Chamber and committees

Following the launch of the Scottish Strategy for Autism, in February 2012, I announced as a spending priority the roll-out of local autism coordinators across Scotland.

National Autism Mapping Coordinators, led by a Project Leader, have been appointed from 1 August 2012 on a fixed-term 10 month contract in the voluntary sector to map autism service provision and support throughout Scotland.

Mappers will be responsible for regional areas, covering Strathclyde, Ayrshire and Dumfries, Edinburgh, Lothian and Borders, Central Scotland, North East Scotland and the Highlands and Islands. They will determine levels, type and quality of service provision and any gaps. Mappers will link in, consult and work with all local authorities, NHS, autism networks, local organisations and individuals on the spectrum, their families and carers within their allocated areas. Findings will inform future decisions on how many local autism coordinators will be required, the nature of the work they would undertake locally and where they will be best placed to meet the needs of people with autism.

From 2003-2011 Determined to Succeed, our national enterprise in education strategy, helped develop the enterprise, entrepreneurial and employability skills of our young people, better preparing them for learning, life and work. The strategy was embedded within the wider Curriculum for Excellence programme from April 2011.

Curriculum for Excellence is making teaching and learning more relevant, engaging and connected, we are equipping young people with the skills, knowledge and understanding they need them for work and life in a globalised society.

A key element in providing a context for learning, and to ensure learning is relevant, experiential and engaging, is the partnerships that exist between schools and employers. These partnerships are central to the delivery of Curriculum for Excellence and to support their development we created the Employers and Young People website to encourage the engagement of employers in supporting young people to understand, and engage with, the world of work. There are over 17,500 such partnerships in Scotland.

The Scottish Government does not make decisions on decommissioning specific generating stations.

The draft Electricity Generating Policy Statement (EGPS) published in March 2012:

http://scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Business-Industry/Energy/EGPS2012 sets out the pathway to meeting the Scottish Government target of the equivalent of at least 100% of gross electricity consumption from renewables by 2020. The EGPS shows renewable generation, including onshore wind, will form part of a balanced electricity mix, with thermal generation continuing to play an important role. It also confirms Scotland will need a minimum of 2.5 GW modernised thermal baseload generation to backup renewable generation. How that will be delivered is a market-based decision for electricity generators in the increasingly supportive policy and regulatory frameworks and attractive investment environment Scottish Ministers are working to deliver in Scotland.

We have supported the establishment of the Familial Arrhythmia Network Scotland (FANS). The network aims to raise awareness of familial arrhythmias, define and agree referral protocols, develop national guidance for clinical and genetic testing and establish a national register which will support the long term follow-up of people living with inherited arrhythmias.

FANS’ work will help ensure that people who need genetic testing get appropriate access. The decision to undertake genetic screening and genetic counselling will be supported through the FANS clinical service once the benefit to the patient and their family has been established.

We have indicated in our Heart Disease and Stroke Action Plan that FANS should extend its activities to cover cardiomyopathies.

We’ve also invested over £350,000 in Scotland’s Cardiac Assessment of Young Athletes Programme, which has enabled over 1500 young people who are engaged in competitive sports to undergo cardiovascular assessment.

Through the Energy Skills Action Group the public sector is working with industry to address the skills needs of the energy sector in Scotland, and oil and gas is a key priority for this group. This government has committed to fund 25,000 Modern Apprenticeship start, 500 of which will be ring-fenced specifically for the energy and climate change sector, every year until 2014. In 2011/12 almost half of the 500 Energy MA starts were in Oil and Gas (47%). Last year the First Minister also announced £2m to support at least an additional 1,000 flexible training places in energy and low carbon. Skills Development Scotland is currently considering how this can support the current and future skills needs of the energy sector including the oil and gas industry.

Through the Scottish Funding Council we are supporting the recently established Scotland’s Colleges Energy Skills Partnership (ESP) – a new and unique step in collaboration between the colleges to offer energy skills training across regional and sub-sectoral hubs. We are also working with the Energy Technology Partnership (ETP) an alliance of independent Scottish Universities, engaged in world class energy research, development and demonstration.

In addition the Oil and Gas Industry Leadership Group has set up a short life working group with a small number of companies from across the industry to focus on increasing the labour supply. This approach has support from Oil and Gas UK; OPITO; Sub Sea UK; Scottish Enterprise; Skills Development Scotland; and Scottish Government and will build on the existing activity already taking place to improve the supply of skills labour for the sector.

There has been much consideration given to encouraging the use of winter tyres. In October 2011 the Cabinet Secretary for Justice launched the ‘Ready Scotland’ website which provides preparedness information on winter travel, including a section on winter tyres, thus enabling individuals to make informed choices about using winter tyres.

Over the past months the Scottish Government has facilitated meetings between the Scotch Whisky Association and farming bodies to discuss concerns regarding the use of distillery co-products for renewables generation.

In these stakeholder meetings it was decided to commission research into a wide range of aspects which are relevant in the context of distillery co-product use. The research includes the nutritional value, pricing, production of and demand for distillery co-products as livestock feed in Scotland. It also looks into the carbon implications on farm of using distillery co-products compared with other alternative feed rations. On completion the report will be discussed with stakeholders and the need for further research will be explored. Such research may include, but would not necessarily be limited to, carbon footprinting. The design would need to take account of any issues of commercial sensitivity around the data on which it is based.

All registrants with the Scottish Social Services Council pay an initial application fee to register, an annual fee to maintain their registration and a fee to renew their registration after a specified period of either three or five years. Current fee levels are £30; £20; £15 and £10. Full details of fee levels for all current groups can be obtained from the SSSC web site at the attached link.

http://www.sssc.uk.com/sssc/applying-for-registration/registration-fees.html.

The work currently being carried out on consideration of the registration timetable will include amongst other issues a review of the current level of registration fees.

The following table shows the number of accidents which resulted in personal injury on the A9 between Perth and Inverness in each year since 2007.

Transport Scotland collates information on reported personal injury accidents on trunk roads in Scotland and this database is updated periodically, as data provided by the Police is checked and verified. The year-end figures for 2011 have yet to be received and verified.

Note: *2011 stats are not fully complete for all Police forces and are subject to change on submission of further datasets.

The figures quoted may differ slightly from those published elsewhere due to being extracted on a different date and the database may have changed between the two dates, e.g. due to late returns or corrections.

We are the first Government to commit to dualling the A9, and we have just announced more details of the ambitious timetable and full dualling programme for the A9 between Perth and Inverness.