Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has provided funding of £1.3 million (2017-2020) to a coalition of organisations who promote BSL who will provide support to public bodies, including colleges and universities, to help them prepare BSL plans. This includes provision of guidance, and a series of information ‘roadshows’ throughout March and April.

In addition, the Scottish Funding Council is co-ordinating a BSL steering group, chaired by a BSL user from Deaf Action, which will also help colleges and universities develop and implement their BSL plans, including sharing best practice. The steering group last met on 22 March 2018.

The Scottish Government is aware of the concerns that have been raised on the new guidance from Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and the sensitivities around this issue. However, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is independent of the Scottish Government and it is therefore, not appropriate for the Scottish Government to comment on matters of prosecution policy.

The Scottish Government is working with a number of partners including Rape Crisis Scotland and Scottish Women’s Aid to identify ways to reduce the trauma and improve the experience of victims within the criminal justice system. This includes recognising the key role which advocacy and support services have in helping victims to come forward and engage with the legal process. That is why we are investing record levels of funding to support victims through a range of front line specialist services. This included an additional £1.85 million (2015-18) to Rape Crisis Scotland, which has enabled advocacy support workers to be allocated to every rape crisis centre in Scotland, and, establish new services in Orkney and Shetland. Following an independent evaluation of the advocacy service, Scottish Government funding was announced on 1 March of £1.7 million over two years (2018-20) to Rape Crisis Scotland to allow a continuation of the service and the appointment of additional advocacy workers where they are needed most.

In addition to providing further funding, the Scottish Government has significantly reformed the criminal law to modernise the law on rape and sexual assault. Last year, the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016 came into force which requires judges to give specific directions to juries in sexual offence cases concerning circumstances where there is a delay by the alleged victim in reporting the offence, and where the alleged victim does not physically resist their attacker or the alleged perpetrator does not use physical force to overcome their victim.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with key justice agencies, including the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Police Scotland and the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, and with third sector organisations, to improve a victim-centred perspective in addressing sexual crime.

Instances where technology is abused to target innocent victims is a criminal matter and must be treated as such. Police Scotland must be allowed to make the necessary enquiries and the Scottish Government cannot comment on an on-going investigation.

The Scottish Government published a National Action Plan on Internet Safety for Children and Young People in 2017 setting out a number of actions to improve internet safety. Its priorities include equipping children and young people to build their own personal resilience to stay safe online, supporting professionals and parents and carers and continuing to work with digital and social media providers to ensure children are not exposed to harm.

Internet safety is largely a reserved matter and any decisions on internet regulation is currently a matter for the UK Government, however we are committed to working with digital media providers and industry to ensure parents, carers and families, as well as children and young people, have access to appropriate information and support.

The National Crime Agency updated the Thinkuknow Parents and Carers guide to Snapchat to include information and guidance on the use of SnapMaps.

I am concerned to learn that the fashion retailer New Look has announced plans for a Company Voluntary Arrangement that could result in the closure of eight stores across Scotland. We stand ready to offer support for any employees facing redundancy through our Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) initiative.

The Scottish Government recognises that the retail sector in Scotland is transforming in response to, among other things, significant changes to shopping habits and through new technology. There is no doubt that e-commerce is now having a significant impact.

We are aware that UK Government austerity measures and Brexit are affecting consumer confidence and spending. Despite this, we are doing everything within our powers to support our economy, including our retailers. For example, this year we will enhance measures to support both new development and re-use of vacant property in town centres and elsewhere as part of total rates relief of around £720 million, including the Small Business Bonus Scheme which will lift over 100,000 properties out of rates altogether. In addition, we are working with the Scottish Retail Consortium to develop a retail strategy which will set out a clear road map for future tax and regulatory changes.

Scotland’s Town Centre First Principle, agreed with COSLA, together with the range of measures in the Town Centre Action Plan, set the conditions and underpin activity designed to tackle key issues such as diversifying the town centre offer to attract a range of businesses and services to locate there to build footfall for retail and other business areas.

We will continue to use all levers at our disposal to ensure that Scotland remains an attractive place for retailers to do business.

The Health and Justice Collaboration Improvement Board met for the first time on 7 September 2017, and again on 6 December. Its next meeting is on 27 Mar 2018, which it is devoting to the theme of law enforcement and mental health distress.

It has also established the Programme Board for Health and Social Care in prisons, which met for the first time on 26 February.

NHS Scotland and clinicians use the World Health Organisation's International Classification of Diseases as a way to categorise mental health disorders and diabulimia is not currently included. The Scottish Government and clinicians recognises that diabetes can be co-morbid with eating disorder. The expectation is that services treating people with diabetes are sensitive to all the potential mental health problems associated with it, and ensure that individuals at risk or who misuse insulin to lose weight, receive appropriate treatment and support according to their needs.

Given that the Scottish Infected Blood Support Scheme (SIBSS) has been in operation for just under one year and the clinical review of the impacts of chronic hepatitis C (HCV) infection is expected to report soon and may result in changes to the scheme criteria and payments in 2018-19, the Scottish Government has no plans to undertake a further formal review process in the near future.

The UK Infected Blood Inquiry might also reflect on the current financial support arrangements across the UK and make recommendations. The Inquiry's Terms of Reference have not yet been established, but a consultation is underway on this. Therefore, if the Chairman decides to include SIBSS within the Inquiry Terms of Reference, the Scottish Government would need to await the conclusion and any recommendations from the Inquiry before considering any significant further changes to SIBSS.

In the meantime, the operational aspects of the scheme will remain under regular review by the SIBSS advisory group. Views on the operation and experience of the scheme will also be collected by SIBSS via periodic surveys of beneficiaries, with the first survey expected to be undertaken soon.

As with all NHS Boards the Scottish Government expects NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to continue to focus on delivering existing savings schemes and to identify additional opportunities to deliver services within its resource allocation. In doing this it will remain paramount that a balanced approach is taken to finance and performance, with quality of care continuing to be prioritised.

The Director of Finance at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has indicated to the Scottish Government that the Board’s year end position continues to moderate month on month and that it is heading in a positive direction towards being balanced by the year end.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s resource budget will increase by £31.8 million to £2,154.5 million in 2018-19. In addition, the Board will receive a share of £175 million for investment in reform. This additional funding is provided as part of our twin approach of investment and reform, recognising the increasing demand and expectations placed on frontline services and being clear that the status quo is not an option.

Our estimate is that Conservative tax policies would have resulted in a reduction in the Scottish Government’s resource budget of £501 million in 2018-19.

If such a reduction was applied to NHS Territorial Boards, the impact on NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's resource budget would amount to £111.9 million.