Chamber and committees

Information on the number of community paediatrician vacancies is not held centrally.

Information on the number of consultant paediatrician vacancies are available on the NHS Education for Scotland Data and reports | Turas Data Intelligence website.

Health Boards actively manage their turnover and vacancies throughout the year. Where vacancies do occur the Scottish Government expects Boards to take reasonable steps to ensure the continued delivery of services, including, when necessary, the use of supplementary staffing.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. More detailed information on waiting times will be held locally by NHS boards.

NHS Scotland has separate waiting lists for planned care, including one for new outpatient (NOP) appointment and another for inpatient/day-case (IPDC) procedures.

A clock starts for a NOP appointment once the referral is received by the Health Board and only stops once the patient has had their appointment. Patients may be triaged to the optimal, evidence-based pathway, based on a review of the patient’s records, including any imaging and laboratory results, but their NOP waiting time clock will not be paused during triage.

Most patients will agree any necessary treatment at their NOP appointment and this is when the patient’s waiting time clock for their IPDC treatment should start. Health Boards cannot list a patient for IPDC treatment prior to this appointment because healthcare staff have a responsibility to ensure they obtain valid and informed consent from a patient before putting them on a waiting list for any type of care or treatment intervention. To ensure patients can give informed consent, clinicians must provide information about what the treatment involves, including the benefits and risks, whether there are alternative options, and what will happen if treatment does not go ahead. The NOP appointment provides the opportunity for these discussions to take place.

The Scottish Government has not been informed by any public body of any delays or disruptions to Royal Mail postal deliveries.

On 14 March, the First Minister announced a financial package worth up to £10 million to help businesses rebuild and renew the part of Glasgow affected by the Union Corner fire. Glasgow City Council will administer the scheme based on engagement with local businesses to understand how they have been affected.

In addition, up to £1 million will be made available to help the council with demolition costs.

Local authorities can also award up to 100% non-domestic rates Hardship Relief to ratepayers if they are satisfied that the ratepayer would be in financial difficulty without it and awarding it is in the interests of local people.

Scottish Government’s contribution to discretionary non-domestic rates Hardship Relief in Glasgow City Council for those impacted will increase from 75% to 95%.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has recently written to the Scottish Government with its concerns around the provision of Royal Mail services and we will provide a considered response to that communication.

Royal Mail and postal delivery services are reserved to the UK Government.

The First Minister visited the Glasgow Mail Centre on 22 December where he reiterated the importance of maintaining high service standards across Scotland.

The Scottish Government engages regularly with Royal Mail to provide constructive challenge and ensure that services meet the specific needs of communities in Scotland.

Royal Mail and postal delivery services are reserved to the UK Government. It is the UK Government’s responsibility to conduct risk and impact assessments of its postal policies on Scottish communities.

The Scottish Government engages regularly with Royal Mail to provide constructive challenge and to ensure that postal services meet the specific needs of communities across Scotland.

On 6 March, the Scottish Government wrote to the UK Minister for Small Business & Economic Transformation in relation to the Future of the Post Office Green Paper, and made clear that postal services are a vital lifeline for communities across Scotland, particularly rural and island communities, and for vulnerable or digitally excluded consumers. Post offices, for example, often act as a community hub.

Scotland has many communities and small businesses in rural and island areas, as well as an ageing population, all of whom rely on receiving mail in a timely fashion. That is why work continues to make the case for maintaining the Universal Service Obligation (USO) and ensuring that post office services are available across rural and island parts of Scotland.

Police Scotland have a Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) capability and rightly make operational decisions on how that is deployed. Police Scotland have advised this capability is within the development and evaluation phase, and future deployment will depend on their ongoing operational assessment and further technological development. Police Scotland also note that Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems cannot be used to pursue vehicles, and Civil Aviation Authority regulations can restrict operation to within visual line of sight.

Police Scotland have confirmed that, to date, one off-road motorcycle has been seized as a result of this activity in Lanarkshire and no vehicle seizures are attributable to such activity in Greater Glasgow.

The aim of the 1140 policy is to support affordability and improve outcomes for all eligible children and their families, with 1140 hours per year offered to all 3- and 4-year-olds and eligible 2-year-olds and we have invested around £1 billion every year since 2021 to support that.

Families who are not yet eligible for funded early learning and childcare (ELC) can access financial support with childcare costs through either Universal Credit or Tax-Free Childcare. Tax-Free Childcare support is per child, and the upper limit on Universal Credit support with childcare costs is also set higher for families with more than one child. The Scottish Child Payment and Best Start Grant are also both paid on a per-child rather than per-family basis.

All local authorities have the discretion to make funded ELC available to address specific needs, and parents are encouraged to engage with their local authority to ensure that their needs are known and understood.