Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government welcomes the announcement from the UK Government on the ambition to develop an Action Plan on ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), and fully supports its two core principles. We plan to work with the UK Government to explore areas of potential shared interest and learning, particularly in terms of research into ME/CFS.

We also welcome the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline for ME/CFS and are considering how best to review the existing Scottish guidance in light of this. On 12 May 2022, NICE published an implementation statement to support the implementation of the ME/CFS guideline. We intend to contact health boards in Scotland to raise awareness of the implementation statement and the key recommended changes to practice within the guideline.

We recently commissioned an external organisation to consult with the third sector, those with lived experience and clinical stakeholders to consider how we move forward in reviewing the existing Scottish guidance and on addressing priorities for service improvement in ME/CFS care. We will continue to work closely with stakeholders on how we progress the findings of this consultation and consider what other activity is required to support implementation of the NICE guideline recommendations.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08705 on 7 June 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 .

The Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels publication provides information on the number of publicly funded school children in Primary 1, Primary 4, Primary 7 and Secondary 3 who have achieved the expected Curriculum for Excellence level in the literacy organisers (reading, writing and listening and talking) and numeracy.

Schools were closed in Scotland between March 2020 and the end of the academic year as a result of the pandemic meaning that they were closed on the date of 8 June 2020. It was concluded that it would not be possible to collect consistent data that was fit for purpose and that any attempt to do so would add considerably to other pressures on school and education authority staff. The decision was therefore taken to suspend the data collection in 2019-20.

The latest publication collected data for 2020-21 for Primary school (P1, P4 and P7) pupils only. Secondary school and special school data was not collected due to other pressures on these schools including implementation of the SQA National Qualifications Alternative Certification Model which was used to award National 5s, Highers and Advanced Highers in 2021.

The current intention is to collect all data– for Primary, Secondary and Special school pupils – in 2021-22, although this will be kept under review.

The latest information on Reading can be found at the following table and the link provided:

Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels 2020-21 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The recently published report on the Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy recommends that Scottish Government and local authorities should work with industry to develop a strategic approach to planning and deploying waste collection, reprocessing and management facilities. We are carefully considering all recommendations made in the report and will set out our initial response in June.

In the meantime, we have launched our consultation on Delivering Scotland's circular economy– a Route Map to 2025 and beyond. The Route Map takes a whole systems approach to set out interventions to reduce waste and meet our recycling and waste targets in a way that maximises carbon saving potential. The consultation paper is available here: Delivering Scotland’s circular economy: A Route Map to 2025 and beyond - Scottish Government - Citizen Space (consult.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government recognises and supports the generous offers from the people of Scotland to privately sponsor Ukrainians through the UK Government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme, as well as the work of the many charities and groups across the country who are facilitating matches between displaced Ukrainians seeking accommodation and volunteer hosts.

On Tuesday 24 and Tuesday 31 May we delivered public webinar sessions on host guidance in collaboration with the Scottish Refugee Council. A final session will take place on Thursday 9 June. These sessions allow us to address questions on our recently published guidance for hosts on our website, which includes a range of information on safeguarding, property checks, matching, funding and the roles of hosts and their guests.

The Super Sponsor scheme is designed to provide a quick and safe route for displaced people from Ukraine to come to a place of sanctuary by removing the need for applicants to be matched to an individual sponsor prior to being given permission to travel to the UK.

Once people have arrived, a national matching service, delivered by COSLA, will match those settling here with longer-term accommodation across Scotland.

Displaced people from Ukraine are asked to complete a short questionnaire that captures key information and preferences. This information is then used to find suitable longer-term accommodation, which will be offered as a choice.

All 32 of our local authorities are taking part in this programme, and hosts have offered up their homes right across the country. The national matching service will ensure that people are offered settlement opportunities across Scotland, recognising that people will have different preferences and available housing is limited in some local authorities.

Crown Estate Scotland (CES) is responsible for the ScotWind seabed leasing process and the management and collation of the information used to support its decision to review and, ultimately, change the option fee prices for seabed leasing. The Scottish Government has already released the advisory note procured from Strathclyde University ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202200277291/ ) and did not provide any further information to CES.

CES also procured additional advice that the Scottish Government do hold but these have not been released due to the ongoing nature of ScotWind clearing process and applications.

The final formal meeting of the short life working group was held on 19 April 2022. The insights from the group and it’s reference group are being taken into account in the drafting of the fundamental principles, with further targeted stakeholder engagement planned prior to their finalisation, including further discussion with the short life working group planned for later this month. The principles will be published later this year.

We want disabled people in Scotland to have choice, dignity and freedom to access suitable homes, built or adapted to enable them to participate as full and equal citizens.

Our Housing to 2040 strategy sets out a vision for housing in Scotland to 2040. This includes housing for disabled people.

We are working to increase the supply of accessible and adapted homes. Whenever possible, all new affordable homes are designed to be flexible so that they meet people’s needs as they change over time. We are also delivering a programme to retrofit homes in the social rented sector to make them more accessible.

We know that there are issues with the way in which adaptations are being accessed and delivered locally, so we are considering how the process can be streamlined and made easier for people who need adaptations.

In our consultation on a draft rented sector strategy ‘A New Deal for Tenants’ we sought views on how we can further protect and strengthen the rights for people living in the rented sector in Scotland and improve accessibility, affordability choices and standards across the whole rented sector in Scotland. We worked with Disability Equality Scotland (DES) to help increase accessibility to the consultation. The results of the consultation are currently being analysed and will inform future policy development.

We are also reviewing the Housing for Varying Needs design guide to help provide homes that are easy for all to access and navigate, and to improve their flexibility to adapt to meet changing health needs. We have engaged with Disability Equality Scotland regarding the upcoming consultation on the Housing for Varying Needs review and plan to work with them to gather feedback on the proposed updates.

There are a range of factors which must be considered as part of our developing model for Scotland to effectively tackle and challenge men’s demand for prostitution, including online aspects, such as “online pimping”.

The regulation of internet and online service providers is a reserved matter and we are continuing to liaise closely with the UK Government and Ofcom on the UK Online Safety Bill.

Procuring for the purposes of prostitution is still an offence if committed online and Police Scotland will actively investigate all reports of sexual exploitation, including online sexual exploitation.