Chamber and committees

The Green Jobs Fund is not a skills or training fund. Over the next 5 years, the £100m Fund will provide businesses with capital investment towards improved green products and services and related research and development. All individual funding applications are subject to a detailed appraisal process that includes an equality impact assessment and evaluation of fair work practices. We will also ensure that larger consortia projects produce plans which help diversify their sectors and will use appropriate monitoring and evaluation frameworks to ensure successful companies and their net zero supply chains provide positive economic and employment impacts that raise skill levels and close skills gaps.

Our 2021 manifesto committed to continuing to promote Fair Work in the Scottish Economy and help tackle occupational segregation, one of the main drivers of the gender pay gap and women’s workplace inequality.

Our Covid Recovery Strategy will bring together the actions we will take across government and with partners to address the impact of the pandemic on those hardest hit in our country. Our 10-year National Strategy for Economic Transformation will then help build a greener, fairer and more inclusive wellbeing economy, which has fair work, including tacking the gender pay gap, and a just transition to net zero at its heart, and which delivers sustainable and inclusive growth for Scotland’s people and places.

The UK Government has been working with United Nations to provide COVID-19 vaccines to COP26 delegates that would otherwise not be able to access them. All those who expressed an interest in vaccination to either arrange appointments or set out next steps, have been contacted. For those delegates receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine, first doses have already started. Second doses will follow four weeks later. For those receiving the single dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine, vaccination will start shortly. Delegates in countries identified as having a viable in-country option, have been contacted. UK embassies are supporting these delegates with access, where required.

The Scottish Government values the positive contribution made by Catholic schools and there are no plans to review the important role they play in the Scottish education system and wider society.

As the Minister for Environment and Land Reform, I am responsible for environmental and climate justice.

The number of staff working in NHS Lanarkshire has increased by 31.4 per cent since Sept 2006, to over 12,170 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE). This includes a 28.4 per cent increase in numbers of Qualified Nurses and Midwives, which have risen to 4,309 WTE.

NHSScotland Boards are required to have the correct staff in place to meet the needs of the service and ensure high quality patient care. They have fully delegated powers in relation to employment issues. The Scottish Government works closely with Boards to support their efforts in staff recruitment. The creation of posts and filling of individual vacancies will depend on the service needs of each Board, taking account of national and local priorities.

We are investing £11 million in new recruitment activity and in the creation of a National Centre for Workforce Supply. The Centre will offer NHS Boards expert advice on labour market intelligence and coordinate recruitment campaigns, providing vital additional support to health board recruitment teams.

We are also taking forward a comprehensive programme to support recovery and build further capacity. The programme will include measures to increase international recruitment, retain staff and attract more returners to the service and new youth employment opportunities. The Scottish Government will continue to work with partners to explore options and opportunities that allow us to best support our registered staff.

Numbers of Nurses and Midwives in Scotland have increased by 12.1% (or 6,850.9 WTE) in this Government, since September 2006.

As a result of efforts to enhance staffing capacity during the Covid-19 pandemic, Nursing and Midwifery numbers have increased by 4.9% since December 2019 (60,651.0 to 63,634.1 WTE).

Despite consistent NHS workforce growth over nine years, it is common for vacancies to increase in the quarter to June. This period coincides with end of financial year retirements and directly precedes autumn graduate recruitment.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, we have invested in significantly increasing the NHS workforce; and have supported Boards to extensively redeploy staff to respond to changing clinical priorities.

We are also investing £11 million in new recruitment activity and in the creation of a National Centre for Workforce Supply. The Centre will offer NHS Boards expert advice on labour market intelligence and coordinate recruitment campaigns, providing vital additional support to health board recruitment teams. It will take full account of numbers of vacancies within Boards in doing so.

We have also sustained our investment in medical and nursing education during the course of the pandemic, with record numbers commencing training in 2020-21 (4,206 for nursing and 1,138 for medicine); and that number is set to rise further this autumn.

Changes in patterns of mixing, adherence to restrictions, levels of asymptomatic infections and school holidays all impact on cases numbers and will influence the recent drop in positive cases. Waste-water Covid-19 levels continue to exceed case rates. However, relative to the peak reported at the start of July, levels have declined nationally. We will continue to monitor wastewater Covid closely and report the trend weekly in the modelling the epidemic/pandemic publication.

We have been working to address supply chain issues in the construction industry since the launch of our Construction Recovery Plan in October last year, working with the industry and the UK Government to fully understand the current supply chain issues, which we recognise are due to a number of factors including the coronavirus pandemic and the impact of EU Exit.

I also established a working group to consider immediate supply issues in more detail and I meet with the group on a weekly basis in order to work with Scottish manufacturers to increase output to meet the shortage challenges. I have been meeting suppliers to discuss the opportunities available for increasing production, and sourcing more supplies from Scottish manufacturers.

The Scottish Government will continue to work hard to address the problems and blockages faced by companies, where it is in our power to do so.

We have not made any such assessment. However, achieving the ambition, set out in our Update to the Climate Change Plan 2018-2032: Securing a Green Recovery on a Path to Net Zero , published in December 2020, to reduce electricity sector emissions to zero before the end of this decade would mean that the energy used for bitcoin mining has no effect on emissions within Scotland.