Chamber and committees

1. Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow Ltd (FMPG) have been awarded no new contracts since 16 March 2023.

2. Three bids have been submitted by FMPG since 16 March 2023.

3. FMPG have paid out a total of £23,608.83 in bonuses since 16 March 2023.

The Scottish Government recognises the benefits magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) could provide to eligible patients with essential tremor.

Having access to appropriate treatment is crucial to a patient’s employment prospects. The commissioning of specialist services through NHS National Services Division (NSD) allows all patients regardless of their Health Board to access the specialist care and treatment they need. At present, no new application has been received to designate MRgFUS as a national specialist service to NHS Tayside. NSD will continue to work with the MRgFUS team in NHS Tayside in the meantime.

Alternatively, eligible patients for magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) for essential tremor can be referred to NHS Tayside in conjunction with the University of Dundee. Patients can also be referred to other services through cross border referral routes if appropriate.

The Scottish Government condemns all forms of human trafficking or exploitation.

The Scottish Government has not assessed the potential prevalence of modern slavery in Scotland's waste management sector. Police Scotland monitor trafficking and exploitation trends in Scotland and the wider UK closely in order to tackle serious and organised crime effectively, including the potential for trafficking in the waste management sector.

The Scottish Government has provided grants to the Scottish Waste Industry Training, Competency, Health and Safety (SWITCH) Forum. As part of this grant funding, SWITCH has organised monthly webinars covering a range of issues, including modern slavery in the waste industry. The SWITCH webinars are available here: Webinars – SWITCH (switchforum.org.uk) .

The final stages of preparation for the Pathfinder phase for Bairns’ Hoose are underway. Applications for prospective pathfinders partnerships will open in Summer 2023 with pathfinders commencing in Autumn 2023. Further information on this phase will be included in the Project Plan Progress Report and Pathfinder Development Plan to be published this Spring.

The independent review into UK Government welfare services for veterans is focused on the effectiveness and efficiency of reserved welfare services for Armed Forces veterans that are largely owned or funded by the Ministry of Defence. However, the Scottish Government would assist the review if requested to by the review team.

The Scottish Government welcomes the recent SAWC report on electronic collars and will consider its findings carefully.

We recognise that there may be a case for licensing dog trainers, however more detailed consideration of the issues is needed. SAWC's proposal to consider and report on dog training at some point in the future will helpfully inform our next steps.

Cryptosporidium is a protozoan parasite which is found in the gut of warm blooded animals and enters the water environment from faecal matter.

Scottish Water is required to assess the risk of Cryptosporidium in the water sources it uses for drinking water supplies and to design and operate water treatment processes that will remove the parasite or render it harmless. Scottish Water is also required to monitor drinking water supplies for cryptosporidium. The Drinking Water Quality Regulator provides a commentary on treated water detections in her Annual Report. Page 4 of the 2021 report covers Cryptosporidium annual-report-public-supplies-2021.pdf (dwqr.scot)

Scottish Government officials meet regularly with food banks and other food aid organisations, including the Trussell Trust and Independent Food Aid Network to discuss overall demand for their services and any specific issues arising.

As set out in our Programme for Government, we will soon publish a plan, grounded in human rights, that sets out what we will do to improve the response to financial hardship so as to reduce the need for food banks. We are committed to improving access to emergency payments and wider supports for households facing crisis, and the Trussell Trust and the Independent Food Aid Network agree that cash-first is the best approach.

Officials recently convened a roundtable of stakeholders, including food banks and other charities, to discuss infant food insecurity and support provided to families with infants under 1 facing a crisis. The next steps for this work will be to identify good practice in emergency pathways and ensure that such mechanisms are in place locally across Scotland so that families receive timely and coordinated support in an emergency.

The most recent estimate of the number of veterans of the UK Armed Forces resident in Scotland is 220,000, which was taken from the annual population survey conducted by the Office for National Statistics in 2017. Scotland's Census 2022 included for the first time a question on previous service in the UK Armed Forces. Census data will help to support a better understanding of the veterans community in Scotland, including numbers.