Chamber and committees

Community Link Workers are generalists who support people with a range of social and economic issues which can include mental health. The Primary Care Improvement Fund (PCIF) funds Community Link Workers (CLWs) as part of primary care multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs). At March 2022, 249 WTE CLWs had been recruited to support GP practices.

The Scottish Government have hosted a number of stakeholder meetings to explore options to help facilitate a growth of shipping traffic and cargo across ports in Scotland.

Scottish Government Trade and Transport Scotland officials are working closely with industry to identify barriers and unlock opportunities to increase volumes of exports leaving Scottish ports and airports. We have also analysed export data on routes which key Scottish exports take to market, and the underlying drivers of these route choices. We are continuing to explore how to support trade including ensuring that Scotland’s transport network is able to accommodate our export growth ambitions.

I can confirm that the Scottish Government regularly engage with Liberty Steel Group Holdings UK Ltd regarding their operations.

We are aware that last year there were instances of break-ins occurring at the Clydebridge site which were reported to the police and continue to be under investigation. Following this Liberty Steel Group put new security arrangements in place which have prevented subsequent attempts to break into the premises.

I understand that Liberty Steel Group are also undertaking work to remove graffiti from the outside of the building and are maintaining an open dialogue with Police Scotland regarding the security of the site.

As a result of the difficult decisions which had to be taken through the Emergency Budget review, recruitment of the 1,000 additional roles to support community mental health resilience, ensuring every GP Practice has access to a mental health and wellbeing service has not yet commenced. We have already prioritised significant investment to build mental health capacity in primary care through Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027 and the Primary Care Improvement Fund.

We remain committed to improving mental health service provision in primary care settings. We are therefore working closely with stakeholders, including the Mental Health in Primary Care National Oversight Group, to develop plans to best use the resource available across the system in 2023-24, and in future years to improve support, assessment and treatment in primary care settings.

Over the last year, the Managed Service Network for children and young people with cancer (MSN), reviewed the Psychology, Physiotherapy and Dietetic Resource. As a result, we agreed to make the existing provision of psychological service permanent to provide certainty and ensure young people have access to psychological support.

In addition, the Scottish Cancer Network, alongside the MSN, is currently undertaking a broader workforce mapping exercise and have established a short life working group to support this. The MSN’s review will be considered by the short life working group. This group, who will complete their mapping exercise this year, will specifically look at how we can upskill our current workforce as well as looking at wider service needs within this population group.

As a result of the difficult decisions which had to be taken through the Emergency Budget review, recruitment of the 1,000 additional roles to support community mental health resilience, ensuring every GP Practice has access to a mental health and wellbeing service has not yet commenced. We have already prioritised significant investment to build mental health capacity in primary care through Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027 and the Primary Care Improvement Fund.

We remain committed to improving mental health service provision in primary care settings. We are therefore working closely with stakeholders, including the Mental Health in Primary Care National Oversight Group, to develop plans to best use the resource available across the system in 2023-24, and in future years to improve support, assessment and treatment in primary care settings.

The Scottish Government places great importance on the safety, wellbeing and welfare of everyone taking part in sport.

We have met with Boxing Scotland to discuss their proposals around minimum criteria for white collar boxing events.

It is the responsibility of individual boxing event organisers, and any other contact sports, to ensure that they have the appropriate procedures in places to protect the wellbeing of those taking part in their events.

We strongly urge all boxing event organisers to work with Boxing Scotland to ensure that robust measures and protocols are in place to reduce the risk of serious injury and protect the safety of those who take part.

The Scottish Government has not prescribed a specific employment model for Community Link Workers. Local areas decide, on the basis of local need, how they are deployed and in which GP practices they work.

As at March 2022, 76% of GP practices in Scotland had full or partial access to Community Link Workers. By March 2022, 249 WTE community links workers had been recruited through Primary Care Improvement Plans. Figures split by health board can be found at:

Supporting documents - Primary care improvement plans: summary of implementation progress - March 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The 2021 benchmarking report by First Marine International was commissioned by Ferguson Marine and any response to its recommendations would be an operational matter for the shipyard. The Scottish Government, in addition commissioned an FMI productivity report in 2022 to consider potential measures to increase Ferguson Marine’s competitiveness. The outputs of that study are being used to inform Ferguson Marine’s business plan and consideration of future investment at the shipyard.

The Bank is guided by the missions set for it by Scottish Ministers and makes independent decisions in line with their Investment Strategy. The Scottish Government is not currently considering mandating the creation of any refund guarantee products by the Scottish National Investment Bank at this time.