Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government acknowledges the important contribution of small and medium-sized enterprises to the Scottish economy and is committed to creating conditions which support businesses to start up and grow.

Supporting public, private, and third sector partners to deliver high-quality business support services is a core element of this commitment. This includes support provided through Business Gateway, delivered by local authorities, and by our enterprise agencies.

We are committed to the continual improvement of these services. We are working with partners to create a system of enterprise support which is designed around and focussed on the user, and responsive to the needs of Scotland’s ever-changing business base.

While improving start-up rates is a national objective, we also recognise the particular challenges facing the south of Scotland. We are establishing a new enterprise agency for the south of Scotland to respond to the needs of the area and to drive forward sustainable inclusive growth.

The Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme demonstrates the Scottish Government’s committed to increasing the proportion of breast, colorectal and lung cancers diagnosed at the earliest stage, when the chance of survival is higher. A number of initiatives are underway to help improve early detection rates of Scotland’s most common cancers.

(a) A new bowel screening test - FIT - was introduced to the Scottish Bowel Screening Programme in November 2017 which those eligible for screening in NHS Borders will now be receiving and benefiting from. The easier single-sample test is believed to be helping boost participation in bowel screening, which remains the most effective way to find bowel cancer early.

(b) Public awareness of early signs and symptoms is key to driving early stage diagnoses and ultimately improving cancer outcomes for people in NHS Borders. That’s why Detect Cancer Early’s lung cancer campaign – fronted by Sir Alex Ferguson – will be rolled out later in 2018, to raise awareness of a three week cough as an early sign of lung cancer. This will see activity running in the NHS Borders area specifically.

(c) Uptake of breast screening in NHS Borders (76.1%) exceeds the national standard (70%) however the Board is continuing to build on this with local targeted initiatives, including a workplace screening promotion campaign, to further increase uptake with support from the Scottish Government’s Health Inequalities Fund.

Meanwhile, a new Detect Cancer Early campaign will launch later in 2018 to reduce fear around cancer and empower people to act early. A refresh of the Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer is also currently under peer review with revised Guidelines expected to be published later this year, to support GPs.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) take forward a number of activities to protect the records in their care. This includes:

- The records are held in secure storage. Specialist conservators are employed to ensure that records are stored in the correct conditions and handled carefully to prevent damage to them, and to undertake conservation treatments where necessary

 - Specialist staff select, preserve and catalogue the records it holds. Archivists liaise with organisations and individuals depositing, or gifting records, or subject to the Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011, advising them on good record keeping, assessing and selecting records for permanent preservation and arranging their transfer to NRS

 - Many of the most popular records have been digitised and made available through the Scotlands People service, saving the original records from the wear and tear of frequent handling and ensuring that they can be passed on to future generations

 - There is a Historical Search Room service available for individuals requiring access to original records. Security is in place to protect the archive material

 - NRS has a range of protections in place to protect the more modern information in its care which includes personal information held secure and closed to public access

 - Increasingly, records are being created and kept in digital form, and NRS has a programme to ensure that it is able deal with the new challenges that this change in format brings, so that digital records of national significance can also be selected, preserved and made available to future generations.

In addition to the above protections, NRS is a member of the United Kingdom Archives Security Group which brings archive services together to exchange information on security issues, including techniques and methods to protect the integrity of archives. NRS holds accredited archive status under the UK Archive Service Standard, which defines good practice and agreed standards for archive services across the UK. The standard covers an organisation’s ability to develop, care for, and provide access to its collections, and those areas such as resources and planning which underpin those activities. Accreditation lasts for 6 years, with a mid-point health check and must then be re-applied for. NRS successfully passed a 3 year health check in November 2017.

The Scottish Government made clear our support to developing the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal in our 2018-19 Budget and reaffirmed that commitment at the Borderlands Stakeholders' Conference on Monday 18 June. My officials are engaging with the Borderlands authorities as they develop their propositions. I look forward to taking forward detailed negotiations to agree a Deal that drives inclusive and transformative growth across the area. The scale of the Deal will depend on the outcome of negotiations between the Borderlands partners and the Scottish and UK Governments. It is essential it aligns with the priorities of the enterprise agency and of the interim South of Scotland Economic Partnership to maximise the impact of investment and deliver the best outcome for the people of the South of Scotland.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with Police Scotland and other partners to tackle crime in rural communities, including through the work of the Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime. Day to day decisions about the deployment of police officers are an operational matter for Police Scotland. However, the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring Police Scotland has the resources it needs to keep people safe in all of Scotland's communities, whether rural or urban. That is why we are protecting the police resource budget in every year of the current parliament - a boost of £100m by 2020-21 - and committing £31m of reform funding in the current financial year.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-11830 on ‎2 November 2017. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

The Scottish Government made a Programme for Government commitment to establish Innovation and Investment Hubs in Dublin, London, Brussels, Berlin and Paris as an integral part of wider work across the Scottish Government, partners and businesses to support trade, investment, innovation and inter-governmental relations.

The First Minister officially opened the refurbished and enhanced Scotland House Brussels on 28 May 2018. Our operation in Brussels incorporates staff from Scottish Government, Scotland Europa and Scottish Development International into a single working space. This provides an even more effective platform to enhance our commitment to play an active role in Europe and to support our collaborative approach to working with Scottish, European and international stakeholders.

There is no Digital Skills Fund. However, I believe the question relates to the Digital Growth Fund, which was announced in March 2017 to offer up to £36m of loans to SMEs to enhance digital skills and capabilities. Phase one of this will be launched in June 2018 with the £2m Digital Development Loan.

After Consultation with the sector , it was decided to increase the scope of the loan to cover SMEs digital capabilities and processes as well as skills attainment.

As such, no loans have been issued as of yet.

Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (as amended) statutory responsibility for ensuring burial ground safety rests with individual burial authorities. In contrast, the general maintenance and upkeep of headstones and memorials is the responsibility of the lair owner. If a headstone or memorial is deemed unsafe following an inspection, burial authorities will take immediate action to make that headstone or memorial safe.

It is for the burial authority to inform the lair owner of action that may be taken within the burial ground.

The Scottish Government accepted the recommendation made by Sheriff Ruxton following the Craigton Cemetery Fatal Accident Inquiry that the Scottish Government should develop and publish national guidance on memorial safety, to be used by local authorities. This guidance will assist local authority burial authorities to manage memorial safety more effectively. A short term working group is being assembled to take this work forward.

The Scottish Government is currently in the process of implementing the Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016. Under this Act Scottish Ministers have powers to appoint Inspectors of Burial and to make regulations about the management of burial grounds. It is expected that work to develop these regulations will begin in 2019.