Chamber and committees

Rainfall and river levels data are available to SEPA internally in support of their flood forecasting service but at the moment cannot be exported automatically to the web pages to share with the public as a result of the cyber-attack. SEPA recognises the importance of the river levels service and has prioritised work to restore the link between its network and website. The web pages are expected to be restored by 5 March.

In initial sample taking training, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) provide information for sample takers to address the potential issues in assisting disabled people at their cervical screening appointment, along with many other groups where there may be barriers to screening. Further advice for sample takers is also set out in national guidance.

The Scottish Government has also made funding available through its Inequality Fund to Health Boards to allow them to tackle inequalities in access to screening. In addition to the £5 million we have made available over the last 5 years, we will be exploring how best to use this funding over the coming years to increase its reach and impact.

The Scottish Government monitors and considers all available evidence and recommendations from the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an independent expert advisory group, which informs decisions taken across the UK on screening programmes. It is the primary objective of the Scottish Screening Committee to consider the advice and recommendations of the UK NSC and report to the Scottish Government on any such recommendations.

The UK National Screening Committee (NSC) has not yet recommended that self-sampling should be incorporated into the cervical screening programme. It continues to gather and evaluate the evidence on this matter, and it is not possible to say when this will be complete. However, Scotland is playing an active part in supporting this work, and will also begin taking the necessary steps to ensure that we can roll it out as soon as possible once a recommendation is made. At all times, ensuring patient safety will remain key, and we will not act until we are assured it is safe to do so.

A pilot is currently being carried out by NHS Dumfries and Galloway which involves sending all screening participants aged 25-64 years of age who have never attended for cervical screening or who have defaulted on their most recent appointment a self-sampling kit. Findings from this pilot will inform our work going forward.

Plans in early 2020 to establish a Working Group to lead a wider project to contribute to this evidence base had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, these plans are now progressing, and the working group convened for the first time in February 2021. Their remit will be to develop a work programme that will ensure a range of evidence on different self-sampling use cases can be gathered and evaluated, and to understand what changes will be needed to the current programme to allow widespread roll-out in the future.

A marketing campaign intended to raise awareness and increase uptake of cervical screening was planned for early 2020. Unfortunately, this had to be postponed due to the impact of Covid-19. This campaign will be launched as soon as is practical given the continuing pressures arising from Covid-19, it will also take into account the impact of the pandemic on both uptake and perceptions of the cervical screening programme.

The Scottish Government has also made funding available through its Inequality Fund to a number of partners, some of whom will be carrying out projects to raise awareness of cervical screening.

In the meantime, the Scottish Government and its public health partners continue to promote the importance of cervical screening, for example through social media posts during Cervical Cancer Prevention Week, and through targeted outreach, for example projects funded to reduce inequalities in cancer screening programmes.

In the event that someone is unable to leave their home for a cervical screening appointment, their NHS Board can use a multidisciplinary team to take the necessary steps to allow someone to have their sample taken. This will be done on a case by case basis depending on the needs of the individual.

Management Information on the number of applications, awards and expenditure on Self-Isolation Support Grants are available at: Scottish Welfare Fund, Self-Isolation Support Grant and Discretionary Housing Payments: monthly data - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . Figures up to the end of January 2021 are available from 2 March 2021. The value of each award is £500. The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of Self-Isolation Support Grant applications that were rejected or are currently being processed.

The Scottish Government will launch Child Disability Payment this year, the first of the major devolved disability benefits, ahead of launching Adult Disability Payment with a pilot in Spring 2022. For the remaining devolved benefits, COVID-19 has had a major impact on the Scottish Government, on Social Security Scotland, and on the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), whose support we need to transfer social security powers. We are having to rework our timetable to deliver the remaining devolved benefits and to complete case transfer.

Until then, Scottish clients continue to be paid the money they are entitled to through the DWP for Child and Adult Disability Payments, as well for Winter Heating Assistance, Cold Spell Heating Assistance, Scottish Carer’s Allowance, Pension Age Disability Payment, and Employment Injury Assistance, until such time as they can be delivered safely and securely. The DWP will continue to make payments to clients in receipt of Severe Disablement Allowance for the life of this closed benefit.

The Scottish Government welcomed the publication of the Citizens Basic Income (CBI) steering group’s report into the feasibility of CBI pilots in Scotland in June last year.

We agreed with the report’s conclusions that, while a CBI (sometimes known as a Universal Basic Income) pilot scheme is desirable and worthwhile exploring in Scotland, it can only be done with the agreement and co-operation of the UK Government.

The Scottish Government does not currently have the full range of social security or tax powers to introduce a CBI on its own, nor does it have the powers to implement any variation of a UBI system.

I wrote to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions ahead of the report’s publication on 8 May 2020, noting that I would welcome further discussions on the potential of a CBI. The Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government then wrote on 12 June 2020, highlighting the report’s publication and urging the UK Government again to engage constructively with us on this issue.

However, the UK Government’s response stated that they would not consider implementing a CBI, preferring to target support through the existing welfare system. In the absence of the required co-operation from the UK Government, the Scottish Government will continue to look for innovative approaches to address poverty and inequality in Scotland.

Agency agreements are necessary to ensure a safe and secure transition while Social Security Scotland is still building capacity; these costs reflect the Department for Work and Pensions’ costs of delivery and are not directly controllable by Social Security Scotland. The actual agency agreement costs that the Scottish Government accepts from the Department for Work and Pensions are subject to negotiation, and these are scrutinised in detail.

In 2021-22 we expect the costs of Agency Agreements with the Department for Work and Pensions to be around £84 million. These costs will reduce over time as Social Security Scotland begins to fully administer more benefits and reaches steady state.

Agency Agreements represent value for money and fairness to the taxpayer. Under HMT’s Managing Public Money guidance, DWP are prohibited from charging another government department for services delivered with a view to making a profit.

Table 5.10 of the Programme Business Case provides a view of the forecast costs of Agency Agreements, and these will be updated in due course.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/social-security-programme-business-case-executive-summary/