Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17748 on 18 May 2023. 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

The Scottish Government is clear that the UK Government’s cruel and inhumane Illegal Migration Bill should be scrapped immediately. The Bill will cause significant harm to victims of human trafficking. It will facilitate even greater control by perpetrators as a consequence of its provisions which restrict access to vital support and assistance and will likely deter victims from reporting their situation for fear of removal.

The Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture wrote to the UK Minister of State for Immigration on 9 March setting out our position and this was followed by a further letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice on 25 April.

The Scottish Parliament rejected the UK Bill during a debate on 25 April. We set out our intent to lodge a legislative consent memorandum on two clauses within the Bill which alter the executive competence of the Scottish Ministers. We will recommend that Parliament withhold legislative consent to these provisions. We continue to monitor the Bill closely as it is considered by the House of Lords.

Scottish Government expenditure is allocated across portfolios to various sectors, including the third sector, to improve a wide range of outcomes. Some Scottish Government funding will be issued through third sector intermediary organisations. Spending is not all specifically classified as to whether or not it is allocated to third-sector organisations to deliver services. Consequently the figures requested are not available.

The information you have requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government as the management of debt is an issue for education authorities and their finance departments.

The Scottish Government is aware, however, that Glasgow City Council announced at the end of March that it would write off outstanding school meal debts at all schools under its management at a cost of around £300,000 to the council; City of Edinburgh Council cancelled £64,000 of outstanding school meal debts in August 2022 and, earlier this month, councillors at Midlothian Council announced they had cancelled all outstanding school meal debts in the area totalling around £32,000.

Local authorities also have the power to make discretionary offers of free school meals to families, where they are experiencing financial hardship due to exceptional circumstances, if they do not meet the regular eligibility criteria.

COSLA, working with partners from across Local Government, have developed a set of good practice principles for the management of school meal debt, which were published on 20 February 2023. The intended audience for these principles is local authority staff across a range of departments (including education, catering, finance and debt collection) as well as Head Teachers, class teachers and other school staff. The principles can be accessed through the following link: COSLA Publish Good Practice Principles for Managing School Meal Debt - 20th February 2023 | COSLA .

The Scottish Government remains committed to delivering Anne’s Law and the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill will further support the rights of people living in adult care homes to connect with their loved ones.

The National care service will have a responsibility for planning services and setting standards, with Scottish Ministers being responsible for social care and support. The design and delivery of the National Care Service will have human rights embedded throughout, that everyone should have access to consistently high-quality care and support and it’s right that Anne’s Law is a part of that. We are not considering decoupling the Anne’s Law provisions.

However, we are also committed to doing what we can now to implement the aims of Anne’s law using existing powers. For example the Health and Social Care standards were updated in April 2022 along with the associated inspection framework for care homes. Public Health Scotland’s visiting guidance has also been updated to broaden the scope for visits even during an outbreak situation. Taken together, these measures have resulted in 99% of care homes in Scotland reporting that they are supporting indoor visiting. The Scottish Government, in anticipation of the Scottish Parliament passing the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill, will work with all interested parties to maintain this figure and will also work to address any isolated issues should they emerge.

sport scotland’s provisional allocation of up to £5m for the development of a potential tennis facility at Park of Keir remains in place.

However, at this stage,a full application for a tennis facility at Park of Keir has not been received. Any decision on whether to make a capital award and the appropriate level of any award will only be taken on completion of a full application (as outlined in response to S6W-05651 on 20 January 2022).

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

Scottish Government is committed to implement payment reform from 1 November 2023. It was confirmed to the sector on 20 March 2023 that the timeline for the payment reform showcase was necessarily delayed by the process to replace the First Minister. The sector retains financial support until 31 October to support the delivery of services until the implementation of payment reform.

The current position is that the payment reform discussions with the British Dental Association (BDA) have begun on 10 May 2023. It is intended to that an announcement to the dental profession will be available in early summer.

Table 1 shows the number of ATM sites in receipt of 100% rates relief through the Small Business Bonus Scheme since 2018.

Table 1: ATM sites in receipt of 100% Small Business Bonus Scheme relief

Scottish Government and local authority websites provide information on a range of non-domestic rates reliefs, including the Small Business Bonus Scheme, with advice on eligibility criteria and how to apply. It also has a Non-Domestic Rates Calculator which is a tool which can provide ratepayers with an estimate of their non-domestic rates bill for the year and indicates whether a property may be eligible for the Small Business Bonus Scheme relief.

In response to a recommendation in the Barclay Review, the Scottish Government issued templates to all local authorities to support standardized bills across Scotland. These templates have been widely adopted and bills issued include advice that a range of reliefs and reductions are available to support ratepayers and direct them to further information.

Over the last two years our £1bn increased investment in our Agenda for Change staff has seen a Nurse at the top of Band 5 receive an uplift of 14.4% - more than £4,700

We recognise the need to modernise our service for both our current and future workforce and so we are undertaking a review of the Agenda for Change system in conjunction with Staff Side and NHS Scotland Employers. In addition, a bespoke Nursing and Midwife Task Force expert group has been set up to improve working conditions for nurses and boost workforce numbers

Work is underway to implement the Health and Care (Staffing) Act by Spring 2024 to support the wellbeing of Health and Care staff and Patients. Specifically, it aims to ensure appropriate staffing levels are in place to support high quality care for patients and service users.