Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has used the powers at its disposal to build a fairer and more progressive Income Tax system in Scotland that raises vital additional revenue for the Scottish Budget. This has helped us commit to investing £2 billion for climate action in the 2022-23 Budget, alongside a clear commitment in the Resource Spending Review to prioritise public spend to deliver climate action over the course of this parliament.

We are committed to working across society to deliver lasting action that secures a just transition to a climate resilient, net zero Scotland - one that delivers on our social, economic and climate goals to build a better and more equal Scotland. Our Framework for Tax, published in December 2021, sets out our goals for a fairer, greener and more prosperous Scotland for everyone. Amongst other strategic aims, the Scottish Government has committed to use the tax levers at our disposal to deliver a sustainable and inclusive economic recovery and support new, good green jobs, businesses and industries for the future.

Decisions on tax policy for 2023-24 will be set out in the Scottish Budget, which will take place on 15 December. We will reflect on the recommendations in this report, alongside engagement with a broad range of stakeholders, in setting our tax policy for the year ahead.

After competitive tender, a contract was awarded to Anderson Anderson & Brown LLP to obtain expert independent advice on the implications of VAT on the NCS and associated Care Boards. This work is ongoing. No decisions have been made at this point and a full understanding of the impact of all options will be considered.

Transport Scotland are conducting a transparent evidence – based review of the A96 corridor which will report by the end of this year.

The Scottish Government is committed to eliminating HIV Transmission in Scotland by 2030.

There are no current plans for a testing week in 2022. However, the Scottish Government commissioned an expert-led HIV transmission elimination proposal. Increased and more effective testing is an important focus of the report, which will be published on World AIDS Day. Plans to take that work forward will be published alongside it, and that work will consider both long and short term steps that can be taken to improve testing uptake.

In the meantime, the Scottish Government continues to provide funding to HIV Scotland to support hivtest.scot, a pilot project which provides postal HIV self-testing kits to people across Scotland.

The Scottish Government remains committed to eliminating HIV Transmission in Scotland by 2030.

To support work to meet this target the PrEP short-life working group, a sub-group of the HIV Transmission Elimination Oversight Group, was tasked with maximising PrEP eligibility criteria. The group has formally adopted the new, wider, PrEP eligibility guidelines and are now working on materials to support implementation across Scotland.

The group, which is jointly chaired by community sector and clinical representatives, has also been actively considering the expansion of PrEP prescribing, with a focus on moving away from acute settings such as sexual health clinics. These discussions are on-going as the group considers different models and settings for PrEP care.

Rail accessibility and compliance with rail fleet accessibility requirements remain matters reserved to the UK Government.

I have however recently met with Disabled Persons Organisations, such as Disability Equality Scotland and Sight Scotland & Sight Scotland Veterans to gain an understanding of any issues being experienced by disabled rail users. Those issues will be taken forward during my monthly scheduled meetings with Scottish Rail Holdings and ScotRail Trains Ltd to consider and address.

PACE support is usually delivered face to face, often in an employer’s premises, in addition to support which is available through the PACE Helpline and through online resources. PACE webinars and pre-recorded content were a newly introduced service in 2021 to enhance online resources in response to restrictions on face to face support due to the pandemic and to enable PACE support to continue to be provided to individuals affected by redundancy. Clients who had engaged with these new services reported very high levels of satisfaction. However as reported in the PACE Client Experience Survey 2022, https://www.gov.scot/collections/partnership-action-for-continuing-employment-pace/ , approximately half of clients surveyed would prefer face-to-face service delivery (45% to 64% for each service).

Webinars are promoted in PACE materials and are available to book through My World of Work at https://careers.myworldofwork.co.uk/career-advice/facing-redundancy/pace-webinars#/ . PACE Advisers promote the webinars and a promotional toolkit has also been produced and issued to key partners including DWP to enable information to be provided to relevant customers. Details of webinars are regularly promoted through SDS social media channels and feature as events during specific weeks, for example during Challenge Poverty Week (3-9 October) and during Scottish Careers Week (7-11 November). We will continue to promote the webinar programme widely as an additional PACE service for those clients who prefer to access support digitally.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11654 on 9 November 2022. 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 last time Scottish Ministers met with representatives of Stop Climate Chaos Scotland was on the 28 April 2022 when they attended a civil society roundtable on climate, which I chaired, during the Resource Spending Review.

Unfortunately, the Scottish Government is unable to produce these specific statistics as the Greenhouse Gas Inventory that we use does not allow us to extract data separately for textiles. However, a one-off project published in November 2020 ( available here ) shows estimates for textiles manufacturing. We have also included the estimates for wearing apparel from 2014-2018. Please see the following table.

These statistics are on a ‘residence basis’ which differs slightly from the territorial basis we usually use. Nonetheless, we expect the difference between residential and territorial emissions for textiles to be minor.