Chamber and committees

Provisions contained in a Bill at introduction will be informed by analysis of the current public consultation exercise which will run until 25 April. As the views of all stakeholders need to be considered in detail, it is not possible to confirm any potential Bill content at the current time.

The consultation outlines that anchor organisations are typically large public sector employers with a strong local presence in an area, such as local authorities, health and social care bodies, further education institutions and enterprise agencies. The Consultation includes a proposal for a duty to advance CWB and the Scottish Government would welcome views on who this duty should or could apply to.

The Scottish Government welcomes The UK Commission on Bereavement’s report and the focus it brings to improving the experience of people affected by grief. We value the holistic approach taken by the UK Commission on Bereavement which recognises that bereavement touches many aspects of our lives, including emotional wellbeing and health, school and work life, finances, and housing.

Our programme of bereavement work sits across Ministerial portfolios, reflecting the wide range of impacts bereavement has on people’s lives. We have already taken steps to progress and align our cross-Government programme of work to ensure we adopt the holistic approach advocated by the UK Commission.

Representatives of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) and North Ayrshire Council participate in the Community Wealth Building (CWB) Bill Steering Group, chaired by myself. This Group has met three times. The last meeting was held on 17 January 2023.

Separately, Scottish Government officials leading CWB development work met with the General Secretary for the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) on August 16, 2022. Scottish Government officials also presented at the Fair Work Convention on 23 February, 2023, which brings together employers and trade unions to advocate for and promote Fair Work.

Scottish Government officials last met with North Ayrshire Council colleagues to discuss the CWB Bill consultation on 16 February, 2023. Finally, The Minister is due to attend the Ayrshire CWB Commission on 24 March 2023.

The Scottish Government is open to exploring how it can support land reform objectives using its limited powers over taxation and included a question on how these powers could be used in the consultation for the upcoming Land Reform Bill.

All responses to the consultation are currently being considered and a full consultation analysis will be published later in the spring. Any proposals on taxation will be considered in the context of the current devolved settlement and against the Scottish Government’s Framework for Tax.

The Access Bikes scheme closed in February 2022. During the life of the scheme, 4 loans were distributed, though we do not hold information on the recipients or local authority area.

A new Access Bikes scheme has been running since April 2022 which focuses on assisting those facing challenges to access a bike through various means. There is no loan aspect provided in the new scheme.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13420 on 19 January 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 plans to carry out a further Gateway Review during week commencing 13 March 2023, in line with the last Assurance of Action Plan report’s recommendations for a review to take place in February 2023, or close to that date. The Scottish Government will consider carefully the recommendations from this review, and will share these and its response with the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee in due course.

Information on the deferral rate for disabled students entering Higher Education is not held by the Scottish Government.

UCAS collect and publish information each year on the number of applicants, applications and acceptances for UK providers. As part of their releases, UCAS publish the number of acceptances who defer entry to a later year split by Domicile, Age and Gender, in their interactive dashboard. Deferral rates for those with a Disability Declared are not included.

UCAS Undergraduate end of cycle data resources 2022 | Undergraduate | UCAS

UCAS do publish the number of acceptances with a Disability Declared overall. This shows in the 2022 cycle, there were 6,535 Scottish domiciled acceptances with a Disability Declared, 17.5% of all Scottish domiciled acceptances.

The strategic assessment for NHS Lanarkshire’s National Treatment Centre was submitted to the Scottish Government Capital Investment Group (CIG) in November 2022. As with all strategic assessments, this was noted by the CIG, and NHS Lanarkshire have been asked to move to the next stage in the planning process and to develop an initial agreement for the new facility, which is now underway.

I last met with the Chair of the BMA Scotland Committee on 11 January to discuss their request for a national conversation, and met with Chair of the BMA Scottish Junior Doctors Committee on 15 December to discuss their concerns around pay for Junior Doctors.

In addition I wrote to the Chair of the BMA on 21 February offering to meet with both him and the Chair of the BMA Scottish Junior Doctors Committee to discuss further.