Chamber and committees

Creative Scotland does not manage any buildings fitted with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.

Scottish Government has regular engagement with the main representative body of training providers in Scotland, Scottish Training Federation (STF). I am due to meet the STF Chief Executive in the coming weeks.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) have regular meetings with individual training providers and the Scottish Training Federation. As an example, senior members of SDS’ National Training Programmes team met with the STF Chief Executive on Thursday 25 May to provide support and answer questions from members regarding various areas including contract awards. They will continue to follow up with STF members for any additional information and support which may be required.

Scottish Government and SDS will continue to engage with our apprenticeship providers across Scotland including colleges, universities and independent providers regarding any issues with apprenticeship contracts.

The 2023-24 budgets for employability programmes, including No One Left Behind and Fair Start Scotland were confirmed by the Deputy First Minister on 25 May, with Grant Offer Letters issued to local authorities on 30 May for No One Left Behind. The budget for Individual Training Accounts has now been confirmed and the scheme will re-open during the week commencing 19th June 2023.

We are currently considering the budget for the Flexible Workforce Development Fund in 2023-24 through colleges and the Open University in Scotland and will provide a further update once budget discussions have concluded.

The Scottish Government continues to offer free and impartial advice to all employers and individuals affected by redundancy through Partnership Action for Continuing Employment, PACE, which has local teams ready to respond quickly when situations arise and assist businesses to try and minimise the risk of redundancy before it happens.

As members of the PACE Partnership, STF will be familiar with the local support available to its members and the swift response it offers to support both employers and employees dealing with redundancy and working with them to try and minimise the risk of redundancy before it happens.

The Scottish Government has had no discussions with New College Lanarkshire about the proposed closure of the halls of residence located at the college's Motherwell Campus.

Colleges operate independently of government and there is therefore very little scope for the Scottish Government to intervene in the operational businesses of colleges, such as the disposal of buildings owned by the college.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18750 on 15 June 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 .

£10 million of funding was directed to support Cancer Waiting Times improvements in our NHS across 2021-22, with a further £10m made available to Boards in 2022-23 to continue to support Cancer Waiting Times. Health Boards across NHS Scotland direct spend towards the most challenged areas, which included additional clinics for new patients and follow-ups.

Funds in 2022-23 were largely directed towards breast, colorectal and urology specialties – three of the most challenged 62 day pathways. Significant funds went towards up-skilling nurses and investment to support extended working days and weekend working to increase capacity.

The Scottish Government is committed to transparency and openness. We aim to publish key information such as notes of meetings and letters relating to the deposit return scheme as soon as possible.

The Scottish Government is committed to transparency and openness. We aim to publish key information such as notes of meetings and letters relating to the deposit return scheme as soon as possible.

NTCs require an appropriate mix of new and experienced staff to operate safely and efficiently. Management information provided by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) shows that at 31 March 2023, 502 people were employed in an NTC. This figure excludes those staff delivering pre-existing NHS services which have been relocated to NTC sites. 130 (26%) are new entrants meaning they are undertaking their first role in NHS Scotland. Whilst these figures from NES are classed as management information at this stage, NES will continue to work with data providers to develop these as Official Statistics. The next step in this process will be to release these statistics within the NHS Scotland workforce publication as Experimental Statistics in December 2023. NTC workforce data will be reported every six months thereafter.