Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not have the legal power to direct charitable activity. That is a decision for the charity’s trustees, taking advice as appropriate, including from OSCR, and accordingly the Scottish Government is unable to intervene in this matter.

This government is clear that we must never ignore or seek to hide the difficult aspects of our country’s history and we acknowledge Scotland's complex past, including our involvement in the slave trade.

The working group, “Empire, Slavery and Scotland’s Museums: Addressing our Colonial Legacy” has made recommendations about how best to manage, present and protect elements of our contested or hidden heritage. We are carefully considering our response to these recommendations and will be meeting with its members and Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) to discuss the best ways to take this work forward. As an initial step the Scottish Government has provided £68,000 to MGS, as the museums development body in Scotland, so they can begin to support the sector to address these recommendations.

The Race Equality and Anti-Racism in Education Programme is considering how to embed anti-racism in education, including curriculum reform to ensure our historic past is accurately reflected.

The Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme (SSIP) Lead conducts an annual review process on behalf of the Scottish Government, meeting all NHS boards to appraise their provision of stroke services and create a local action plan to improve performance where needed. Annual reviews of NHS boards’ stroke services will now include a requirement to demonstrate adequate provision of psychological support, including detection and treatment of the psychological consequences of stroke and evidence of a clear referral pathway for accessing psychological services.

Health and Social care settings are expected to follow the National Infection Prevention and Control Manual when caring for individuals who have been diagnosed with or suspected of having COVID-19.

Guidance on infection control measures across health and social care settings is determined by, and kept under constant review in light of, new and emerging evidence. While reduced prevalence of the virus and hospitalisation rates has resulted in an easing of the previous infection and prevention control (IPC) measures, and a consequent reduction in costs, various mitigations remain in place.

These includeongoing symptomatic testing for staff working in face-to-face roles with patients and service users in health and social care settings and extended use of face masks and face coverings in hospitals, primary care and wider community healthcare. As well as ongoing support measures including the Social Care Staff Support Fund (supporting staff whilst they self-isolate), financial support arrangements relating to testing in care homes and staff vaccinations, and PPE Hubs remaining available in case of emergency PPE being required and for unpaid carers and personal assistants.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with NHS Boards and Integration Authorities to manage Covid expenditure within the 2022-23 budget and is considering the on-going cost of measures as part of the 2023-24 budget process.

Reduced prevalence and hospitalisation rates has resulted in an easing of the previous infection and prevention control measures which has contributed, in turn, to a reduction in expenditure levels.

There are no plans to reduce COVID-19 testing in health and social care settings as a result of the Emergency Budget Review. In line with the Test and Protect transition plan, testing remains in place to support patient treatment and care, protect those in highest risk settings, monitor prevalence and the risk of new variants, and respond to outbreaks. Testing policy and protocols are kept under regular clinical review.

Similarly, PPE provision continues to be informed by infection prevention and control guidance. NHS NSS currently hold sufficient pandemic PPE stock to supply NHS Scotland well into 2023-24 based on current usage rates. Social Care PPE provision continues to be available in case of emergency PPE being required and for unpaid carers and personal assistants.

The Scottish Government recognised the unprecedented nature of the changes required in the Emergency Budget Review and also published analysis of the equality and fairness impacts of the most substantive in-year adjustments. Given the exceptional circumstances and time constraints under which the Review was undertaken, the summary evidence was necessarily presented at a high level and focused on the most substantial changes.

In the case of the £116m reduction in Covid-related spending, this covers a range of actions on vaccinations, test and protect, PPE and additional capacity to drive down additional costs. It is important to note that the spending reduction is a consequence of reduced prevalence and hospitalisation rates resulted in evidence-based easing of infection prevention and control measures.

However, the impact on inequalities continues to be a focus, and includes measures to ensure uptake rates and activity aimed at reducing vaccine inequalities are not negatively affected.

We will continue to develop equality evidence, as well as mitigations wherever possible for negative impacts, including building on the evidence on inequalities in relation to COVID vaccination, testing and surveillance, for example as set out in the equality impact assessment for the Coronavirus (COVID-19): Strategic Framework update (February 2022).

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of higher education and this is why we have protected free tuition for Scottish-domiciled students.

International students and those from other parts of the UK are not eligible to access the funded places which have been protected for eligible Scottish domiciled students.

We remain absolutely committed to the principle that access to education should be based on the ability to learn and not the ability to pay. By 2030, we want 20% of students entering university to be from Scotland's 20% most deprived backgrounds. HESA figures show we have a record high 16.7% of full-time first degree entrants to university coming from the 20% most deprived areas of Scotland in 2020-21, exceeding the interim target of 16% by 2021.

There are also record numbers of young people securing places in the current UCAS cycle. The number of 18-year-old Scots that have secured a university place (as of 15 September 2022) is up 20% since 2019, the last year there were exams. Overall, Scottish domiciled acceptances through UCAS to Scottish providers is up 5% since 2019.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people who have had a stroke receive the best possible care as quickly as possible to enable them to live longer, healthier and independent lives. This commitment extends to the emotional and psychological impact of stroke and the Scottish Government wants to ensure that the detection and management of the psychological consequences of stroke are seen as a priority by health boards. We will continue to work with organisations such as the Stroke Association to make real improvements to the quality of life of people in Scotland affected by stroke.

The Scottish Government is engaging with farming interests on this topic though dialogue with NFUS and more widely through the Trees on Farms stakeholder group.

We also carefully monitor tree planting funded through the Forestry Grant Scheme and this shows that overall, planting has been delivered in-line with the current Woodland Expansion Advisory Group guidance on planting on agricultural land.

Since 2008, the combined area of woodland creation on prime and non-prime agricultural land (LCAs 2.1-4.2) totals less 1% of the area of these land classes.

We are also improving support and awareness of ways to establish more trees in ways that benefit farmers. This includes working through the Integrating Trees Network to promote the opportunities and help farmers and crofters get the benefits of growing trees supporting their farming business.

The default position for new public bodies is that they will be subject to the Scottish Government’s Public Sector Pay Policy (PSPP). However, the decision was taken that David MacBrayne Ltd (DML), the public body which owns CalMac Ferries Limited (CFL), be excluded from the Policy. This was to enable CFL to operate in a similar commercial environment and on a level basis with other operators in tendering for future ferry service contracts.