Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not routinely collect data on the ethnicity of people participating in clinical trials in Scotland.

In the last three financial years, Food Standards Scotland has coordinated the response to eighteen food/feed safety incidents which have been investigated by Dumfries and Galloway Local Authority. Three of these incidents have related to the detection of Listeria Monocytogenes.

The Scottish Government has continuous engagement with Health Boards and has had recent contact with NHS Ayrshire & Arran on the provision of Out of Hours services.

The Board has advised that the medical workforce across Ayrshire Urgent Care Service (AUCS) has stabilised over recent years, establishing a core multi-disciplinary team using a mixed model of GP/Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANPs) for Out of Hours patient care.

Despite the system wide pressures, NHS Ayrshire & Arran continue to deliver a primary care out of hours service for the provision of urgent care when GP Practices are closed. Although the figures published on 14 February 2023 report a decline in the number of GPs working in the service it is important to note that this service is now provided using a multi-disciplinary model which includes nurses, advanced nurse practitioners and paramedics.

It is also important to note the increased number of other professions which reflects that this service is now provided using a multi-disciplinary model which includes nurses, advanced nurse practitioners and paramedics.

FSS use the following to define an incident.

“any event where, based on the information available, there are concerns about actual or suspected threats to the safety, quality or integrity of food and/or feed or fraud that could require intervention to protect consumers’ interests”.

Only notifications meeting this criteria are recorded as such.

All incidents reported to FSS are classified using the FSS Incident Classification Matrix. The matrix is used to help assign a level to the incident to determine the appropriate response.

The coordination of food/feed incidents will continue until the identified risks have been appropriately mitigated.

Whilst FSS maintain the coordination role providing guidance, assistance and advice, Local Authorities as the competent authorities will routinely carry out the investigations. Local Authorities will report incidents to FSS dependant on the food law code of practice which stipulates which incidents need to be reported to FSS.

The findings presented in this report do not fully address the question of independence in Scotland. The modelling undertaken makes a range of simplifying assumptions and does not account for the many economic opportunities that would be available to an independent Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s comprehensive paper “A stronger economy with independence”, outlines the case for independence as essential to building a more stable, sustainable economy with fairness and human wellbeing at its heart. Independence will allow Scotland to re-join the EU, give Scotland the full range of economic and other policy levers to take decisions based on our own needs, allowing us to replicate the success of independent European countries comparable to Scotland that are wealthier and fairer than the UK.

Our NPF4 Delivery Programme, the first iteration of which was published by the Scottish Government in November 2022, is an important tool that sets out the approach for implementing NPF4, including delivery mechanisms, governance and funding. The Delivery Programme identifies a range of priority actions, delivery partners and anticipated timescales.  

The Delivery Programme is available at https://www.transformingplanning.scot/mdeia/3136/national-planing-framework-4-delivery-programme-for-publication-2-November-2022.pdf.

As at 14 February 2023 there were 370 Ukrainian displaced people in Welcome accommodation in Edinburgh, with a further 1,140 on board MS Victoria. There were 650 Ukrainian displaced people in Welcome accommodation in Glasgow, with a further 995 on board MS Ambition.

Matching teams working on-board both vessels are making offers of accommodation based on the circumstances of guests, including employment, health and personal preferences.

While priority will be given to match those disembarking the ships with local offers of accommodation, some guests will be asked to consider accommodation further afield, in other parts of Scotland. Due to the range of uncertainty, thus far it has not been possible to produce an estimate of how many will remain within Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The SFC’s teaching funding allocation to the Highlands and Islands (H&I) incorporates enhanced funding in recognition of the additional costs associated with delivery in such areas. This amounts to approximately 50% more funding than that provided for city colleges.  

The SFC also currently allocates £8 million annually to colleges across Scotland to specifically reflect the additional costs associated with rurality. The H&I Region receives over two-thirds of this funding (£5.4 million).

Every child growing up in Scotland, regardless of their background, should have an equal chance of attending university and participating in higher education.

More students than ever have a place at university, and will benefit from free tuition – saving them up to £27,750 of student debt, compared with their counterparts in England. We continue to invest nearly £2 billion per year in Scotland’s colleges and universities, enabling them to continue to deliver high-quality education and training.

Average student support provided per full-time student was £6,140 in 2019-20 (the latest data available), an increase from £6,010 in 2018-19.

Latest HESA statistics demonstrate the continued strength of our university sector with record numbers of Scottish Students in 2021-22.

Once again, we have a record high number of students from deprived areas with 5,595 Scots entering university (+80 on previous year) - up 41% since the establishment of the Commission on Widening Access by this Government. This illustrates the important work achieved in supporting people into Higher Education.

The Scottish Government has no direct role in placement of students in accommodation or in the provision of student accommodation, whether that is university halls of residence, private purpose built student accommodation (PBSA) or private rented tenancies.

However, we are determined to improve supply, accessibility, affordability and standards across the private rented sector; and our review of purpose built student accommodation, which is looking at issues including supply and affordability, is nearing conclusion. We look forward to receiving the recommendations of the cross-sectoral PBSA Review Group in due course.

We are also committed to introducing new prevention of homelessness duties as part of a forthcoming Housing Bill. The bill will include new duties on public bodies to ‘ask and act’ about housing situations. We are exploring what is possible in relation to colleges and universities to be part of this. It will also include changes to existing legislation to allow local authorities to intervene at an earlier stage to prevent homelessness.

To support delivery of the National Infrastructure Mission we established the Infrastructure Commission for Scotland to provide long term strategic advice on national infrastructure priorities. Our infrastructure plans build on these recommendations and work is ongoing to develop our infrastructure improvement programme, through developing a new method of appraisal and prioritisation to ensure our infrastructure commitments match long-term goals and in preparing a cross-sector infrastructure needs assessment. This will ensure we are making the best capital investment decisions possible across the public sector to deliver on our ambitious programme for Scotland.

The Infrastructure Investment Plan 2021-25 sets out a hierarchy for infrastructure investment which aids decision making and planning on investment choices by encouraging maintenance and enhancement of existing assets over new assets, where appropriate. This Infrastructure Investment Plan sets maintenance and enhancement as a Scottish Government infrastructure priority and all public bodies, including Local Authorities can draw on this when making investment decisions. The Scottish Futures Trust and Scottish Government have jointly developed an Asset Strategy Guidance note to support the application of the infrastructure hierarchy (link Here ) and have developed a Net Zero Public Sector Buildings Standard to support the whole public sector in making good investment decisions. More information on the Net Zero Public Sector Buildings Standard can be found here: Net Zero Public Sector Buildings Standard and on the Infrastructure Investment Plan, here: Infrastructure Investment Plan for Scotland .