Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government welcomes the Energy Industry Skills Landscape Study.

We continue to work with the energy sector to plan for a multi-skilled workforce that can benefit from opportunities across the energy system. This includes enabling skilled offshore workers to carry their experience and expertise into different roles as our energy sector evolves, and ensuring a reliable pipeline of future talent, to support Scotland's renewable energy ambitions.

This is a matter for NHS National Services Scotland. The information requested is not held centrally.

As the event organiser, Commonwealth Games Scotland are now formally engaging with Police Scotland and other public sector partners to commence planning to ensure the delivery of a safe and secure Commonwealth Games.

The event budget makes provision for policing and stewarding costs to ensure the event can be delivered safely and securely. Commonwealth Games Scotland have engaged with Police Scotland to carry out an initial assessment of the budget and resources that will be required.

Commonwealth Games Scotland will now engage with the relevant organisations to undertake robust safety and security risk assessments, which will determine the exact resourcing requirements and associated costs for public sector, including Police Scotland, to deliver the event. These costs will be met by Commonwealth Games Scotland.

The Scottish Government will engage across the Games governance structure to ensure our interests are represented and that the relevant organisations are engaged and supported at the appropriate junctures.

School meal debt is a matter for local authorities in the first instance, and the Scottish Government expects them to use the powers available to them to support families struggling with school meal debt. Authorities approach to the management of meal debt should align to the guidance produced by COSLA on this issue.

The Scottish Government made a fund available to support councils to help remove the impact of school meal debt in the 2024-25 Budget and will confirm allocations to councils in due course.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on numbers of patients travelling and the means of travel. However we are aware of an increase in travel on the sound of Harris Ferry following changes to the Benbecula Stornoway air service in April 2024.

As you may be aware, at the meeting to consider Access to Health Services in the Western Isles on 21 August, it was agreed to establish a working group, led by HITRANS, to consider ways to improve the patient experience.

At the first meeting of this group, NHS Western Isles and CalMac confirmed that they are working together to minimise issues for patients using ferry travel through a block booking of 2 cars per day for NHS Wester Isles patients. It was noted that monitoring of capacity and demand is ongoing by NHS Western Isles and CalMac will consider an increase in pre booked spaces if required.

The Medicines Homecare Review is an independent review commissioned by the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer (CPO). The CPO is currently considering the recommendations in order to determine the next steps and will publish the review thereafter.

Decisions about patient care should be taken by the clinicians and the patient involved following meaningful discussion and the sharing of all necessary information, including benefits, risks and alternative treatments.

In a circumstance where two NHS boards are involved in a patients care, it would be expected that healthcare professionals from both health boards communicate with each other to discuss and agree a coordinated treatment plan. If a resolution cannot be reached by the clinical teams involved, then concerns can be escalated to the Health Board Management through the appropriate channels.

Patients can consider submitting a formal complaint to the Health Board(s) involved. It is through feedback of this nature that health services can identify any issues and take steps to make improvements. The Patient Advice & Support Service (PASS) is a free, independent and confidential service that supports NHS patients. PASS can offer help and advice with complaints, advocacy support, and help navigating the healthcare system.

Patients can also use their right to request a second opinion from another clinician. This may be appropriate in cases where Health Boards cannot agree on a recommended course of action. If a patient would like a second opinion their clinician or GP will be able to provide advice and make arrangements.

The Scottish Government does not spend directly on disposal of clinical waste. However, funding for additional costs associated with delivering clinical waste services was allocated to NHS National Services Scotland to cover resilience measures as detailed in the following table.

The Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 provides local authorities with a discretionary power to set up workplace parking licensing (WPL) schemes. Section 71 of the 2019 Act defines what constitutes a workplace parking place.

The liability for licences and associated charges is the responsibility of the occupier of the premises providing workplace parking spaces, and not employees or workers. There is no licence charge payable by workers and therefore no scope to vary such charges.

Local authorities do, however, have the discretion to make local exemptions beyond the fixed national exemptions to support their local objectives and circumstances. For example, a local authority could apply WPL to only certain parts of the local authority boundary, exempt premises with fewer than a specified number of parking places, exempt parking places for use by certain types of vehicles or for specified uses, or specific premises or premises of a specified description. A WPL scheme may also provide for descriptions of persons or motor vehicles to be exempt from the scheme or from paying charges under the scheme.

In addition to providing for exemptions, a WPL scheme may make provision for different charges (or no charge) to apply in different cases. This can include provision for different charges to apply on different days, at different times of day, to different part of a licensing area and to different descriptions of persons. Different charges could also be applied to different descriptions of premises and to different classes of motor vehicles.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-30299 on 15 October 2024. 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