Chamber and committees

The HIV Transmission Elimination Proposal, commissioned by the Scottish Government and published on World AIDS Day in 2022, sets out 22 recommendations to ensure progress is made to meet our goal of zero HIV infection transmissions in Scotland by 2030.

An HIV Transmission Elimination Proposal Scoping Group met between March and June 2023 to review the proposal, and to identify key actions to be taken forward in 2023-24. The recommendations from this group are currently being considered and prioritised.

In addition, the Scottish Government has provided funding to support the development of an e-PrEP pilot and a national publicity campaign to address HIV stigma, to be developed by a multi-agency partnership.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-19568 on 26 July 2023. 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/questions-and-answers .

The Scottish Government’s Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus plan for 2023 to 2026 is scheduled for publication towards the end of summer 2023. As part of this approach, there will be a focus on improving access to testing for STIs and blood borne viruses.

Recommendations made within the HIV Transmission Elimination Proposal are currently being considered, and prioritisation of those to be taken forward in 2023-24 is likely to be announced before the end of summer 2023.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Prisoners are charged £5.00 to use the Prisoner PIN phones for 100 minutes when calling a landline and are charged £10.00 when they call a mobile phone for 100 minutes.

There have been no changes to these prices in the last 4 years.

We are committed to delivering the Coming Home recommendations to reduce inappropriate out-of-area placements and delayed discharges experienced by people with learning disabilities and complex care needs. We continue to work closely with COSLA and the local partners which have statutory responsibility for providing and commissioning appropriate services to meet their population’s needs.

In terms of progressing the recommendations, Dynamic Support Registers have been developed and launched, and local partners are now populating these. The Registers will provide an overview of the position across Scotland and help local areas to plan for people with learning disabilities and complex care needs to live in their home communities. We know that a number of local areas are already using these registers.

The Practitioner Peer Support Network to support local areas to share best practice will go live soon and we are also progressing work to establish a National Support Panel, to support local areas to share best practice and ensure genuine change is delivered.

Information on the number of pupils and cases of exclusions is collected and published every two years. Statistics on the number of pupils excluded by local authority from 2007-08 to 2020-21 are available in Table 2.3 here:

https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/statistics/2018/06/school-exclusions-statistics/documents/school-exclusions-2020-21/school-exclusions-2020-21/govscot%3Adocument/Exclusion%2Bstatistics%2B202021.xlsx

Cases of exclusion have fallen from a high of 44,794 in 2006-07 to 8,323 in 2020-21. There was a particularly notable decrease in exclusion between 2018-19 and 2020-21, with cases of exclusion falling 44%. This decrease is partly attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over 99% of all exclusions were for a fixed period of time (referred to as temporary exclusions), with pupils expected to return to their original school when the exclusion period is completed.

Potential impacts of the re-development of Ardrossan harbour on ferry services to Arran are being considered as part of service continuity planning in collaboration with project partners, including the Isle of Arran Ferry Committee.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on discontinued bus services. The registration and deregistration of services falls under the remit of the Office of the Traffic Commissioner.

The following table shows the number of unique forestry grant scheme cases with a capital or Single Application Form claim within the past 5 financial years and the total associated authorised financial claims.

Number and Value of cases claimed: Capital & Single Application Form (SAF) for the Financial Year’s 2018-19 – 2022-23

EU nationals who were living in the UK prior to the end of the Brexit Transition Period (31 December 2020) are eligible for the home tuition fee rate and tuition fee support to study at a Scottish institution. EU nationals who satisfy this criteria and were also living in the UK and Islands for 3 years can access living cost support, provided they are ordinarily resident in Scotland.