Chamber and committees

Neither the Scottish Government nor Forestry and Land Scotland had cause to terminate any contracts and consequently no such payments were made to individuals, contractors or companies.

This is an operational matter for Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Limited.

The information requested is not held by the Scottish Government.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who will reply in writing within 20 days.

The Scottish Government introduced Scottish Building Regulations in 2019 requiring the provision of Changing Places Toilets in larger new buildings to which the public have access. These provisions are detailed in the Building standards technical handbook 2020 . At the same time, we also amended our Planning System to include these amended building regulations and further detail can be found within the Planning Circular 1/2020: Changing Places Toilets Regulations.We are not planning any further legislative changes in this area at this stage. Our work to amend building standards in 2019 was robust and sought to strike a sensible balance between encouraging further CPT provision across Scotland whilst recognising the resource needed to build these facilities may be prohibitive for smaller buildings.

We have recently published our Changing Places Toilets: Planning Guide and an accompanying easy read . This guide, written in collaboration with PAMIS (Promoting A More Inclusive Society), details practical considerations when considering installing a Changing Places Toilet in both existing and new buildings. This helpful toolkit will improve Changing Places Toilet provision in the immediate term and ensure that new toilets built following our changes to legislation are appropriate and well considered

The establishment of a National Care Service (NCS) is the most ambitious reform of public services since the creation of the National Health Service (NHS). It is necessary to deliver the consistency and quality of care and support across Scotland that people deserve, and reinforce our commitment to Scotland’s people to take long term action to change our society and make it a fairer place to live.

The Financial Memorandum set out the range of possible costs for the NCS. Estimates are being constantly monitored and reviewed as new information becomes available.

We recognise that there is an urgent need to make improvements to social care now, and we are not waiting for the NCS to start that process.

We are taking the action we can now to address challenges in social care. We have committed to increase spend in social care by 25% by the end of parliament, helping to lay the groundwork for the NCS.

Our 2022-23 budget confirmed more than £1.6bn for social care and integration to lay the groundwork for the NCS. Any spending decisions made on the NCS service will be backed by rigorous, evidence based decisions.

In April this year the minimum hourly rate for those providing direct adult social care increased to £10.50 an hour.

The Scottish Government transferred £200 million to Local Government to support investment in social care, including to deliver this uplift.

This represents an increase of 4.8% from the £10.02 pay rate that was introduced in December 2021. This is also an increase of 10.5% for these workers in the course of a year – with pay rising from at least £9.50 per hour in April 2021 to at least £10.50 per hour in April 2022.

Since 2007, the number of Psychiatric Consultants across all specialities in NHS Scotland has increased by 20.7% to 544.9 whole time equivalent posts. Despite this workforce expansion, we know that demand for psychiatric treatment continues to grow. That is why in 2021 we increased the number of Core Psychiatry places by 5 in response to increased demand for psychiatry. This year we are expanding training by a further ten places, and we will consider further increases in future years. In the 2023-24 training year, we will fund another 15 Core Psychiatry training places. Five of these will be created for the February 2023 start date and the other ten will be made available for trainees taking up post in August 2023. Further, the Scottish Government is working with NES and the Royal College of Psychiatry to encourage medical students to consider a long-term career as a psychiatrist. This work includes the ‘Choose Psychiatry’ campaign, undergraduate taster sessions and improved psychiatric placements at Foundation level.

The Scottish Government have made no assessment of the level of care to be provided by Lochbroom House. The statutory duty for the delivery and level of care homes resides with the Local Authority .

The Scottish Government continues to prioritise funding for health, providing increases year on year and funding of £18 billion in 2022-23, as set out in the Scottish Budget.

However, the scale of the financial challenge across the Scottish Government and health and social care is unprecedented, as a result of rising inflation and energy costs and the ongoing impacts of Covid and Brexit.

The UK Government’s Autumn statement provided no additional funding this year to support health and social care in addressing these challenges or to support fair pay deals, with the funding outlined over the coming two years falling massively short of the combined impact of Covid pressures, energy costs and inflation.

It is vital that further funding is provided by the UK Government to address the backlog in care caused by Covid and to help our NHS and social care staff deal with the cost of living crisis

We have revisited the NCS financial memorandum assumptions and, based on a revised recruitment profile and revised investment in data and digital work, £15 million of funding in 2022-23 has been reprioritised. We are taking time to get this right, ensuring engagement through events such as the Forum and launch of the Lived Experience Expert Panel. As a result some costs that would have been expected in this financial year will not occur.