Chamber and committees

Prompt payment of the supply chain is not only the ethical and socially responsible thing to do, it is critical to the sustainability and resilience of our supply chains in delivering critical products, services or works to, or on behalf, of the people of Scotland. The Scottish Government is committed to paying our contractors promptly and ensuring that they do the same with their subcontractors. There is already a significant range of measures in place in Scotland to tackle late payment in both public and private contracts through legislation, policy and practice.

The Scottish Government continues to lead by example through our target to pay all valid invoices within 10 days of receipt whereas our statutory obligation is 30 days. For financial year 2021-2022, 97% of valid invoices received were paid within 10 days and 99% paid within 30 days.

The Scottish Government sought views in our 2020 Public Procurement Survey of Suppliers, where 85% of respondents were SMEs. The survey included a number of questions on payment performance, and identified opportunities to improve payment performance, particularly for sub-contractors in supply chains.

As a result the Scottish Government worked alongside public bodies, supplier groups and other stakeholders to bolster the Scottish Government’s prompt payment policy. An updated procurement policy note was published in April 2022 which was welcomed by the Federation of Small Businesses and the Small Business Commissioner. The updated policy encourages public bodies to consider bidders past payment performance during tender exercises, and to request bidders confirm that their terms & conditions for all sub-contractors will contain a prompt payment clause, driving payment of valid invoices within a maximum of 30 days throughout the full supply chain for public contracts.

Scottish Government Procurement officials continue to support the updated policy implementation and work with stakeholders to determine how to monitor the extent to which the policy is embedded within public bodies procurement processes.

In terms of payment in advance, the Scottish Public Finance Manual states that advance payments should only be made in exceptional circumstances, where good value for money can be made from them and all reasonable steps should be taken to protect public funds.

Three pilot projects are being supported through this fund. These are located in North Argyll, Moray, and South West Scotland. All three have seen estimated costs increase significantly since the original funding offers were made and have had to adapt plans and budgets accordingly. Subject to planning consent in one instance, work is anticipated to commence within the next few weeks.

An announcement will be made as soon as all three projects get underway. A programme of open days and knowledge transfer is an important element of this project.

Under the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) is an enforcing authority for fire safety in hotels and other relevant premises across Scotland and already has the necessary powers available to them to enforce fire safety .

As an enforcing authority, SFRS work with duty holders in relevant premises to achieve compliance in fire safety through an auditing framework and providing advice and support. Where partnership working does not produce compliance, SFRS may decide to take enforcement or prohibition action where necessary.

We know that currently not everyone has the same experiences or outcomes when they engage with mental health services and supports. We want to ensure that everyone’s needs are met, including those with learning disabilities and autism.

We are committed to publishing a new Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy in Spring 2023, building on the implementation of our Mental Health Covid Transition and Recovery Plan. The new strategy will allow us to look ahead to make sure we are doing the right things to meet changing mental health needs over the coming years; and will set out a clear vision for future population mental health, wellbeing and care; and our priorities to help us get there.

In September 2021, the Scottish Government published the National Neurodevelopmental Specification for Children and Young People which sets out seven standards for service providers to ensure that children and young people, who have neurodevelopmental profiles with support needs, receive the support that they require. To support implementation, we have provided funding to NHS Boards to build capacity to provide access to specialist neurodevelopmental professionals.

We are now developing quality standards to support general adult secondary mental health services. These aim to improve the quality and safety of mental health services, and will be part of a suite of standards and specifications for mental health services, building on the work of the CAMHS service and neurodevelopmental specifications.

The Scottish Government has worked with people with lived experience and stakeholders over the last 18 months on a new leadership and engagement framework to develop policy around mental health support for autistic people and people with learning disabilities.

This new way of working puts people’s voices and experiences firmly at its heart and is about real sustainable change and has included literature reviews, workshops to collect views and experiences, reports and an evaluation of the process. Currently there are working groups to implement the actions following the workshops and reports.

The Scottish Government do not hold this information.

Under the current constitutional arrangements in the United Kingdom immigration is fully reserved to the UK Government and is dealt with by the Home Office.

If a displaced person from Ukraine has been issued a visa, they are free to travel anywhere within the UK or to leave and re-enter the UK when they wish, as long as they are meeting the conditions within their visa. The UK Governments Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities publish data on arrivals in the UK, with a Scottish Sponsor Visa: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ukraine-sponsorship-scheme-visa-data-by-country-upper-and-lower-tier-local-authority
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In addition, the Scottish Government publish the latest Scotland-level data and information on people displaced by the war in Ukraine coming to Scotland through the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme. This data can be found on our website via:
‎ https://www.gov.scot/publications/ukraine-sponsorship-scheme-in-scotland-statistics-january-2023/

The Scottish Government is grateful to all officers who provide a blue light response as they attend serious incidents. The additional skills gained by officers as they undertake emergency response driver training is integral to providing an effective and safe response to 999 calls.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on Police Scotland’s driver training programme. Delivery and recording of this specialist training is a matter for the Chief Constable under the oversight of the SPA.

The Scottish Government welcomes the results of this survey from Scotland’s two main autism charities. This Bill extends further than autism and includes people with a learning disability and potentially a wider range of neurodivergent conditions. However, from our scoping work with a range of stakeholders we understand that even within the autism community there are a range of views on how this might be taken forward and no wider consensus regarding the benefit of a Commissioner.

We have undertaken significant engagement to date, scoping the Bill with a range of stakeholders. The report analysing the findings of these engagement events will be published soon.

We are establishing a lived experience panel to work closely with us to co-design and deliver a consultation paper later this year, which will set out options for the Bill, including the potential role and duties of a Commissioner.

I refer the member to the question S6W-14257 on 30 January 2023. Detail on the facilities in place at fire stations and their condition is a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. Work is underway across the SFRS estate to improve facilities within the scope of their allocated budget, so the outstanding upgrade needs are an evolving picture. The Scottish Government has access to this information but to ensure the most accurate data is provided, the member should contact the Chief Officer of SFRS directly if he wishes access to this level of detail.

The statistical release on Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme expressions of interest data reconciliation exercise was published by the Scottish Government on 17 February 2023: https://www.gov.scot/publications/ukraine-sponsorship-scheme-in-scotland-expressions-of-interest-data-reconciliation-exercise-february-2023/ . This is a one-time ad-hoc release of management information and does not constitute an Official Statistics or National Statistics release.

The Scottish Government is a founding partner of CyberScotland Week which is celebrating its fifth year.

The Scottish Government has also set up the CyberScotland Partnership which now manages the Week. This year there are over 100 events taking place across the country, and across all sectors, ranging from raising awareness to upskilling to promoting careers in the cyber security industry.

I will be officially opening CyberScotland Week at the FutureScot Cyber Security Conference in Glasgow on 27 February. On the same day, the Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise will be officially opening Systal Technology Solutions’ Secure Operations Centre at their headquarters in Robroyston. The Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport is also participating in the Week by sharing cyber resilience messaging to sports’ Governing Bodies.

Like many organisations across Scotland, the Scottish Government is participating in CyberScotland Week by providing a programme of staff training and awareness events.