later this year, and on the basis of local plans submitted by Integration Authorities, we will start providing funding to begin national implementation of a new model for Mental Health in Primary Care.

In the December 2020 update to Climate Change Plan we committed to publishing a route map by the end of 2021 to outline how we will meet the 20% reduction by 2030, assuming the Covid-19 pandemic moves to a phase to allow this. The pandemic is still creating significant uncertainty for transport, with future trends and people’s work and lifestyle choices difficult to forecast at this point in time. Subject to this uncertainty, we will publish the route map by the end of this year.

Transport demand derives from other factors – where people live work, learn and access goods and services are all key to their need to travel. Meeting the commitment will involve reducing people’s need to travel with more local access to goods and services, digital connectivity and flexible and remote working approaches. The measures that are therefore required are across sectors – not all the policy levers and answers rest in transport. For example, the commitment is supported by our commitments on 20 minute neighbourhoods – where people can meet their needs within a 20 minute walk, and work and learn in communities close to home (further detail on which will be included in the NPF4 this autumn) – and the Work Local Challenge Programme to support flexible, remote and local working choices. We also recognise the vital role that digital connectivity will play in meeting Scotland’s world-leading climate change ambitions. This is why we made our commitment to extend superfast broadband access to 100% of premises in Scotland, regardless of location.

The Climate Change Plan update covers a range of measures across transport modes which will contribute to the reduction, and we have built upon these in the 2021-22 PfG. It should be remembered, however, that the most direct levers on the attractiveness of buying or running a petrol or diesel car – fuel duty and vehicle excise duty – are reserved to the UK Government.

We recognise the challenges associated with rural and remote communities or areas where there is not an alternative to cars. This will require local and regional solutions as well as national ones and we will continue to work with partners both nationally and locally to identify what works best.

On achievability, the 20% commitment comes within a range of car use reduction scenarios proposed by leading researchers. The recent government-commissioned ‘Decarbonising the Scottish Transport Sector’ report from Element Energy also evidences how the 20% reduction can be encompassed in transport’s contribution to our net-zero pathway. Progress will be tracked by the Climate Change Plan monitoring and evaluation framework, published annually.

From March 2020 to 25 August 2021, the Scottish Government has received 26 offers from MSPs (25), MPs (0) and councillors (1) on behalf of a company offering assistance with the making and supply of PPE. Of these offers, 20 were made on behalf of named companies and 6 were speculative contacts that did not name a specific company.

The Scottish Government did not enter into a contract or arrangement for the supply of the equipment with any of these companies.

Further information on the companies which have supplied the Scottish Government with PPE and hand sanitiser since 2020 is detailed in the linked Parliamentary Question, S6W-02212 on 31 August 2021.

From the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Scottish Government has worked with the NHS, and on a four-nation basis to ensure Scotland has adequate supplies of PPE. At no point during the pandemic did Scotland run out of PPE, and our robust stocks allowed us to provide PPE in mutual aid to other parts of the UK during the first wave. PPE supply is now stable, as it has been since summer 2020, and Scotland currently has 4 months’ worth of PPE stockpiled and approved for medical use

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

Government Business is conducted on the Scottish Government’s internal IT system, "SCOTS," which is available to all Ministers and staff. It runs on a secure network and, using an approved SCOTS laptop or tablet, is accessible from all Scottish Government offices, including London and Brussels, as well as remotely via most home broadband connections (subject to location).

The IT equipment provided in the Scottish Government has been specifically designed to support the secure drafting, sending and storing of digital information classified at OFFICIAL and OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE level.

Section 35B of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 sets out the statutory basis for annual reporting on progress to implementation of Climate Change Plans.

The Scottish Government’s update to the 2018 Climate Change Plan, which was finalised earlier this year, includes a refreshed monitoring framework to underpin the statutory annual reporting. In May 2021, the first set of monitoring reports prepared on this basis was laid in the Scottish Parliament.

We are extremely grateful to everyone who has volunteered for vaccine trials in Scotland. We are committed to ensuring that these volunteers are not disadvantaged in any way, and work is on-going to ensure their vaccine status is correctly presented on the vaccine database.

If a person has participated in coronavirus vaccine clinical trials in Scotland, they should have already received a letter from their Chief Investigator confirming their involvement. The letter allows them to attend events or access services throughout the UK in the same way as those who are fully vaccinated. They will also soon be able to obtain a record of their vaccination status that contains a barcode to enable easier access to venues.

Further information is available here at NHS Inform: Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination status for clinical trial participants | The coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine (nhsinform.scot)