Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government expects all public sector bodies to undertake appropriate due diligence on companies in receipt of public money. Ultimately, it is for councils to make decisions on how best to deliver services to their communities.

The Programme for Government published in September 2021 covered this Parliamentary session running up to March 2026. Within it, there is a commitment as follows:

'The Scottish Government’s law officers, amongst other roles, act as the head of the independent prosecution service and as members of the Scottish Government. We will consult on whether the prosecution and government functions of the law officers should be separated.'

Work is continuing to progress towards a Scottish Government consultation. Development of the consultation will be informed by an initial phase of expert research, which is currently underway. This research will ensure a detailed baseline understanding of the many distinct roles and functions of the Law Officers and will provide information on how the functions of Law Officers operate in other countries.

With reference to S6W-12070 on 16 November 2022, we continue to work with IJBs to understand their financial forecasts. Therefore, no COVID-19 reserves have been recouped to date.

Further detail will be communicated later in the financial year at an IJB level and the process and timetable will follow through further communications.

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 Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body currently maintains the following types of insurance that extend to MSPs: 

• Employers’ liability
• Public / Products Liability
• Travel and personal injury
  

There is currently no provision for Members in respect of professional indemnity insurance and there are no current proposals to expand the existing suite of insurance provision. If any such proposals were to be made, consideration would need to be given to the guidance on insurance set out in the Scottish Public Finance Manual and budget implications generally. In place of insurance, the SPCB approved the Legal Advice Scheme. This Scheme allows the SPCB’s Legal Services function to provide advice to Members subject to certain conditions and exclusions, either directly or through supporting the provision of advice by People Services or Standards Clerks. This covers legal disputes, claims or actions raised against Members when acting in their parliamentary or constituency role; advice in relation to employment of Members’ staff; and advice in relation to Code of Conduct issues.

The cost of repairing the funicular has been met by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and the Scottish Government following approval of the business case by HIE’s Board and Scottish Ministers. Funding was ringfenced for this purpose and did not impact the funding available to other outdoor ski centres. Following the identification of the cost increases, additional funding has been provided by the Scottish Government to HIE in the current financial year. This has been funded by emerging underspends elsewhere across the capital budget and does not therefore impact on the funding available to other outdoor ski centres.

The Justice portfolio has spent a total of £301,853.07 on external management consultants in 2012 and 2016-2019. This data relates to direct spend by the Scottish Government and does not include expenditure on consultancy services by public bodies. There was no spend on management consultancy services in the years 2020-2022. A breakdown of these costs is provided in the following table:

According to Scottish Government records, there are a total of 361 properties in the Uig community council area. As of 5 December 2022:

Road safety is of paramount importance to the Scottish Government and the average speed camera system deployed on the A9 between Dunblane and Inverness plays an important role in encouraging good driver behaviour and compliance with the speed limit.

There are no plans to remove the safety cameras between Keir and Broxden roundabouts.

The number of resident places by funding category (i.e. publicly funded) is not available. However, Public Health Scotland have published the estimated number of long stay residents in care homes for older people by funding category and by local authority since 2009.

These figures are available in two parts:

The latest Public Health Scotland Care Home Census for adults publication contains figures from 2012 - 2022. The figures can be found in the “Funding and Charges” section of the dashboard.

The Public Health Scotland Care Home Census for adults 2020 publication contains figures from 2009 – 2011. The figures can be found in Table 13C of the accompanying Care Home Census Data Tables.

a) This information is not held centrally and is not published by Public Health Scotland.

b) This information is not held centrally and is not published by Public Health Scotland.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has confirmed that the timetable for repairs to the funicular had to be extended due to unforeseeable delays caused by the weather and Covid. In addition, technical challenges resulted in additional works needing to be carried out. Significant cost inflation in the construction sector and the weakness of sterling in international exchange rates also contributed to the cost increase.

I have asked Stuart Black, HIE’s Chief Executive, to write to you direct with a full explanation of the cost increase.