Chamber and committees

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Although the top up funding has ended, the latest funding round from sportscotland has allocated to Scottish Swimming over £5 million for the four years 2015-19. This is the largest funding settlement of all the Commonwealth Games sports and will support grassroots swimming.

The Scottish Government will continue to explore with all relevant partners, including local authorities, sustainable options for helping children learn to swim.

Discussions took place with sportscotland and with Scottish Swimming.

The Scottish Government believes that those undertaking English language qualifications under UK Visas and Immigration requirements should be able to do so in their local area. After 5 November 2015, UK Visas and Immigration will only accept applications for settlement and citizenship by applicants who have an English language qualification awarded by only one of two approved providers. Each provider has only one testing centre in Scotland: one in Edinburgh and one in Glasgow. The First Minister has made the Scottish Government concerns about these proposed changes clear to the UK Immigration Minister and has called on the UK Government to continue to recognise SQA English for Speakers of Other Languages qualifications as evidence of English language for UK Visas and Immigration requirements.

In March 2015 the Scottish Government was informed by the UK Minister for Immigration that in November 2015, the UK Government will no longer recognise Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) ESOL qualifications for UK settlement and citizenship applications. The First Minister has made Scottish Government concerns about these proposed changes clear to the UK Immigration Minister and has called on the UK Government to continue to recognise SQA ESOL qualifications as evidence of English language for UK Visas and Immigration requirements.

The method of calculating the mileage rate is based on the cost of running an average car in Scotland, as set out in the report Road Equivalent Tariff Study, Halcrow (2008): http://www.gov.scot/resource/doc/935/0061364.pdf

The mileage rate for cars was updated in 2013, following analysis by Transport Scotland, from £0.60 to £0.80 per mile, to reflect the higher costs of motoring and also to take account of the range of engine sizes and fuel types. In 2014 and 2015, road equivalent tariff fares were uprated by the Consumer Price Index, in line with the provisions in the Clyde and Hebrides ferry services contract.

The mileage rate paid under the Highlands and Islands Patient Travel Scheme is intended to contribute towards the cost of fuel, but does not cover other running costs, for example insurance or depreciation. The intention is to ensure equality of treatment between those using public transport and those using their own car.

The Director of Operations.

The Scottish Government recently announced an additional £100 million over five years for improving mental health across Scotland. This comprised £85 million announced in May 2015, which followed the extra £15 million announced for mental health in November 2014. Decisions on how the funding announced in May 2015 is to be used are still being finalised but we will be working with NHS Scotland, local government and the third sector to ensure that we get maximum benefit from the investment, including ensuring that people get timely access to services. However, broad areas for investment will include:

Further improvement to child and adolescent mental health services to bring down waiting times;

Improved access to services and in particular psychological therapies; and

Better responses to mental health in community and primary care settings, including promoting wellbeing through physical activity and improved patient rights.

The profile of the funding is set out in the following table:

The Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme is a £410 million investment of public and private funding designed to extend access to superfast broadband. In tandem with commercial deployment, DSSB will provide 95% of premises in Scotland with superfast broadband by 2017-18.

The DSSB programme is being achieved through two regional projects – one in the Highlands and Islands (led by Highlands and Islands Enterprise) and the other in the rest of Scotland (led by the Scottish Government).

Rollout plans for both projects are built around postcodes and exchange areas. These do not correlate with the ‘47 clusters’ list cited. Consequently it is only possible to provide deployment information on the associated exchange. This is summarised in the following table: