Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government approved £21 million of funding for the 2021-2024 period to support equality and human rights in Scotland through the Equality and Human Rights Fund Equality and Human Rights Fund: projects funded - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . Of that total, nearly £5.5 million is specifically allocated to fourteen organisations delivering a range of activities to engage with and support black and minority ethnic organisations and communities in Scotland. Overall, the funded organisations have provided support to 4,168 people, and 747 organisations.

The Scottish Government also established a short term Anti-Racism Interim Governance Group to Develop National Anti-Racism Infrastructure (AIGG), which was comprised of academic experts, young people and community leaders with specific expertise in anti-racism in Scotland. An important part of the group’s work was commissioning participatory community research Community-Report-_-Executive-Summary-September-2023.pdf (antiracismobservatoryforscotland.org) to engage with racialised communities across Scotland to ensure they are informed and engaged with the work being done to progress anti-racism in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has long-standing and continued engagement with a variety of organisations in the minority ethnic sector, including our strategic partners BEMIS, CRER and CEMVO, to collectively drive change for our diverse communities across Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-28205 on‎ 5 July 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-28205 on‎ 5 July 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

The Scottish Government introduced asset transfer legislation as part of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. This landmark policy is the first of its kind in the UK and since its enactment on 23 January 2017 there has been more than 225 successful asset transfers agreed using these powers.

We are committed to ensuring that all our communities can access community assets, and are working with our partners to make sure our most vulnerable communities can access the assets they require to deliver important services and develop their own economies, wellbeing, and environments.

Our work with the Community Ownership Support Service (COSS) and the Barmulloch Community Development Company in Glasgow established a central hub which has supported 11 marginalised groups engage with the asset transfer process including the Bangla Centre, Spingburn, who were able to progress their asset transfer ambitions by accessing this targeted support.

As part of the current review of the Community Empowerment Act we have asked our partners and their networks to help us better understand the experiences of those involved in taking on community assets, including seeking the views of underrepresented groups.

We maintain a vision for a Scotland where all people – including black and minority ethnic communities, and migrants – have equal access to wealth, opportunities, and power.

Currently there are no territorial NHS Boards consulting on major service change proposals on the future of hospitals.

Any major service change proposals being considered by NHS Boards are subject to at least three months formal public consultation and, ultimately, Ministerial approval; in line with national guidance which is available at:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/planning-people-community-engagement-participation-guidance-updated-2024/ .

The hospital group codes that have been quoted in the question are only present in data that are used for the Public Health Scotland ‘Costs Book’. Therefore, the figures quoted below are based on hospitals that have been assigned with one of the hospital group codes in this annual data collection to support the Scottish Health Service Costs publication. Information is available for financial years 2007-08 to 2022-23 (most recent). Group code ‘J26’ (community hospitals) was not used until the 2009-10 data collection. A mapping exercise identified that group codes ‘A5’ and ‘B10’ (both since discontinued) were previously used to define community-based hospitals up to that point, and this is reflected in the following table. It should also be noted that changes over time in the following table will reflect system reconfigurations, e.g. the Acute Services Review in Greater Glasgow, where several smaller acute facilities were reconfigured over two larger main sites, including the opening of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus in 2015.

Another important point of context is that models of patient care have changed markedly over the 17-year time period covered by the question, with initiatives such as ‘Hospital at Home’ now offering supported care at or closer to home, where possible, in place of longer hospital stays.

The following table sets out the number of hospitals by group code in financial years 2007-08, 2009-10 and 2022-23:

Latest figures from our Diversity and inclusions statistics of the Scottish Government workforce 2023 official statistics publication show that there were 473 external recruits to core Scottish Government directorates between 1 Jan 2023 and 31 Dec 2023, excluding those that both joined and left in that period. Of those, 89 had declared their disability status by 31 Dec 2023, with 19 of those declaring one or more disabilities. This gives an estimated proportion of disabled external recruits of 21%.

The 35% figure previously quoted came from an earlier internal source of data where the declaration rate was lower (12 disabled out of 34 declarations). Staff diversity data is constantly updating as staff complete their diversity monitoring questions, and there may be a lag between external recruits joining and these staff declaring their diversity data.

The Scottish Government’s recent investment into diabetes technologies will specifically support children and adults to access closed loop systems.

Alongside this additional investment, we will also encourage all NHS Boards including NHS Lothian to utilise the national onboarding team based at Centre of Sustainable Delivery as well their own local diabetes clinical teams to support technology starts.

This should increase the rate and scope at which individuals will be able to access closed loop systems and therefore have a positive impact on waiting times.

The GP Sustainability loan scheme was paused in March 2024 due to a greater than anticipated number of loans having completed this year with the result that our budget for loans was oversubscribed.

The Scottish Government’s position on GP premises remains that set out in The 2018 General Medical Services in Scotland document: we recognise and support a long-term shift that gradually moves towards a model which does not presume GPs own their practice premises.

We intend to resume Tranche 1 of the Sustainability Loan Scheme in 2024-25 once we have completed the disbursement of funds for those loans already completed and confirmed a budget. This will likely not be until midway through the financial year.

Our preference remains to continue the loan scheme into Tranche 2 and beyond – however, this will depend on whether the UK Government resumes the allocation of Financial Transaction Capital to the Scottish Government.

In the meantime we have carried out no assessment of the potential impact of the suspension of the GP sustainability loan scheme on health inequalities as we intend to resume the scheme as soon as possible.

The Scottish Government remains supportive of a new station in Winchburgh and I am pleased to confirm that my officials and I met with representatives from West Lothian Council, Winchburgh Development Limited and Network Rail on 17 April to discuss the proposed station.

A number of actions to progress the station were agreed and I fully expect the development of the business case and routes towards locating potential funding streams to be discussed again, having formed part of the previous meeting agenda in April. I am also pleased to confirm my officials and I will attend a follow-up meeting with the organisations I mentioned previously on 25 June to further progress the matter.