Chamber and committees

Today I am announcing up to £35.4 million in further funding to support bus operators maintain services between 28 June and 3 October. This is in addition to up to £61.4 million that the Scottish Government has already made available in 2021-22, and up to £191.3 million that was available in 2020-21. This funding is subject to regular reconciliation to ensure we are not over or under paying operators and actual spend in 2020-21 is forecast at £119.5 million. Funding only covers the gap between additional Covid-19 operational costs and lost fare revenue due to physical distancing.

Colleges are responsible for making workforce-related decisions in line with legislative requirements, the Code of Good Governance for Scotland’s Colleges and the Scottish Funding Council’s Financial Memoranda. Such decisions may take into account the need to implement changes to the delivery of teaching and learning to reflect the changing needs of the local economy and industry skills demands, as well as on the financial health of the institution.

The Scottish Government remains firmly of the view that it is for the college unions and the employers to negotiate pay and terms and conditions voluntarily in the spirit of collaboration and co-operation. The Scottish Government continue to work with the SFC, who work closely with the sector, to ensure any actions taken are compliant with the Scottish Public Finance Manual and are in line with Fair Work principles.

We are committed to reviewing our Fair Work First criteria to specifically reference Fire and Rehire Practice.

Legislation was laid on 27 May 2021 to extend the temporary exceptions of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order for a further three months until 30 September 2021.

Our priority is to keep people safe so we are extending these measures while the path of the pandemic remains uncertain, and we will keep the situation under review.

Our ambition is for all households to have a decent temporary home and to move into settled accommodation as quickly as possible. We will continue to work with councils to help them overcome any barriers as we shift to a new way of dealing with homelessness.

We are doing all we can to ensure that people experiencing homelessness are not housed in unsuitable accommodation for any longer than is necessary. However, it is crucial that we help local authorities to keep people safe during the pandemic.

We are extending these measures while the path of the pandemic remains uncertain, and will keep the situation under review. We will continue to work with councils to ensure they are supporting people from temporary accommodation into permanent settled accommodation.

The former Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills wrote to the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland earlier this year in response to correspondence from the Commissioner about this year’s Alternative Certification Model and the Scottish Qualifications Authority appeals process.

More recently I have written to the Commissioner in response to points raised by young people in response to the published appeals arrangements for this year.

Scottish Government officials have engaged with representatives from the Commissioner’s office on these matters.

No discussions have taken place between the myself and The Equality and Human Rights Commission in respect of the Alternative Certification Model.

In support of the process to deliver this year’s Alternative Certification Model and appeals service, the Scottish Qualifications Authority has engaged with the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland and the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Dental practices are allowed to see as many patients as they safely can whilst ensuring that they adhere to current Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) guidance. The number of patients that a dental practice will see each day is based upon a risk assessment which takes account of factors such as the local environment, the type of procedure being undertaken and the urgency of the procedure.

NHS dental practice have not been set a limit of seeing 10 patients per day. PPE is being provided to dental practices on the PPE based upon providing care to 10 NHS patients per day per operational treatment room. The number of treatment rooms varies significantly across dental practices with an average of three treatment rooms per dental practice nationally. This PPE is funded by Scottish Government, and at no cost to the dental practice.

The Scottish Government has worked closely with NHS Boards and dental practices to ensure that patients receive the best possible NHS care subject to the constraints placed upon the sector during the period of the Covid pandemic.

At the start of the pandemic a comprehensive network of urgent dental care centres was established to ensure continuity of emergency dental care services. A carefully managed and evidence based process of gradually reintroducing routine dental care culminated in the availability of the full range of NHS dental services from 1 st November 2020. Private dental services are required to mirror these arrangements.

The Scottish Government places great importance on public libraries and believes everyone should have access to these services. Libraries don’t just provide access to reading material. They play a crucial role in providing access to IT, improving attainment, supporting children in the early years, helping engage older people, and empowering our communities.

The Scottish Government is aware of the challenges facing Scotland’s Public Libraries and the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on them, and recognises the way in which many library services have adapted quickly during the pandemic to support their local communities. Officials are working closely with the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC), to understand current challenges and facilitate the sector’s recovery.

As of Friday, 4 June, 377 libraries were open, with 104 yet to reopen and these numbers are regularly changing. Officials understand from an update provided by SLIC on 4 June 2021,that 14 more libraries have signalled their intention to reopen soon. In some local authority areas, mobile libraries are operating where libraries are closed.

The Scottish Government has worked with the sector and local authority representatives to produce safer workplace guidance for public libraries to allow these services to be restored safely. The guidance has been updated on a regular basis responding to ongoing feedback from stakeholders and reflecting the latest scientific advice, to facilitate safer reopening. There may be a range of reasons that libraries have not yet reopened, including alternative usage during the pandemic (for example as testing centres) or ability to allow physical distancing within smaller buildings.

Public libraries are devolved to local authorities, who are best placed to decide what services can be offered. Scotland’s councils have been allocated an additional‎ £1.5 billion in direct support through the local government finance settlement and councils have also been granted additional financial flexibilities to address the financial pressures caused by COVID-19.

Furthermore, the 2021-22 Local Government Settlement of almost £11.7 billion provides a cash increase in local government day to day spending for local revenue services of £375.6 million or 3.5 per cent.

It is for the independent court to decide whether to grant bail or remand an accused person in any given case. This decision is made within the overarching legal framework whereby bail can be refused if there are good reasons. Where the courts decide to release an accused person on bail, bail is awarded subject to conditions. These always include the standard conditions set out at section 24(5) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995. Amongst others, these conditions include that the person: should not commit an offence while on bail; does not interfere with witnesses or otherwise obstruct the course of justice; and does not behave in a manner which causes, or is likely to cause, alarm or distress to witnesses, including the complainer.

Breach of a bail condition is a criminal offence. Police Scotland treat all cases of stalking and harassment as a priority and encourage anyone to report incidents including where breach of bail conditions occurs. At any time after a court has granted bail to a person, if the prosecutor applies to the court, putting before it material which was not available when bail was granted, the court may review its decision to grant bail.

The Scottish Government provides funding to Action Against Stalking, which offers specialist support to victims of stalking throughout the criminal justice process, and provided funding to the Scottish Women's Rights Centre to develop the FollowIt App, which helps a person who is being stalked to record what is happening to them in a simple and safe way.

The Scottish Government published guidance outlining the action that local authorities and Registered Social Landlords should be taking to help mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on delivering grant funded affordable housing projects which were contractually awarded prior to the first lockdown in 2020. While the guidance notes that the firm aim of local authority/ Registered Social Landlord engagement with their contractors should be to reach agreement which negates the need for additional funding support, it also sets out the circumstances under which applications for additional grant funding will be considered if a contract cannot be made to work and no other negotiated solution is achievable. We received an application from Cunninghame Housing Association for a project in Dumfries and Galloway in March 2021, this was reviewed in line with our published guidance. Unfortunately there was insufficient evidence supplied to support the application. Further information was received in May but is still insufficient to allow us to complete our appraisal. When all the required information has been received, we will be able to fully assess the application.

We are fully committed to paying the payments to eligible social care workers as quickly as possible. Local authorities have confirmed that the majority of payments were made to local authority employed social care workers by the end of April with the remainder of payments being made in May. All Local Authorities have confirmed that payments to third and independent social care providers have been completed. Our administration partner, Scotland Excel, are working to confirm with social care providers that payments have been made to staff.

We are currently working with key delivery partners to agree a payment process to make payments to Personal Assistants as quickly as possible.