Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has taken the decision to locate the Registrar of Independent Schools within the new national agency for Scottish Education.

We have considered a range of options, including Professor Muir’s recommendation to locate the Registrar within the Scottish Government, and have undertaken further consultation with a range of stakeholders.

On balance, it is clear that there are significant benefits to locating the Registrar within the new national agency. For example, the Registrar’s location in the Scottish educational landscape is now well understood by those involved with independent schools, and this has worked extremely well in terms of knowledge and resource sharing, developing relationships and building trust. This includes the sharing of expertise and enhanced knowledge of the sector for all involved.

This decision will also ensure that the functional and organisational separation between the Registrar and the Scottish Government will continue to inspire trust and confidence within the sector as a whole.

A full breakdown of the implications of the Emergency Budget Review (EBR) measures on the Scottish Budget was included within the guide to the Autumn Budget Revision (ABR) provided to the Finance and Public Administration Committee.

Of the initial £560 million line items included within the Deputy First Minister’s letter to the Committee in September, £369 million is included within the ABR as either a return of budget or a funding change. The balancing figure of £191 million are reductions to previously unfunded pressures which have emerged since the Scottish Budget was published and savings which will come through the SBR exercise.

The new commitments detailed in the EBR document published earlier this month are also reflected in the ABR position. The additional savings outlined will be processed, where necessary as part of the Spring Budget Revision.

Should the Scottish Government become aware that a Health Board was reportedly not ensuring in-person patient access to GPs, where clinically appropriate, was maintained, my officials would engage with the Health Board in question and establish the situation. I recently wrote to all GP practices setting out my expectations on patient access and announcing the General Practice Access Group to establish key principles for access to general practice

Health Boards have a statutory duty to deliver primary medical services.

The impact of the reallocations in the Emergency Budget Review, including public sector pay, will have a significant bearing on the 2023-24 Scottish Budget. Further details of the effect of these considerations on proposed portfolio allocations will be published within the Scottish Budget document in December.

The requested information on how many whole time equivalent radiographers who were fully qualified to undertake MRI scans working in the NHS in the financial year (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20, (c) 2020-21, (d) 2021-22 and 2022-23 to date, broken down by NHS board is not centrally available.

Information on how many whole time equivalent Radiographers (Diagnosis and Therapy) working in the NHS since 2012, broken down by NHS Board can be found in the following link: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

The Alexander Thomson Hotel is used by Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership (GHSCP) to provide temporary accommodation to people experiencing homelessness, in line with their statutory duties. We are aware that this has at times included asylum seeking families with children, who have not accessed Home Office asylum accommodation, and that concerns have been raised about the suitability of bed and breakfast accommodation for families and the length of time families were accommodated at the hotel.

GHSCP has responded to these concerns and has now secured temporary furnished accommodation for families who had been accommodated in the hotel for an unsuitable period of time. They have also undertaken a review of practice in relation to access to accommodation in circumstances where asylum seeking families with children present to homeless services. The Home Office has a duty to provide accommodation to people who would otherwise be destitute while awaiting a decision on their application, and this duty takes precedence over local authority provision of temporary accommodation.

Asylum is reserved to the UK Parliament and handled by the Home Office. This includes the provision of asylum accommodation. As far as the Scottish Government is aware, the Home Office has not used the Alexander Thomson Hotel to provide asylum accommodation. The Scottish Government has not, therefore, engaged with the Home Office regarding the standard of accommodation at this hotel for people seeking asylum, but has raised significant concerns with the Home Office about its use of hotels to accommodate people seeking asylum and will continue to do so.

GHSCP has committed to ending the use of bed and breakfast accommodation in the city overall through the implementation of their Temporary Accommodation Strategy. However, while they continue to use this type of accommodation in emergency situations, they will prioritise dispersed temporary furnished accommodation for families with children and will minimise the time families spend in unsuitable accommodation.

The Scottish Government has also taken action to ensure temporary accommodation in Scotland is high quality, is only used for short periods and meets all the household’s needs. In May 2020 we extended the Unsuitable Accommodation Order to all homeless households so that no homeless household should be placed in unsuitable accommodation, such as hotels or bed and breakfast accommodation, for more than seven days. In October 2021 we established the Temporary Accommodation Standards working group to produce a standards framework for temporary accommodation and to consider how this can be regulated and legally enforced. This will ensure that temporary accommodation used by local authorities to fulfil their duty to accommodate homeless households is safe, warm and of good quality, and that there is a consistency in the standard of temporary accommodation across all local authorities in Scotland.

Decisions to prioritise one population group over another for vaccination are not taken lightly, nor are they straightforward. That is why our prioritisation decisions have been, and will continue to be, guided by the independent expert advice provided by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and senior Clinicians.

NHS Scotland will never ask someone to pay for the flu or COVID-19 vaccines if they are eligible. If they are not eligible for a free flu vaccine then they may be able to get vaccinated for a small fee at their local pharmacy. Please note it is not possible for anyone to pay for the COVID-19 vaccination, and there are currently no plans to implement this as an option.

The Scottish Government is aware of 44 GP practices which are run by partners who are also a partner at one or more other GP practices where the combined total is of more than 12,500 registered patients.

This data is held by Public Health Scotland.

The recent BBC investigation was heavily reliant on data sourced from third party websites and limited anecdotal evidence from a very small proportion of the network as opposed to comprehensive, consistent, verified data directly from the CPS operator. The third party website utilised in their investigation does not present accurate up-to-date information and should be treated with caution when used to form the basis of overarching claims about reliability.

CPS network reliability has consistently improved in the last year, with the entire network now up and running at around 95% of the time each month. Furthermore, the vast majority of faults are being closed swiftly and with minimal impact on driver experience with approximately 90% closed within 24-48 hours.

The CPS website now provides the public with ready access to detailed information on the performance of the public charging network, showing each charge point’s reliability levels, fault history and usage. CPS is also working closely with third party EV charging websites to ensure they have access to more up-to-date information.

The oil and gas sector continues to play an important role in our economy, and a bright future lies ahead for a revitalised North Sea in supporting a net zero energy system. Our highly skilled oil and gas workforce have long been at the forefront of energy innovation and we are committed to a just transition that supports them to capitalise on the employment opportunities of net zero energy. The draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan will outline a co-ordinated vision for Scotland’s future energy system, ensuring a cohesive and joined up framework for action, and will be published for consultation in the coming months.

Our £75m Energy Transition Fund, £100m Green Jobs Fund and £500m Just Transition Fund are supporting the North East and Moray to become a centre of excellence for the transition to a net zero economy, with our investment supporting transformation across the region.