Chamber and committees

Under Health and Safety legislation, which is reserved, it is the responsibility of the employer to satisfy themselves of the competence of first aiders. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provides relevant guidance on first aid provision and on event safety Events health and safety (hse.gov.uk) . The Events Industry Forum’s ‘ purple guide ’ includes example first-aid and medical assessments for an audience at an event.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18442 on 13 June 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The R100 contracts are expected to connect over 114,000 premises upon completion. Around 99% of those connections will be fibre to the premises (FTTP) which is capable of delivering gigabit download speeds, over 30 times faster than our original superfast commitment.

For those who live or work in premises that are outwith the reach of commercial and R100 contract build plans, the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) remains available and offers up to £5,000 to secure a superfast broadband connection. As this is a demand-led scheme it is not possible to provide dates by which people might be connected.

There is also on-going delivery of commercial superfast broadband networks and we continue to engage with the industry to understand their future plans.

The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is a privately-owned telecoms network and the decision to upgrade it has been taken by the telecoms industry. The primary focus of PSTN migration is to switch over the telephony signal from analogue to digital services, not the broadband signal. As such, delivery of the R100 programme will not be impacted by PSTN migration.

As set out in the National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET) and the Programme for Government 2022-23, a review will be conducted of how to support Scotland’s social enterprise, co-operative and employee owned business sectors to grow. The review will commence in Autumn 2023, with an initial pre-review stakeholder discussion to be held this month.

The Scottish Government has not provided financial support to local authorities to undertake inspections of buildings for reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete. It is the responsibility of building owners to undertake such inspections. The Health & Safety Executive is the UK-wide regulator for health and safety in workplaces. This legislation is not devolved to the Scottish Government. The HSE, instructed by the UK Government, are developing a research methodology to assist with identification, assessment and remediation of RAAC and we will consider any recommendations appropriately.

We are currently considering whether or not to retain snaring as a land management tool in Scotland. If it is decided we will not retain snaring, we will bring forward provisions to that effect alongside a short public consultation document in time for stage 2 of the wildlife management and muirburn bill.

The Drug Deaths Taskforce had an allocation of £9 million to invest in 2020-21 and £5 million in 2021-22.

Our investment through the R100 programme will be transformational for many of Scotland’s most rural communities and is providing a full fibre backbone that will enable reliable connectivity services to be delivered.

An individual’s ability to access digital healthcare can be impacted by a number of factors, not just their rurality and the availability of digital infrastructure in their area.

That is why, while recognising the importance of access to digital healthcare, it should be promoted as one choice for patients but not the only available option. Digital healthcare programmes are subject to Equality Impact Assessments (EQIAs) to assess the impact of accessibility.

The £800,000, which was allocated for media campaigns in 2021 and 2022 on the use of naloxone, was fully spent on the “How to Save a Life” campaign commissioned by the Scottish Government working in collaboration with the Scottish Drugs Forum.