Chamber and committees

From data provided in the 2019 Scottish Household Survey, the percentage of people aged 60+ without a concessionary bus pass (National Entitlement Card (NEC)), broken down by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintiles, was as follows:

No expressions of interest have been received by the Scottish Government as the Community Bus Fund has not launched. Officials have engaged with local authority representatives ATCO and CoSLA, who have indicated the general feedback from local authorities on the Community Bus Fund has been positive.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the sustainability of local news as a key part of the public interest news sector in Scotland. In 2021, we established the Public Interest Journalism Working Group to consider the long-term sustainability of public interest journalism, including local news, and to recommend ways to ensure its ongoing resilience. We responded to the Group’s recommendations on 24 June 2022. This included a commitment to facilitate a Roundtable event to support the creation of a new Scottish Public Interest Journalism Institute, which was held on 23 November. While it is not for Scottish Government to influence the remit of the Institute, it is likely, in line with the Working Group’s recommendations, that part of its role will be to support local news.

The Scottish Government and public bodies also use local media, including newspaper, to promote initiatives such as public health campaigns.

The Whole Family Wellbeing Funding (WFWF) requires a collaborative approach. A cross portfolio ministerial group oversees the programme at a high level, whilst Governance is provided by the Programme Board which consists of Directors from across the relevant portfolios as well as key external stakeholders.

WFWF is funded by the Education and Justice portfolio for financial year 2022-23 and will again be funded through this portfolio in the financial year 2023-24 as set out in the Scottish Budget.

The Scottish Government annually update and publish information relating to Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Non-Profit Distributing (NPD) contracts which is available from the following link www.gov.scot/npd/pfi .

In addition, the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) have published several guidance notes relating to the operational management of these contracts which are available from their website at the following link www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/operational-ppp

The Scottish Government also has a transparent approach to the delivery of infrastructure projects that reports on the progress of major projects every six months to Parliament. Our major projects reporting shows how projects progress from proposal to detailed design and costing to procurement and subsequent delivery. Our major projects reporting is published and available from the following link www.gov.scot/infrastructure/projects

The NPD model replaced the PFI model in 2010 and although not used for new projects since 2018, NPD improved documentation as unlike PFI, most commercial information in NPD contracts was published two years after the asset was completed rather than the twenty-five years that older PFI contracts envisaged. NPD standard contracts were also more flexible than PFI allowing public bodies to make small changes or use agreed contracted rates to price changes. Further information on NPD contracts is available from the SFT’s website at the following link www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/contracts

The only private finance approach currently available is the Mutual Investment Model (MIM), which will be restricted to deployment by the Scottish Government, its agencies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies. This route was identified by SFT in response to the request to identify a profit sharing, privately financed infrastructure investment route that could be added to the range of public sector funding and financing routes. SFT published the Options Appraisal on the use of MIM which is available from their website at the following link www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/mim .

The deployment of MIM is currently being explored by the Scottish Government.

Local authorities determine their own programmes for capital investment and are required by legislation to comply with The Prudential Code for Capital Finance in Local Authorities, which was developed by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA). The Prudential Code requires local authorities to ensure that all capital investment decisions are prudent, affordable and sustainable.

The Scottish Government have no plans to propose the use of private finance for any new local authority led infrastructure projects. As a government however, we are committed to ensuring that existing private finance contractual obligations are delivered and that contracts are affordable. That is why we have asked the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) to work with public bodies to realise contract management improvements including re-scoping services, sharing in insurance cost savings, and optimising the risk transfer in contracts. SFT have published several guidance notes in relation to operational contract management which are available from their website at the following link www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/operational-ppp

The Vision for Sustainable Aquaculture is in the final stages of development in advance of publication and the contents will be available for all to consider when it is published. The Vision is intended to describe the long term ambitions that the Scottish Government has for aquaculture, with enhanced emphasis on environmental protection and community benefit. The Vision will be compatible with the planning policies on aquaculture contained in Scotland’s National Marine Plan and National Planning Framework 4.

Circularity Scotland issued the final RVM specification in November 2022. Separately some producers have highlighted that their containers have higher than usual variation in weight. Circularity Scotland have recently met with RVM vendors and drinks producers to discuss tolerance levels in dimensions, particularly with glass, to ensure that the settings in RVMs accommodate these variations. This is a standard approach for deposit return schemes and will mean that return points don’t need to deal with high levels of rejections.

If businesses have any concerns or questions regarding DRS, they should contact Circularity Scotland in the first instance. They can do this via their website or their dedicated helpline.

In response to part a)

Public Health Scotland publishes quarterly statistics relating to the number of waiting list removals, by specialty and health board of treatment. These data include all waiting list removals under reasons such as ‘transferred’ and ‘referred back to GP’. The latest statistics are published up to 30 September 2022, and for inpatients and day cases can be found using the link below, under Table 2.4:

https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/17040/ipdc_nov22.xlsx

Similarly, for new outpatients, this information can be found under Table 1.4 using the link below:

https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/16973/newop_nov22.xlsx

In response to part b)

Public Health Scotland publishes monthly statistics relating to the number of cancelled planned operations at health board and hospital level, a summary of which is available the following link:

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancelled-planned-operations/

The latest statistics published cover the period up to 31 December 2022 and the number of planned operations that were cancelled by patients each month from May 2021 onwards can be found within the tab ‘Publication table’ in the link below:

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/media/17421/2023-02-07-cancellations.xlsx

These statistics are sourced from local theatre systems and only includes cancellations that were cancelled the day before, or on the day the patient was due to be treated. PHS does not collect information on cancellations that occur prior to this.

In response to part c)

Please note that Public Health Scotland does not hold any information on patients who have declined a procedure.