Chamber and committees

Scottish Government has delivered its native woodland creation targets as set in the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy and more recently the Bute House Agreement, and is committed to supporting further expansion of our native woodland resource. As part of the work to develop the next Scottish Biodiversity Strategy, and underpinning Delivery Plans, we are reviewing the current targets for native woodland expansion and setting evidence based targets for future years. We recently invited views on the next Scottish Biodiversity Strategy though a recent consultation exercise. The creation and management of new native woodlands will continued to be underpinned by the UK Forestry Standard, and supported through our Forestry Grant Scheme.

Protection for woodland is in place via the felling regulations under the Forestry and Land Management (Scotland) Act 2018. Where felling permission is not applicable, the Control of Woodland Removal Policy only permits removal of existing woodland where it would achieve significant and clearly defined additional public benefits including habitat restoration or public safety. Scottish Planning Policy 2014 (SPP) seeks to protect and enhance ancient semi natural woodland, together with individual trees, and encourages the creation of new woodland and planting of native trees in association with development.

The Scottish Government has allocated £336 million this year (2022-23) to heat, energy efficiency and fuel poverty measures including £119 million targeted at fuel poor households. Our resources are delivered through long-standing programmes that have successfully assisted over 150,000 households in or at risk of fuel poverty to access energy efficiency adaptations.

We have recently expanded the capacity of Home Energy Scotland to enable them to help an extra 12,000 households a year with free, impartial advice.

Our national fuel poverty scheme, Warmer Homes Scotland, is focussed on supporting households living in fuel poverty – or at risk of fuel poverty – by installing insulation and heating measures into individual properties. WHS has a record annual budget for 2022-23 of £55 million. Additionally, recently agreed changes to the eligibility criteria for WHS have made around 110,000 more households eligible for this assistance across Scotland.

The Scottish Government has significantly expanded funding for welfare advice to reduce benefit take-up gaps in Scotland. In the current year (2022-23) we have allocated over £12.5 million to support the provision of free income maximisation, welfare and debt advice. This vital funding ensures that people who are struggling the most can access the support they need in a way that works for them including face to face, online or over the phone.

The Scottish Government ran a national financial support campaign between January and March this year, beginning with a focus on maximising benefit take-up, and including signposting for debt advice and affordable credit.

The Scottish Government has launched a 'cost of living' portal to help people find out what support and benefits may be available depending on their own personal circumstances, for example for families with children or older people. This will streamline advice and support links from multiple sources of support into one page, including reserved support which is often under claimed by older households. We will ensure the promotion of this resource through all relevant existing campaigns.

The Scottish Government is also launching a Scotland-wide public information campaign to highlight help and support available to individuals as well as energy efficiency measures for households to minimise cost.

Waste collection is the responsibility of individual local authorities and they are best placed to make decisions regarding the provision of waste and recycling services in their area.

The Scottish Government supports strong trade unions in Scotland and recognises the importance of collective bargaining in improving terms and conditions, and respects the right to strike. However, we would always encourage unions and employers to work collaboratively to resolve disputes.

The Cost of Living Crisis represents an unprecedented challenge and is undoubtedly having an impact on communities across Scotland. Effective fire safety, to prevent fires and reduce their impact, remains a priority for the Scottish Government and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) and this was reflected in the latest Fire and Rescue Framework published earlier this year: Fire and rescue framework 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Our Programme for Government set out to use our Emergency Budget Review to double our Fuel Insecurity Fund to £20 million, which has helped households at risk of self-disconnection, or self-rationing their energy use, since late 2020. Support is provided to people either as fuel vouchers, or via direct payments to their energy suppliers, and is available to people on any tariff type and using any kind of fuel.

The Scottish Government has produced Home Fire Safety advice which can be found here: Home fire safety - Fire and rescue - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . SFRS also have fire safety advice relating to candle use on their website: Scottish Fire & Rescue Service (firescotland.gov.uk) .

The requested information on how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time NHS staff work in pulmonary rehabilitation services is not centrally available.

The Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) service is run by a team of specialists which includes but is not limited to:

• Physiotherapists

• Pulmonary Rehabilitation Practitioners

• Assistant Pulmonary Rehabilitation Practitioners

The service is run for people who are having difficulty managing symptoms associated with a diagnosed breathing problem.

Information on how many Physiotherapists currently in post can be found in the following link: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

Pulmonary rehabilitation services are made up of multidisciplinary teams which can include the following professions: physiotherapists, nurses, occupational therapists, pharmacists and doctors.

All healthcare students require practice placements in a number of settings, which can include pulmonary rehabilitation services, but the Scottish Government does not hold data on the distribution of students across these placements as they are managed by individual universities.

However, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) collects and analyses data relating to the provision of further and higher education in Scotland and a breakdown of the number of overall graduates from each profession over the past 5 years is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (BIB number 63608). This is broken down by domicile : Scottish, rUK, EU, international.

Pulmonary rehabilitation services are made up of multidisciplinary teams which can include the following professions: physiotherapists, nurses, occupational therapists, pharmacists and doctors.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of graduates from each profession who work in pulmonary rehabilitation services. However, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) collects and analyses data relating to the provision of further and higher education in Scotland and a breakdown of the number of overall graduates from each profession over the past five years is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (BIB number 63608). This is broken down by domicile: Scottish, rUK, EU, international.

The requested information on how many staff vacancies there currently are in pulmonary rehabilitation services is not centrally available.

The Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) service is run by a team of specialists which includes but is not limited to:

• Physiotherapists

• Pulmonary Rehabilitation Practitioners

• Assistant Pulmonary Rehabilitation Practitioners

The service is run for people who are having difficulty managing symptoms associated with a diagnosed breathing problem.

Information on how many Physiotherapist vacancies there are can be found in the following link: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

The independent Scottish EPA is required by law to identify unsatisfactory CSOs, primarily for water quality or sewage related debris impacts, in order to reduce those impacts on the water environment. SEPA also identifies unsatisfactory CSOs that impact on bathing water quality classification at the 87 designated Bathing Waters to reduce the risks to public health. Between 2010 and 2021 Scottish Water invested £335m improving 279 CSOs previously classed as unsatisfactory. The Scottish Government takes very seriously the issue of sewage spills, and my statement in Parliament last December set out comprehensive plans to reduce sewage spills over the coming decade.