Chamber and committees

This is a matter for independent hospices, Health Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships. The information requested is not held centrally.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

We recognise the importance of swimming pools and other sports facilities in supporting the physical and mental health of the nation. sport scotland, our national agency for sport, are supporting Scottish Swimming to deliver the Scottish Swimming Facilities Project to accurately understand the current swimming pool provision, life cycle and predict the landscape in the short, medium and long term.

We have asked sport scotland to write to Mr Miles Briggs MSP with more details of the Scottish Swimming Facilities Project and to keep him updated as it progresses.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and myself met with hospice sector representatives on 14 March to discuss the pressures that the hospice sector are currently facing. The Scottish Hospice Leadership Group and a number of hospices continue to be valued members of the Scottish Government’s Strategy Steering Group for Palliative and End of Life Care, and Scottish Government officials continue to attend the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group (SHLG).

Our Programme for Government in 2021-22 committed to provision of high-quality child palliative care, regardless of location, supported by sustainable funding of at least £7 million per year through Children’s Hospices Across Scotland. Scottish Government officials are in discussions with CHAS about the sustainability and oversight of funding going forward.

It is the responsibility of Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) to plan and commission adult palliative and end of life care services for their areas using the integrated budgets under their control.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and myself met with hospice sector representatives on 14 March to discuss the pressures that the hospice sector are currently facing, including representatives of adult hospices and CHAS.

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering the grade separation of Sheriffhall roundabout, as part of its £300 million commitment to the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal.

Following publication of the draft Orders and Environmental Statement, Transport Scotland received a significant number of objections to the proposed scheme. Although Transport Scotland engaged widely with objectors, it was unable to resolve all objections. In view of this, a Public Local Inquiry was held from 31 January to 8 February 2023. As with all trunk road projects this is the appropriate statutory forum for considering objections received and not withdrawn. The independent Reporter is now giving detailed consideration to all evidence before making recommendations to the Scottish Ministers for a decision.

Construction of the proposed scheme can only commence if it is approved under the relevant statutory authorisation process and thereafter a timetable for its progress can be set.

The Scottish Government is not currently considering the development of a Scottish patients clinical trials charter.

On 13 February 2023 the Scottish Government published an independent report on Improving Equity of Access to Cancer Clinical Trials in Scotland. We will be working with the cancer clinical research community to prioritise and develop the report's 51 recommendations.

Improving equity of access to cancer clinical trials in Scotland - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government values the crucial role carried out by kinship carers and is committed to delivering a Scottish Recommended Allowance for them, alongside foster carers. We acknowledge that it has taken far longer than we would like. That is why we are actively exploring all available options and working at pace with CoSLA, to deliver the allowance as soon as possible.

The Scottish Government welcomes the City of Edinburgh Council’s commitment to cut car kilometres by 30% by 2030, and will work with all local authorities to support equitable measures which discourage car use to accompany greater investment in public transport and active travel for a fairer and greener transport system. As outlined in our route map to achieving a 20% reduction in car kilometres by 2030, jointly developed with COSLA, the scale of the climate challenge means that we need to take forward a broad combination of interventions including infrastructure, incentives and regulatory actions, taking into account the needs of people on low incomes to help ensure a just transition to net-zero.

Lending and insurance policy are reserved matters for the UK Government. We are aware of the difficulties that some people are facing in accessing mortgages for buildings with potentially unsafe cladding. Work has been undertaken between the UK Government and UK Finance to develop a solution which reflects the situation in England and we are in urgent discussion with UK Finance about adapting that solution for Scotland as quickly as possible. The Single Building Assessment is a crucial element in identifying issues in buildings with potentially unsafe cladding in Scotland. We expect the vast majority of buildings to be found to be safe, but first we have to carry out comprehensive and technical assessments. This is a complex and time-consuming programme, and a number of assessments are either at final or pre-final reporting stage.

The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places the statutory responsibility for local roads, including the provision of parking spaces with local road authorities. The number of parking spaces required in each area is therefore determined by the relevant local authority.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of parking spaces in each local authority.