Chamber and committees

Specific rates of pay for workers in the offshore wind and decommissioning industries are a commercial matter and the Scottish Government has no powers to compel employers to provide such data, as employment law is a specifically reserved under the Scotland Act 1998. Despite Scottish Ministers calling for the devolution of employment law under the Smith Commission process, the Scottish Government has not undertaken its own assessment of pay workers in either industry.

However, in respect of the wider position in the economy, we are currently considering all available options to promote fair work practices, including collective bargaining and payment of the National Minimum Wage and, where possible, the Scottish Living Wage, through Scottish Government procurement contracts.

We have had no recent discussions with the UK Government on this matter following its publication of the latest guidance in May 2018.

Scottish Ministers have written to the Home Secretary following publication of our further powers paper, Scotland’s Population Needs and Migration Policy, seeking a meeting to discuss how the migration system could meet Scotland’s distinct needs.

We remain very concerned of the importance of a cap on migration, which does not reflect Scotland's needs, as we are aware the Tier 2 cap is causing great difficulties to employers in meeting emerging skill gaps that cannot be met through local recruitment.

I have raised the issue of Brexit impacts on the labour market for workers of energy related services roles, and of the wider impact on the energy sector, including Oil and Gas and offshore wind subsections; most recently with UK Ministers via the Joint Ministers Council process on 3 December 2018.

The Scottish Government has not had any specific discussions with the UK Government regarding the number of seafarers who are resident in Scotland and employed in the offshore wind and oil and gas industries. Although the impact of Brexit on Scottish domiciled offshore wind and oil and gas services activities and workers was discussed with Claire Perry, Minister of State for Business, Energy and Industrial strategy at the Joint Ministerial Council on 3 December 2018.

Scottish Ministers last wrote to the UK Government on matters effecting seaforces pay and conditions on 27 September 2018 following the UK Government’s publication of corresponding revised guidance; " Guide to the application of the Equality Act 2010 and National Minimum Wage for seafarers". In that correspondence, Scottish Ministers urged the UK Government to go further and consider the introduction of legislation for seafarers working solely in UK waters, thus ensuring that protection is afforded.

The following table shows the number of students enrolling on to the MPharm undergraduate degree in the first year at the two schools of pharmacy in Scotland.

The number of newly qualified pharmacists entering the workforce is difficult to predict as pharmacists can come to work in Scotland from other parts of the UK as well as other countries. However through the NES Pre-Registration Pharmacist Scheme (PRPS) approximately 200 newly qualified pharmacists are available to enter the Scottish workforce each year.

The Scottish Government has invested £20.4m over the three year period 2015-2018 from the Primary Care Fund to recruit pharmacists in to GP practices. All Health Boards are making progress in recruiting these pharmacists and to date Boards have indicated they have appointed 201.1 whole time equivalent (wte) pharmacists and 47.7 wte technicians in to general practice.

Further funding from the Primary Care Improvement Fund has been released to NHS Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships to continue to support recruitment during 2018-19.

Community pharmacy owners are independent contractors and are responsible for the recruitment of pharmacists working in community pharmacy.

Work is underway to strengthen pharmacy workforce data, including in community pharmacies. This will help to inform future iterations of the Primary Care Workforce Plan, in order to help ensure the right workforce is in place and to take action, where necessary, to meet future service models and demands.

Payments for phases of this project are subject to a number of factors and therefore payment amounts can vary. Once a payment has been certified, as part of the governance arrangement for the AWPR/B-T contract, Aberdeen City Council administers payments to Aberdeen Roads Limited (ARL) each month. The payments Transport Scotland makes to Aberdeen City Council are published in monthly expenditure reports and are available at: https://www.transport.gov.scot/about/expenditure/

The final payment will be after the concession period which runs until 13 November 2047.

On 2 Dec, there were 20 services scheduled between Glasgow & Aberdeen, 5 of the 20 planned trains were delayed by more than 5 minutes. However, no services were cancelled.

Transport Scotland routinely meets and discusses aspects of ScotRail’s performance on a regular basis.

The ScotRail franchise contains a number of obligations and commitments to plan for special events including staffing requirements and rolling stock to operate adequate passenger services to or from any special events.

In the case of the Betfred Cup final on Sunday 2nd December, ScotRail operated 5 and 6 coach formations instead of the usual 3 car, as well as providing travel advice to passengers via a press release on their website urging Aberdeen supporters to consider their travel options. This was because the three services arriving before kickoff, and three more leaving after the match were expected to be extremely busy.

The new timetable came into force on 9 December 2018.

On that day, there were 19 services between Glasgow & Aberdeen and 11 between Edinburgh and Aberdeen, with no cancellations on either service group. The PPM on that day for these services was 56.7%.

The largest cause of delay was due to congestion at Glasgow and Edinburgh due to late running cross border services impacting on ScotRail services as they entered to Scottish network and a signalling fault at Dyce.

My officials at Transport Scotland have been in daily contact with ScotRail over the operation and performance of the new timetable.