Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has established a Strategy Steering Group to oversee the development and delivery of a Palliative and End of Life Care Strategy, and aims to publish a draft strategy for consultation by the end of 2023.

Organisations providing first aid at events must comply with their responsibilities under general health and safety legislation, which is reserved.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provides guidance on how to manage events safely Events health and safety (hse.gov.uk) .

The HSE confirmed that an amendment in 2013 to the Health and safety (First – Aid) Regulations 1981 removed the responsibility of the HSE to approve first aid training providers and qualifications. The (Health and Safety) regulations now require employers to assess the needs for their workplace and ensure that they provide adequate and appropriate first aid to employees who are injured or become ill at work.

The regulations apply to employees only, but are accompanied by guidance strongly recommending that non employees are considered when employers decide on the first aid cover necessary for their workplace.

The Scottish Government has promoted the use of the UK Government and National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) website, “Protect UK”, to all relevant Scottish stakeholders. This website includes guidance on First Aid preparedness for organisations. This was in response to the recommendation outlined in Volume 1 of the Manchester Arena Inquiry to create a central library for guidance and advice that organisations and members of the public could access.

Scottish Government officials are currently undertaking further work and engagement with stakeholders to scope the potential extent of issues raised by unregulated private first aid companies and consider the most appropriate and proportionate next steps.

The Scottish Government is supporting a wider range of broadband providers through the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (R100 SBVS). We are also supporting full fibre providers by enabling access to rates relief on newly laid and lit fibre up until March 2034 – the longest period of fibre rates relief anywhere in the UK.

The R100 programme has not frozen funding, with the R100 SBVS continuing to offer vouchers for up to £5,000 per premises to deliver connections to eligible properties. While the Scottish Government is using the levers available in order to support suppliers, as telecoms is a matter wholly reserved to Westminster, it is for the UK Government to ensure that a supplier of last resort mechanism is in place to protect customers affected by any financial issues a supplier may face.

Of course, our substantial investment in the R100 and S4GI digital infrastructure programmes, as well as the UK Government’s Project Gigabit and the cross-administration Shared Rural Network programme will also ensure that those affected by such issues in future remain able to access high-quality digital connectivity.

We have been left with no other option than to reset the timescale of DRS and delay the launch until October 2025 at the earliest, when the UK Government intends to launch its own scheme. This is a consequence of the decision by the UK Government to impose a partial and temporary exclusion from the Internal Market Act for Scotland’s DRS, forcing a last minute change of its scope and creating new and vague conditions for interoperability with schemes in the rest of the UK which do not exist yet.

The significant environmental benefits associated with the including glass in the DRS will now not be realised unless glass can be included in the DRS when it launches.

Whilst I have not met with Professor Roy Brown, I have considered, and values, the information provided by him in relation to the role of bracken in tick population dynamics and human and animal disease.

I have accepted an invitation from the Bracken Control Group, which Professor Roy Brown is a representative on, to visit a location with established bracken, and I welcome the opportunity to discuss impacts and control options.

The Expert Reference Group (ERG) on Digital Assets was established to provide legal clarification on accommodation of digital assets within Scots private law. The ERG is currently drafting a response to the Law Commission for England and Wales’ (LCEW) Consultation Paper on Digital Assets. The response will take into account any areas of divergence between Scots law and English law but will also confirm those areas where alignment might be of benefit.

The £800,000, which was allocated for media campaigns in 2021 and 2022 on the use of naloxone, was fully spent on the “How to Save a Life” campaign commissioned by the Scottish Government working in collaboration with the Scottish Drugs Forum.

The R100 programme is one of the most ambitious public investment programmes anywhere in the UK – with the Scottish Government investing over £600 million targeted at homes and businesses with the slowest broadband speeds.

As of 8 June 2023, £122.4 million has been paid to Openreach for delivery of the R100 contracts. Payments are made in arrears upon completion of build.

A further £5.4 million has been paid to a range of suppliers in the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme.

The project partners have not started the public consultation and engagement stage of the project yet and are working to secure resource to do this for the local pilot projects. They will engage with communities as soon as resource is in place for the engagement activities in order to shape the pilots and identify how best to deliver community benefits. The project team are currently working to design the engagement process.

Our investment through the R100 programme will be transformational for many of Scotland’s most rural communities and is providing a full fibre backbone that will enable reliable connectivity services to be delivered.

An individual’s ability to access digital healthcare can be impacted by a number of factors, not just their rurality and the availability of digital infrastructure in their area.

That is why, while recognising the importance of access to digital healthcare, it should be promoted as one choice for patients but not the only available option. Digital healthcare programmes are subject to Equality Impact Assessments (EQIAs) to assess the impact of accessibility.