Chamber and committees

The Business Investment Framework was updated in March 2022 to take account of developing best practice and recommendations from Audit Scotland. In the spirit of continuous improvement, Scottish Government Officials continue to review the Business Investment Framework to ensure it remains fit for purpose and offers up to date guidance to applicable users. This of course involves ongoing engagement with Audit Scotland to strengthen processes and procedures in line with their recommendations. The next planned update to the Business Investment Framework is Q1 of FY 23-24.

The Scottish Funding Council’s (SFC) College Infrastructure Strategy: The Approach to Delivering Scotland’s College Infrastructure, published in November 2022, supports the college sector’s ambitions for net zero with the planned production of an Infrastructure Investment Plan for the college sector being a key goal.

The strategy recognises that investment in college infrastructure is needed and presents a significant opportunity for colleges to play their part in tackling the climate emergency. SFC will support colleges to progress their Net Zero ambitions that are integral to any future infrastructure investment.

Scottish Government allocates commensurate funding to Health boards for 17J, 17C and 2C practices as part of the wider Primary Medical Services allocation. It is anticipated that Boards will fund 2C practices from this funding.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) are the official producer of statistics relating to deaths, including where the cause was related to COVID-19. The information they hold is restricted to that recorded at death registration and therefore they do not hold sufficient detail to identify where a cause of death was related to secondary COVID-19 impacts such as loss of support.

A one off analysis of COVID-19 deaths by disability was made possible by linking information on death registrations to data on long-term health problems and disabilities from Scotland’s Census 2011. This is publicly available on the NRS website: Deaths involving coronavirus (COVID-19) in Scotland, Week 11: Report (nrscotland.gov.uk).

There is no ongoing or planned work to look further at the level of detail outlined in the question.

The third Scottish Annual Pollinator Conference on 15 June 2023 is an online only event organised and staffed by our conservation agency, NatureScot. The 2023 theme is monitoring, with the intention of highlighting pollinator monitoring schemes, and, in line with our final draft Scottish Biodiversity Strategy, published in December 2022, demonstrating the necessity of monitoring for a better understanding of the status of our pollinating insects and wider biodiversity. Scottish Government policy officials will attend the conference.

Following public consultation on our proposals in 2022, the Scottish Government has been working with key partners – including Zero Waste Scotland, Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Keep Scotland Beautiful – to finalise the new National Litter and Flytipping Strategy and we aim to publish this in the coming months.

In addition to the health and care information services that are already available to the public, we are currently in the process of developing a Digital Front Door. Digital Front Door acts as a direct response to Scottish National Party’s commitment to develop a ‘’MyNHS’’ App.

A key deliverable within the 2021 Digital Health & Care Strategy, the Digital Front Door will provide a way for people to access health and care information and control their data. It will also help people to conduct more health and care transactions online, including communicating with their health and care providers and managing their appointments.

Key workstreams are in place to develop changes to services, communications and engagement approach, undertake impact assessments and scope requirements for key areas such as identity verification. We have also considered the approaches taken internationally and within other parts of the UK.

Scottish Government has commissioned NHS Education Scotland (NES) as main delivery partner and initial planning, design and development is underway. The current commitment is to have the first version of the Digital Front Door in place by the end of this Parliament.

More information will be made available on this development here - https://www.digihealthcare.scot/our-work/digital-front-door/.

The R100 contracts, which are delivering full fibre, gigabit capable connections across the length and breadth of Scotland, are currently expected to conclude during 2027-28.

For those properties beyond the reach of the R100 contract build or commercial coverage plans, the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme – offering vouchers worth up to £5,000 – remains available to help secure a superfast broadband connection.

Ministers meet representatives of civil society organisations from time to time to discuss matters of common interest. Meetings with Amnesty International have been held on a number of occasions since May 2021.

Information about ministerial engagements is proactively released and is publicly available on the Scottish Government website .

Civil society organisations contribute in other ways to the development and delivery of public policy in Scotland, for example through participation in working groups and advisory boards.

Amnesty International is a member of the steering committee for the Scottish Human Rights Defender Fellowship, which is funded by the Scottish Government and delivered by the University of Dundee in collaboration with Amnesty International and other independent civil society organisations.

There are no current plans to alter the number or structure of NHS Boards. This will be kept under review as we continue to consider how best to reform and renew the NHS, whilst remaining within the long established principle of a public service free at the point of use and need. Our priority remains delivering the NHS Scotland Recovery Plan, and improving services across Scotland.