Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to keeping our NHS true to its founding principles – publicly-owned, publicly-operated, and free at the point of need. Health Boards might arrange treatment for some patients outwith NHS Scotland, including the private sector in exceptional circumstances. It is for local NHS Health Boards to determine how they use the private sector and to agree any contractual arrangements.

I am answering the question as this topic now falls into my Ministerial portfolio.

As the Member is aware, the Scottish Government’s understanding of the station proposal is that it is and has always been a developer led station, as outlined in Winchburgh Developments Ltd.’s original Masterplan.

My understanding is that West Lothian Council is responsible for the organisation and invitations for the multi-stakeholder meeting, as set out in the Council Motion from its meeting on 30 May 2023 and I will consider my attendance once I have had an opportunity to fully familiarise myself with the matter.

I can confirm, the Scottish Government welcomes the collaborative, multi-stakeholder approach and I and my officials in Transport Scotland will continue to support the process of exploring options for the delivery of a new station at Winchburgh.

A wide range of criminal laws relate to image-based sexual abuse, including legislation concerning indecent images of children and the offence of coercing a person to view a sexual image. It is also a criminal offence to share intimate images without consent.

In schools, pupils also learn how to conduct online relationships safely and to understand the risks and consequences of sharing intimate images. Our Gender Based Violence in School Guidance published this week, makes clear that this includes the non-consensual sharing of sexual images and the threat of it.

In addition we fund Education Scotland to coordinate the Mentors in Violence Prevention programme, focussed on challenging attitudes underpinning gender-based violence, and support schools to access Rape Crisis Scotland’s National Sexual Violence Prevention programme.

Existing Just Transition Fund projects will continue to be funded in 2024-25, supporting projects and communities across the North East and Moray to create jobs, support innovation, and secure the highly skilled workforce of the future.

Scotland already outpaces the rest of the UK in creating green jobs, and our forthcoming Just Transition Plans will set out how the Scottish Government will continue to work with businesses and key partners across the economy to ensure we continue to build on this success, attracting investment into Scotland, and supporting our new and existing workforce to access the reskilling and upskilling they need to take on the green jobs of the future, while helping ensure employers and businesses are supported in attracting the talent and investment they need to continue driving green growth. Publishing a Green Industrial Strategy will also set out how we will help businesses and investors realise the opportunities of the global transition to net zero.

Further to the response I gave on 2 February, in a particularly challenging fiscal landscape, the Scottish Government has had to take difficult decisions to deliver balanced and sustainable spending plans for the 2024-25 financial year.

The UK Autumn Statement was a worst-case scenario for Scotland. Our block grant funding, derived from the UK Government’s spending decisions, has fallen by 1.2 per cent in real terms since 2022-23 and our capital spending power is due to contract by almost 10 per cent in real terms over five years.

A significant proportion of the expenditure in the former Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition portfolio has been legally and contractually committed, and I have ensured that those commitments are met in full in this budget as well as allocating funding to support critical maintenance and renewal expenditure to ensure that the people of Scotland have access to a safe and reliable transport system. This has been compounded by continuing high inflation, which has further reduced our room for manoeuvre.

It is within these challenging circumstances that we have had to make difficult decisions to achieve a fiscally sustainable budget.

As I indicated, the Equalities and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement and Carbon Assessment were published alongside this Budget. These impact assessments not only analyse the budget and the impact of the decisions contained in it, they also consider the process of making those decisions, and how we make sure the needs of all people are actively considered. The Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition portfolio was actively engaged in the analysis and production of these assessments.

I refer the member to my response to question S6W-24647.

International Fibromyalgia Day on 12 May 2024 is an important opportunity to raise awareness of this distressing and debilitating condition. We want to ensure that all people living with fibromyalgia in Scotland are able to access the best possible care and support. To mark its importance, on the 12 May 2024 the Scottish Government’s main building, St Andrew’s House, will be lit up in purple.

We are working hard to deliver the actions in our Pain management service delivery framework: implementation plan update to ensure everyone living with chronic pain, including fibromyalgia, can access the care and support they need to live well, on their own terms.

The Scottish Government seconded one individual to provide a Secretariat function to the Independent Advisor on the Ministerial Code while he conducted his review. Ahead of publication, Mr Hamilton requested additional secretariat support. Four additional permanent civil servants below the grade of Senior Civil Service were seconded to support the Secretariat from the SG Organisational Continuity Team (OCT) for a limited period from 15 March 2021, primarily to support the redaction and publication process. None of those civil servants was a Special Adviser and Special Advisers were not involved in the process of deciding what parts of the Hamilton Report to redact.

Please note we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested relating to names. This information is personal data of a third party, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and Section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Further to the response given by Miri McAllan MSP, in a particularly challenging fiscal landscape, the Scottish Government has had to take difficult decisions to deliver balanced and sustainable spending plans for the 2024-25 financial year.

The UK Autumn Statement was a worst-case scenario for Scotland. Our block grant funding, derived from the UK Government’s spending decisions, has fallen by 1.2 per cent in real terms since 2022-23 and our capital spending power is due to contract by almost 10 per cent in real terms over five years. Furthermore, the Spring Budget includes no new capital funding.

A significant proportion of the expenditure in the Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition portfolio is legally and contractually committed, and I have ensured that those commitments are met in full in this budget as well as allocating funding to support critical maintenance and renewal expenditure to ensure that the people of Scotland have access to a safe and reliable transport system. This has been compounded by continuing high inflation, which has further reduced our room for manoeuvre.

It is within these challenging circumstances that we have had to make difficult decisions to achieve a fiscally sustainable budget.

As Miri McAllan MSP indicated, the Equalities and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement and Carbon Assessment were published alongside this Budget. These impact assessments not only analyse the budget and the impact of the decisions contained in it, they also consider the process of making those decisions, and how we make sure the needs of all people are actively considered. The Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition portfolio was actively engaged in the analysis and production of these assessments.

The impact assessments for the E&S portfolio were prepared collectively and reflected in the Education and Skills portfolio analysis section in Annex B of the Equality and Fairer Scotland statement available at this link: Scottish Budget - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .