Chamber and committees

There have been no discussions between Scottish Government and NHS Highland regarding the sale of Lochbroom House, Ullapool. The statutory duty for care homes resides with the Local Authority.

There have been no discussions between Scottish Government and NHS Highland regarding the sale of Lochbroom House, Ullapool. The statutory duty for the delivery of care homes resides with the Local Authority.

A wide range of resources are available for schools to promote learning and teaching about, and remembrance of, the Holocaust. These resources focus on the Holocaust but also promote awareness of Jewish people, culture and their contribution to society and address the issue of antisemitism in the world today. Professional learning to support teachers to embed Holocaust education across secondary schools in Scotland is also available, including a subsidised standalone Masters module on Citizenship and Holocaust Education.

While some of these resources are funded by the Scottish Government, it does not monitor or record how many schools utilise education resources on the Holocaust overall. The Curriculum for Excellence enables teachers to tailor the content of lessons to best suit learners in their particular circumstances. Within the broad general education there is the opportunity to teach the Holocaust, not only within social studies, but across the wider curriculum. There is also an opportunity to teach the Holocaust within the History qualifications in the senior phase.

The scope for the Project Neptune report published on 8 September 2022, which examined the governance arrangements of the existing tripartite arrangements, specifically excluded Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Limited. Further consultation regarding the future options will be commencing shortly and we will carefully consider the responses.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to restructure and integrate Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Limited under the tripartite agreement between Transport Scotland, Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited and CalMac Ferries Limited.

The Scottish Government have made no assessment of the level of care to be provided by Lochbroom House. The statutory duty for the delivery and level of care homes resides with the Local Authority .

We are aware of the emerging issues around single-use vaping products. We will be discussing this with our local authority partners, who have responsibility for providing advice on responsible disposal of waste in their area.

The Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM) sets out the Scottish’s Government’s approach to appraising investment decisions. The SPFM is available by way of the following link Scottish Public Finance Manual (www.gov.scot) .

The Green Book is a well-established guide for government project and programme appraisal. It sets out a thorough appraisal process and Scottish Government encourages all policy areas to follow Green Book guidance where proportionate and applicable. The Green Book can be found by way of the following link The Green Book (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Neither the Scottish Government nor Forestry and Land Scotland had cause to terminate any contracts and consequently no such payments were made to individuals, contractors or companies.

The establishment of a National Care Service (NCS) is the most ambitious reform of public services since the creation of the National Health Service (NHS). It is necessary to deliver the consistency and quality of care and support across Scotland that people deserve, and reinforce our commitment to Scotland’s people to take long term action to change our society and make it a fairer place to live.

The Financial Memorandum set out the range of possible costs for the NCS. Estimates are being constantly monitored and reviewed as new information becomes available.

We recognise that there is an urgent need to make improvements to social care now, and we are not waiting for the NCS to start that process.

We are taking the action we can now to address challenges in social care. We have committed to increase spend in social care by 25% by the end of parliament, helping to lay the groundwork for the NCS.

Our 2022-23 budget confirmed more than £1.6bn for social care and integration to lay the groundwork for the NCS. Any spending decisions made on the NCS service will be backed by rigorous, evidence based decisions.

In April this year the minimum hourly rate for those providing direct adult social care increased to £10.50 an hour.

The Scottish Government transferred £200 million to Local Government to support investment in social care, including to deliver this uplift.

This represents an increase of 4.8% from the £10.02 pay rate that was introduced in December 2021. This is also an increase of 10.5% for these workers in the course of a year – with pay rising from at least £9.50 per hour in April 2021 to at least £10.50 per hour in April 2022.

The Scottish Government introduced Scottish Building Regulations in 2019 requiring the provision of Changing Places Toilets in larger new buildings to which the public have access. These provisions are detailed in the Building standards technical handbook 2020 . At the same time, we also amended our Planning System to include these amended building regulations and further detail can be found within the Planning Circular 1/2020: Changing Places Toilets Regulations.We are not planning any further legislative changes in this area at this stage. Our work to amend building standards in 2019 was robust and sought to strike a sensible balance between encouraging further CPT provision across Scotland whilst recognising the resource needed to build these facilities may be prohibitive for smaller buildings.

We have recently published our Changing Places Toilets: Planning Guide and an accompanying easy read . This guide, written in collaboration with PAMIS (Promoting A More Inclusive Society), details practical considerations when considering installing a Changing Places Toilet in both existing and new buildings. This helpful toolkit will improve Changing Places Toilet provision in the immediate term and ensure that new toilets built following our changes to legislation are appropriate and well considered