Chamber and committees

16 buildings are now in delivery stage with a further 11 buildings finalising applications. We have expanded the pilot to 27 buildings in order to capture an additional building attached to an original pilot building.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the current average waiting time for a care home place.

Information on the number of delayed hospital discharges by reason for delay (including care home placement) and length of delay is available on the Public Health Scotland website (See Excel download for standard delays, tab 4) :

Delayed discharges in NHSScotland monthly - Figures for September 2022 - Delayed discharges in NHSScotland monthly - Publications - Public Health Scotland

However, this will not include those awaiting a care home placement who are in the community, nor those awaiting a placement for whom their discharge is not delayed.

In the programme to date this has been raised twice with regard to buildings participating in the pilot. As part of the building assessment programme we have had discussions with fire engineers when they have raised concerns regarding carparks in buildings.

We have made 18 payments so far to 15 buildings, with 10 currently under assessment with a partial payment and 5 with full payment and assessment having concluded. All buildings with cladding concerns have and will continue to be offered fully funded assessments.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11301 answered on 21 October 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 .

Scotland’s Redress Scheme is committed to providing a swifter and less adversarial option than court action for survivors of abuse in care. We are aware that, for some applicants, the process is taking longer than they have expected, and officials are working to ensure opportunities for improving the service are identified and acted upon.

Recent improvements include the recruitment of additional case workers. There are currently 17 case workers in post, and by the middle of November 2022 this will rise to 23.

It is not possible to give an average or target time from receipt of an application through to issuing of a redress payment and apology. Applications progress at differing rates depending on how complete they are when submitted, the availability of information, evidence and records, and the extent of verification checks required. Priority is given to applicants with a terminal illness and those over 68 years of age.

The Scottish Government does not hold all data on the current average waiting time for a care home place, therefore no assessment can be made.

The UK PII Scheme started on 26 of September 2022 and covers the whole of the UK.

The New Scots refugee integration strategy is built on partnership and collaboration, led by the Scottish Government, COSLA and the Scottish Refugee Council, and involves a wide range of partners across different sectors.

The New Scots Core Group brings together key stakeholders and is responsible for monitoring and reviewing progress against the overarching outcomes of the strategy. The Core Group is chaired by Professor Alison Phipps, UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts at the University of Glasgow.

The Core Group usually meets four times per year. This year, the group undertook a two-part workshop in January and February, as part of the New Scots Refugee Integration Delivery Project. The Core Group then met in June and in October, with the final meeting of the year set to take place in December.

We will publish the minutes from the October meeting in December, once cleared by Core Group at the next meeting. We will also publish minutes of the Group’s other meetings from 2022.

The Scottish Government provides funding to Local Government annually through the Local Government settlement. This is made up of a combination of the general revenue grant, general capital grant, income from non-domestic rates as well as specific revenue and capital grants.

Included in the table (BIB 63725) is the Local Government budget following the annual Spring Budget Revision ('SBR') as a proportion of both the Scottish Governments total fiscal budget excluding FTs (i.e. its discretionary spending limit) as well as its Total Managed expenditure. Note that the SBR budget figure does not include amounts provided by other portfolios via grant funding to local government.

Given the changes in the Scottish Governments devolved powers since devolution it is not possible to draw a direct comparison between the funding levels since 1999. To illustrate this point we would note that in 2013-14 funding of over £1bn in respect of Police and Fire was removed from Local Government.