Chamber and committees

The Bill does not propose that 75,000 local authority employees would transfer. As the policy memorandum to the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill makes clear that under the National Care Service, services will continue to be planned, designed and delivered locally because the care boards will plan and commission services for their local area. For social care services currently provided in-house by local authorities, that may continue under a commissioning arrangement with the care board, or the care board may take over direct delivery, with staff transferring to the care board. These will be decisions to be taken locally as the care boards are established. Once the structure and governance of care boards and their localities have been decided, decisions about the employment of staff will be made.

The Scottish Government has decided that these functions are best located in the new qualifications body.

In reaching this conclusion we considered a range of options, including the establishment of a new small non-departmental public body solely responsible for these functions and Professor Muir’s recommendation to locate the functions within the new national agency for Scottish education.

We have sought the views of a range of organisations including nine standard setting organisations, twenty-five Awarding Bodies and a number of other public bodies including the Scottish Funding Council and the SCQF Partnership. Officials also met with other UK regulation and accreditation bodies including Ofqual and Qualifications Wales and discussed options with colleagues across the Learning, Education Reform and Advanced Learning and Science Directorates. We have also drawn on the expertise of the staff who provide those services through discussions with the SQA’s Chief Executive, staff in the Accreditation Team and members of the SQA Accreditation Committee.

On balance, it is clear that there are significant benefits to locating the functions in the new Qualifications Body, as an NDPB, providing a greater degree of independence than within the new national agency. The creation of the new Qualifications Body itself presents an opportunity to make significant changes to the relationship between the awarding and accreditation functions which will further strengthen their independence from one another. We will develop these as part of the Education Reform Bill to be introduced to Parliament next year and as part of the Target Operating Model for the new body.

This decision will ensure the continued provision of a service which is of vital importance across a wide range of sectors of the Scottish economy.

This information is not recorded by COPFS.

Cases that are discontinued are marked with an appropriate No Further Action reason.

None of the No Further Action Marking categories used within COPFS allow us to identify any cases which were discontinued due to witness citations not being served on time.

For your information, figures for the total cases marked No Further Action for the last 5 years are published on the Crown Office website ( Case processing statistics 2017 to 2022 ).

In addition, the following table provides cases marked for No Further Action since 1 April 2013 broken down by the appropriate category as used by COPFS: -

The Scottish Government has made clear to the UK Government our position that to support our just transition to net zero, new offshore oil and gas licenses should be subject to a stringent climate compatibility checkpoint.

My response to the UK Government consultation in March made clear that any credible and effective package of conditionality tests must include both domestic and international dimensions - extending to at least all of the six tests outlined in the consultation document.

The First Minister also called on the UK Government for a four nations’ discussions to agree on a final Climate Compatibility Checkpoint process which was ignored. It is extremely disappointing that the Climate Compatibility Test proposed by the UK Government is limited to new exploration, and that the bar has been set so low in terms of the Test itself. It is a lightweight version of the Test consulted upon earlier this year.

Following a consultation process, which ended in June 2022 officials have been working on analysis of responses, and redrafting the guidance. It is hoped that the guidance, and associated guides and toolkits will be published by the end of the year.

Decisions to prioritise one population group over another for vaccination are not taken lightly, nor are they straightforward. That is why our prioritisation decisions have been, and will continue to be, guided by the independent expert advice provided by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and senior Clinicians.

As with previous campaigns, vaccinations will be offered first to frontline health and social care workers and those most vulnerable to the effects of the virus. Information on the Winter Vaccines programme including eligible groups can he found here .

Full information on the considerations made by the JCVI with regards to which groups have been offered a COVID-19 booster vaccine can be found here .

The Scottish Government has not undertaken specific analysis, regarding the impact of disruption to ferry services on depopulation, however, recognise the importance of the provision of safe and reliable lifeline ferry services for our island populations.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise has not undertaken any specific analysis of the impact of recent disruption to ferry services on depopulation. However, its ‘ My Life in the Highlands and Islands ’ research does explore issues around transport, including views on satisfaction/dissatisfaction with ferry services.

VisitScotland has not carried out any analysis on the impact of cancellations and disruptions to ferry services but recently shared relevant information with the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee on 8 November 2022, a transcript of which is published on the Scottish Parliament website .

The Scottish Government will publish a breakdown of the 11.2 million committed to local government to increase the capacity of local resettlement teams, support refurbishment of properties and support integration work, once payments to all local authorities are finalised.

Scottish Government Officials are working towards holding the first meeting of the Joint Regulatory Taskforce as soon as possible and aim to hold before the end of 2022. Communications to key stakeholders to facilitate this will be issued shortly.

The Taskforce will also support and drive early progress towards meeting our commitments in the National Strategy for Economic Transformation to review and improve the process of developing, implementing and reviewing regulation to meet our economic and societal aims. Reviewing regulatory burdens on business will be a critical component of this work and we will seek to balance the essential role that regulation plays on driving innovation and achieving economic, societal and environmental goals with the concerns that businesses have expressed about the impact of new regulations during the cost crisis.

While the Taskforce was announced as part of the Emergency Budget Review in response to the ongoing cost crisis, it is also expected to help support the work towards the longer term goals. Therefore, there is no set date for the conclusion of its work but the terms of reference will be subject to ongoing review to ensure the group continues to be in the best position to support the delivery of these goals.

The Scottish Government has not undertaken specific analysis, regarding the impact of disruption to ferry services, and how this impacts upon island economies. We recognise the important contribution that the Scotch Whisky industry makes to the Scottish economy, and meet with the whisky sector regularly, to discuss current issues and understand their impact.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has not undertaken any specific analysis of the impact of disruption to ferry services on investment in the Scotch whisky industry in the islands.