Chamber and committees

Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) is reserved to the UK Government. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) publishes an estimate of ESA and other income-related benefits every six months, at a UK-wide level only. The latest figures published (covering 2018-2019) show that 94% of the total amount of Income Support or Income-related ESA that could have been claimed was claimed. On 8 July 2021 the DWP published their final update on cases that were potentially affected by underpayments of Employment and Support Allowance on transition from Incapacity Benefit. This information is also at UK-wide level, and shows that the UK Government has paid £613 million to those affected by the move from Incapacity Benefit to ESA.

The Scottish Government has no functions in relation to the Help to Buy ISA

We recognise the pandemic’s impact on the economy and businesses across a wide range of sectors. So far, the Scottish Government has provided £79.3 million directly to taxi and private hire drivers and operators in response to the pandemic. Further support of up to £28 million was announced on 5 January 2022 from within the £375 million package of funding announced on 21 December 2021, bringing total support for the sector to over £107 million. The Scottish Government is also calling on the UK Government to re-introduce schemes such as the Self-Employment Income Support Grant in order to make further support available.

The taxi and private-hire sector is one of a number of sectors experiencing labour market challenges arising from the pandemic, and is exacerbated by this being a largely self-employed sector. We are aware that Glasgow City Council, who are the independent licensing authority responsible for administration of the taxi-licensing regime, have held constructive talks with the trade to ascertain how the licensing authority can streamline the licensing process.

The Scottish Government has engaged extensively with local authorities and with a number of organisations representing the taxi sector including Unite the Union, the App Drivers and Couriers Union, the Scottish Association of Private Hire Operator and the Scottish Taxi Federation. Previously the Scottish Government provided £79.3 million directly to taxi and private hire drivers and operators in response to the pandemic. Further support of up to £28 million was announced on 5 January 2022 from within the £375 million package of funding announced on 21 December 2021, bringing total support for the sector to over £107 million. The Scottish Government is also calling on the UK Government to re-introduce schemes such as the Self-Employment Income Support Grant in order to make further support available. We recognise the pandemic’s impact on the economy and businesses across a wide range of sectors.

The Scottish Government currently offers a number of funding schemes, through Transport Scotland, to support businesses (including taxi owners) make the shift to low and zero-emission vehicles. Applications for these funds can be made through the Energy Saving Trust who administer the schemes on our behalf.

Available support includes:

• the Switched-on Taxi Loan scheme which offers an interest free loan up to £120,000 to enable taxi owners and operators to replace their current vehicle with an eligible ultra-low emission vehicle.
• the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) Retrofit Fund for taxi owners operating within LEZs. This provides up to 80% grant funding to replace existing diesel engines to meet the Euro 6 standard for driving within a LEZ. The grant provides up to £10,000 per wheelchair accessible taxi installing re-powering technology, or £5,000 per taxi installing exhaust after-treatment systems.
• the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) Support Fund, which is available to eligible microbusinesses and sole traders (including taxi operators), operating within a 20km radius of Scotland’s LEZs. The fund provides a £2,500 grant towards the safe disposal of non-compliant vehicles as an incentive to take older, more polluting vehicles off the road.

We acknowledge that working together is crucial, because we know that Scotland’s world-leading and legally binding net-zero target cannot be met by Government alone and a partnership approach between businesses, local authorities and communities will continue to be required to respond to the climate emergency and improve the air quality within our cities.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04301 on 6 December 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

Asylum is reserved to the UK Parliament and handled by the Home Office. Provision of Wi-Fi is not included as a requirement in the Home Office asylum accommodation contract with Mears Group. Scottish Ministers have repeatedly pressed the Home Office to include consideration of digital access as part of asylum support provision.

As part of efforts to ensure everyone living in our communities could access the support they need, the Scottish Government provided over £550,000 to third sector organisations for projects supporting people subject to No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) including people seeking asylum during the pandemic. The projects supported through Immediate Priority funding focused on basic needs, including digital access.

As advised in the answer to question S6W-02445 on 13 September 2021, the Scottish Government has committed to extend the Connecting Scotland programme over the course of this Parliament to reach a total of 300,000 people. Work is underway to scope the future service, including how best to reach priority groups who we know are most likely to be digitally excluded, including refugees and asylum seekers.

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 Scottish Government continues to closely monitor all emerging evidence on the effectiveness of COVID-19 treatments and their clinical effectiveness. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is now assessing Paxlovid’s safety and effectiveness, and I cautiously welcome analysis of the final clinical trial results from Pfizer (which are yet to be published or verified) which show that Paxlovid cuts the risk of hospitalisation or death by approximately 89% in high risk, non-hospitalised adult patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19. If approved by the MHRA, this will represent another significant pharmaceutical option in our response to COVID-19.

On 20th October, the UK Government announced that 250,000 treatment courses of Paxlovid had been ordered, pending regulatory approval. On 22nd December, the UK Government announced that a further 2.5 million treatment courses had been ordered as part of efforts to reduce the impact of COVID-19 and the Omicron variant across the UK. If authorised by the MHRA, the intention is to initially deploy antivirals such as Paxlovid to individuals through a UK-wide national study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The University of Oxford has been selected to lead the study . This will enable collection of additional data to address limitations in the company-sponsored trials, for example the effectiveness of the treatments in vaccinated patients, as participants in the company trials were unvaccinated.

The Scottish Government has been working collaboratively with public and third sector partners to create and disseminate COVID-19-related information to asylum seekers and refugees in relevant languages and accessible formats. Given the fast-moving nature of coronavirus-related guidance, we took into consideration the lead time with translations and the danger of out-of-date messages being shared and distributed, and focused on working in partnership to create and distribute key coronavirus information to benefit the wider community.

1. The Scottish Government works closely with NHS 24 and Public Health Scotland to ensure key public health information on COVID-19 is available in 17 languages and accessible formats via the NHS Inform website, which is Scotland’s central repository for public health information.

2. In July 2021 Dari and Pashto translations were added to NHS Inform in response to the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme.

3. In addition to NHS Inform, the COVID helpline provides interpreter services to support engagement with people whose first language is not English.

4. COVID-19 National Door Drops that have been sent to all homes in Scotland for Covid-19, Test and Protect and COVID-19 Vaccines and Right Care Right Place were created in key languages for asylum seekers and refugees as identified by partners.

5. We have been working in partnership with NHS Scotland and Public Health Scotland to spread the message of available translations and formats. Organisations reached include: Scottish Refugee Council; BEMIS (the national umbrella body supporting the development of the Ethnic Minorities Voluntary Sector in Scotland); NHS Lothian Minority Ethnic Inclusion Service (MEHIS); British Red Cross; Inclusion Scotland; Scottish Independent Living Coalition (SILC); Progress in Dialogue; Article 12.

6. SG and PHS have engaged with various organisations including the Scottish Refugee Council to get feedback on how to maximise COVID-19 vaccine uptake with asylum seekers and refugees, and in response to identified needs, videos, a Statement of Facts sheet and informed consent information have been developed in relevant languages to provide information about issues identified as concerns across a range of population groups in Scotland.