Chamber and committees

CMAL scores foreign and domestic shipbuilders the same. The evaluation criteria cannot discriminate against any bid as each compliant bid is valued on its own merit.

Social Landlords are required to meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS), which is monitored by The Scottish Housing Regulator(SHR). SHR wrote to all Social Landlords on 1 December 2022 on the importance of having appropriate, proactive systems to identify and deal with any reported cases of mould and damp timeously and effectively. The Regulator will also be working with the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) and the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers (ALACHO) to identify and promote good practice in the management of mould and dampness. Scottish Government officials will keep in close touch with the progress of this work.

The £2m was committed to be spent over this parliament (to March 31 2026). Of the £2 million previously committed at COP26, £1.7 million has been delivered through grants. £1 million was grant funded to the Climate Justice Resilience Fund (CJRF). Created in 2016, CJRF is one of the first major funding initiatives framed explicitly around climate justice, and one of few philanthropic players that works internationally on climate resilience. They have been selected as they have extensive experience of delivering rapid, community-based finance to address climate justice.

Through the Scottish Government’s partnership with the CJRF, five project in the Global South have been grant funded grants to date; £233k to Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), £228k to Helvetas Bangladesh, £205k to Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), £182k to Churches Action in Relief and Development (CARD) and £136k to the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition Youth Grantmaking Council (LDYGC).

Furthermore, £500k of the initial £2 million has been granted to The Scottish Catholic International Fund to directly support communities in our partner country, Malawi, facing losses and damage resulting from recent tropical storms. With participation and co-design at the heart of their programming, SCIAF and partners have built long-term relationships through the delivery of the SG funded Climate Challenge Programme Malawi with communities who are now experiencing severe loss and damages. SCIAF’s experience and existing relations will ensure Scottish Government funding has an immediate and much needed impact in Malawian communities.

Alongside grant funded projects on the ground, the Scottish Government identified a gap in global knowledge and understanding through extensive stakeholder engagement and as such, allocated part of the £2 million funding to further research on loss and damage. £75k has been awarded to the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) to investigate operationalising finance for Loss and Damage. A further £150k has been granted to the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) in Bangladesh for further research on loss and damage.

Final decisions on how the remaining unallocated funds will be spent will be made following stakeholder engagement and a thorough review of the global commitments made at COP27 to ensure that the Scottish Government creates maximum impact with our approach and does not duplicate funding efforts elsewhere.

We expect around 400,000 people to receive our Winter Heating Payment each year, more than double the 185,000 people who on average have received Cold Weather Payments over the last 7 years.

Data on deaths from all causes in Scotland are available from National Records of Scotland: Vital Events - Deaths | National Records of Scotland (nrscotland.gov.uk).

We continue to implement our Heart Disease Action Plan which seeks to ensure that everyone with suspected heart disease has timely and equitable access to diagnosis, treatment and care.

The Network for Inherited Cardiac Conditions Scotland (NICCS) is a National Managed Clinical Network which supports improvements in the diagnosis, treatment and outcomes of people with inherited cardiac conditions (ICC).

Scottish Government are key partners in the Save a Life for Scotland Partnership who are working to deliver the Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest: Strategy 2021 to 2026 . A key aim of this strategy is to increase survival from OHCA to 15% in Scotland by 2026.

Within the South Region of Forestry and Land Scotland, since 2007, the following estimated number of trees (based on normal planting densities per hectare), have been planted by Forestry and Land Scotland in each Local Authority Area:

We are grateful to Scotland Versus Arthritis for their support in developing the draft Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery as members of the National Advisory Committee for Chronic Pain.

The Implementation Plan sets out, for the first time, an ambitious national direction for improvement including 18 Actions which reflect the priorities of people with chronic pain to improve the care and services they need.

This includes taking a whole-system approach to address long-standing, complex issues including improving the quality of national resources such as NHS Inform, reviewing referrals and pathways of care, investing in comprehensive national data on chronic pain and its impact, and developing a national knowledge and skills framework to drive recognition, earlier intervention and improve quality of care for people with chronic pain.

We have also redesigned our Governance structure to ensure that we can deliver these Actions at pace. This includes investing in a new Third-Sector Network in direct response to requests from charity organisations including Scotland Versus Arthritis to better support their involvement in implementing the Framework. We will continue to monitor delivery of the Implementation Plan to ensure there is rapid progress and to identify further opportunities to improve pain services.

In addition to our investment in these challenges, we have recognised the impact of arthritis, and are providing £400m to develop a network of National Treatment Centres which will provide additional capacity for hip and knee surgeries which are a significant contributor to chronic musculoskeletal pain.

As stated by Scotland Versus Arthritis in their recent briefing to MSPs, the majority of people with chronic pain are seen in primary care services. That is why we are also providing increased funding of £170 million this year to support primary care services to expand multi-disciplinary teams and provide additional pharmacists, physiotherapists and occupational therapists who can support people to better manage chronic pain and its impact. We welcome the continued input of Scotland Versus Arthritis and other third-sector partners in our shared goal of improving care and services for people with chronic pain.

The Government plans to introduce a new Housing Bill this year. The timing and scope of that Bill is subject to ongoing review and consideration as we continue to deliver our emergency response to support tenants through the ongoing cost of living crisis.

We do not keep historic records of insolvencies which have impacted on the affordable housing supply programme.