Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is aware of the importance of understanding the food delivery industry, and the evolving challenges with measuring activity in this area.

At present, there are no official estimates of revenues or employment in the food delivery industry provided by the Office for National Statistics at UK or Scottish level, or how these have changed in recent years.

Independent organisations such as the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) have provided estimates of the scale of employment within the food delivery industry in the UK in recent years, as part of employment in the wider “Gig Economy”. The CIPD published estimates in 2023 in their report, “The Gig Economy: What Does It Really Look Like?”, based on experimental questions in the January to March 2022 Labour Force Survey. This estimated 82,649 people were employed as food delivery drivers as part of the ‘gig’ economy in the UK overall in the previous 3 months, although there are no estimates specifically for Scotland.

There are currently no Standard Industrial Classification codes that specifically identify food delivery as an industry; there are also currently no Standard Occupational Classification codes that specifically identify food delivery as an occupation. In the absence of these, it is currently not possible to provide robust and consistent estimates of numbers of individuals employed within food service delivery in Scotland from official data sources.

Recent related ONS communications on the issue of the Gig Economy are provided below for reference.

2021: Workers in the 'Gig economy' - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

2024: Revenue generated from gig jobs in the UK - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

Engaging with people is an important way to ensure that the Scottish Government get a range of views when developing policies and we continue to engage with stakeholders and third sector organisations to progress the work on PLGF- based testing implementation. As part of this commitment, Officials have recently met with Action against Pre-eclampsia (APEC) who champion PLGF implementation.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care wrote to NHS Boards on 22 May, World Pre-Eclampsia day, to re-emphasize the importance of PLGF-based testing and to request an update on implementation plans within boards.

The Scottish Government continues to provide annual grant funding to Veterans Scotland who have developed Veterans Assist. This online resource signposts and connects the veterans community and their families with the organisations and services best placed to provide the information, advice and support they need from across Scotland. This includes information on the various Armed Forces and veterans Champions, including in Health Boards and Local Authorities, as well as information on healthcare, housing, employability, finances and more.

In relation to healthcare, and to better support veterans and their families access and engage with primary healthcare providers, the General Practice Armed Forces and Veterans Recognition Scheme opened to General Practices across Scotland in November 2023. By providing easily accessible training materials, the scheme aims to raise awareness among General Practice teams of some of the health challenges that veterans and Armed Forces families face as a result of military service. The training is currently being further developed for use by staff in secondary care.

The Scottish Government also continues to provide funding support to Housing Options Scotland, which specialises in providing free, independent, and bespoke cross-tenure housing information, advice, and advocacy services to disabled people, older people and, through its Military Matters project, members of the Armed Forces and veterans community.

In addition, the Scottish Government is also looking at making kitemarking a requirement for all organisations that receive grant funding through the Scottish Veterans Fund from this financial year onwards, so that recipients can demonstrate their commitment to being welcoming and inclusive to our LGBTQI+ veterans. The Scottish Government, in March 2023, also launched a campaign working with the business community to help employers understand the benefits that veterans bring to the civilian workforce, which in turn supports changing perceptions, tackling stigma and increasing employment opportunities for veterans.

This information is not held centrally.

The Scottish Veterans Fund continues to be our main route to directly fund projects supporting the Armed Forces Community in Scotland. In this financial year we are providing around £460,000 through the fund to help organisations deliver 14 projects across Scotland. These projects will help veterans navigate challenges in areas including their mental and physical health, finances and employment.

In addition to the Scottish Veterans Fund, we continue to support the Unforgotten Forces consortium and are providing them with £315,000 of funding this year. The consortium provides joined up support to veterans over the age of 60 across Scotland as well as acting as a forum to share best practise and learning. The consortium delivered over 30,000 episodes of support for older veterans across Scotland during its first five years.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-27283 on 28 May 2024.. This year’s public awareness campaigns will build upon and enhance those of 2023.

The Scottish Outdoor Access Code education pack was refreshed in 2023 and is aimed at teachers, leaders and others working with young people, with viewing figures of nearly 13,000 times since it was updated. This year NatureScot will focus on raising awareness of this resource amongst uniformed groups such as the Scout Association and in relevant university and college courses.

NatureScot are also working with the Scottish Advisory Panel for Outdoor Education and the Outdoor Learning network to improve guidance and ensure consistency in messaging about fires in the outdoors.

Young Scot have created a series of animations conveying key messages from the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. During 2023-24, there were over 1500 visits to these webpages. Young Scot are presently planning the social media campaign for summer 2024 with an outdoors focus.

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/written-questions-and-answers .

Scotland’s natural environment, the conditions of vegetation and the weather in Scotland at certain times of year lend themselves to fires starting and spreading quickly.

Addressing those risks is a key priority for both the Scottish Government and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. Through the Scottish Wildfire Forum, chaired by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, and VisitScotland’s Visitor Management: Scotland's Plan & Objectives | VisitScotland.org our agencies and partners come together to plan for and collaborate on issues such as wildfire education.

The Scottish Government is responding to the full range of climate risks identified for Scotland through our 2019 Adaptation Plan, which sets out more than 170 policies and proposals to build resilience to the impacts of global climate change as part of our Just Transition to net zero emissions by 2045. In Autumn 2024 we will publish a third Adaptation Plan, recognising the increased nature of climate risk and planning for a climate resilient Scotland.

Since 2020, SG has invested £66m to restore 18,500 ha of degraded peatlands across approximately 230 projects/sites spread all across Scotland [1] . The Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 strictly regulates the use of muirburn, with exceptions to allow fuel load management. It also requires those carrying out muirburn to have completed an approved training course.

As we work to combat the effects of the climate crisis, we will continue to consider how our agencies and partners work together to address the risks of wildfire.

[1] Figures from 2020 to 2023.

One of the major contributors to the increase in wildfire risk comes as a result of climate change. The 2022 Fire and Rescue Framework sets out seven strategic priorities for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). Strategic Priority 4 is focused on climate change, and ensuring that SFRS is suitably equipped to respond to the realities of our changing climate, including wildfires.

On a practical level, planning for and taking action to prevent wildfire is the responsibility of the land owner, with SFRS as Category 1 Responders under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004.

While we know that the majority of wildfires in Scotland are related to grassland and moorland, rather than forest land, wildfires can move into woodland once established. That is why guidance on Building wildfire resilence into forest management planning (forestresearch.gov.uk) Practice Guide 22) was published in 2014 to support the UK Forestry Standard, and help reduce the likelihood and severity of wildfires in forests and woodlands, especially given the increased risk of fire due to climate change.

The Scottish Forestry - Wildfire prevention published by Scottish Forestry in 2023, supports forest owners, planners, and managers in Scotland to implement Practice Guide 22 in a Scottish context, to understand the wildfire risk to the forests they manage, and how to reduce this risk through good practice in forest design and planning.

As we continue to work to meet the challenge of changing climates we will continue to assess the suitability of our climate plans and strategies.

As we expect to see more extreme weather events, and further warming in Scotland, the Scottish Government recognises how important it is to adapt and prepare for the impacts of climate change.

Our land managers and local communities have a vital role in mitigating and responding to wildfires. In line with the Fire and Rescue Service Wildfire Operational Guidance Fire and Rescue Service Wildfire Operational Guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) t he Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) continues to encourage and support the formation of local fire groups such as those operating in North and South Grampian as well as Badenoch and Speyside.

At recent significant wildfires, the involvement of partners has been instrumental in successfully managing the incidents. SFRS have, and will continue to, learn from these experiences as well as consider where improvements can be made.

Wildfire mitigation is an important part of land management, and the Scottish Government will continue to engage with communities to ensure we are able to respond to wildfire risks.

The Scottish Government’s public agencies are running promotional campaigns to support responsible enjoyment of the countryside, as part of the wider national visitor management strategy co-ordinated by VisitScotland. This includes messaging which relates to responsible lighting of fires, strongly emphasising for example the use of camping stoves. It also highlights the need to follow any relevant local guidance and promotes sensible behaviours. The campaigns are being taken forward through both traditional and social media, including work with online influencers to help reach audiences that are otherwise difficult to engage.

Figures show there has been widespread public engagement with these campaigns over previous summer periods. For example, in 2023 NatureScot's social media influencer videos on responsible camping and fires had over 82,000 plays, and media campaigns by Forestry and Land Scotland and Cairngorms National Park Authority had a combined readership of over 3.1 million. It seems likely that the presence of rangers at key hotspots is important in allowing regular face to face interaction with visitors.

In addition, land managers have been advised to use time limited local signage or other communication methods to inform people when there are high risk conditions, working with local authorities and National Park Authorities. The fires messaging framework has recently been refreshed.