Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government fully supports the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) in its efforts to meet the needs of children and young people with additional support needs. Every child’s individual needs are considered by SCRA, based on information provided by other agencies and professionals. SCRA has, for a number of years, worked on support and assistance for neurodiverse children and families. They are creating sensory spaces in their hearings centres, the first of which opened in March this year, and have updated information material and internal guidance to staff in conjunction with the charity Reach for Autism. They are currently working on plans to develop a network of local neurodiversity champions to further promote and address the specific needs of children and families in Children’s Hearings.

The new SCRA digital case management system, now in its second full year of operation, is capable of recording specific data relating to protected characteristics and SCRA are considering how this can be used to the greatest effect.

Energy markets are reserved to the UK Government. As part of our response to the rising cost of energy, the Scottish Government has raised concerns that many consumers who are not registered directly with a licenced energy supplier may not receive a £400 energy rebate. Although no solution is currently in place, the UK Government has advised that, this Autumn, it intends to widen support to include those consumers who are not currently reached through the Energy Bills Support Scheme such as park home residents.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission published its latest set of benefit forecasts in May 2022 where they estimated, based on outturn information, that in 2020-21 there were around 103,000 people in receipt of Adult Disability Living Allowance in Scotland, forecasting that in 2021-22 there could be around 95,000 people.

Accessibility of our railways is a reserved matter for the UK Government. We will continue to press for full devolution in Scotland of all rail matters to deliver more accessible improvements. There are no immediate plans to improve accessibility at Insch railway station, however the station will be included for consideration, alongside others, for improvement to its accessibility, as part of the Department for Transport’s (DfT) Access for All programme for Control Period 7, which commences in 2024.

Over the last two years our NHS has suffered the biggest shock of its 74 year existence. Caring for large numbers of patients seriously unwell with COVID-19 has inevitably meant that planned care procedures have had to be delayed, and while we are working hard to recover and remobilise our NHS, this will not be done in a few weeks or even months. Addressing the backlog of care, while continuing to meet the ongoing urgent health and care needs of the country, remains a priority for this Government.

We know that excessively long waits have grown as a result of the pandemic, which is why we now need to focus on treating people that are waiting too long for treatment. On 6 July 2022, I introduced a new set of targets for NHS Scotland to address the backlog of planned care.

We will continue to work with the National Complex Pelvic Mesh Removal Service in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to improve the waits that people are currently experiencing.

In the first instance where patients have concerns regarding their appointments these are best addressed by contacting their local Health Board who can advise on rescheduling in a timely manner. The patient feedback team within the Health Board may also be able to advise or support if required.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-09864 on 15 August 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The Scottish Government introduced a fit and proper person test as part of the Mobile Home Site Licencing Scheme, set out in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014 and introduced in 2017. The fit and proper person test applies to all site licence holders, site owners and anyone directly managing a site.

The Scottish Government does not have plans in place to amend the Mobile Homes Act 1983 ( Amendment of Schedule 1) (Scotland) Order 2013.

The Scottish Government does not have plans to review the 10% maximum commission payable on the price of a mobile home upon sale. We will continue to monitor this issue, including considering the UK Government report published in June 2022.

The Scottish Government plans to gather information on implementation of the Site Licencing Scheme from Local Authorities in due course, to inform a review of the Scheme before the end of this Parliament.