Chamber and committees

Scottish Government funds a Scottish Dental Access Initiative Grant for Health Boards to provide capital funding to dental practices looking to set up or increase their facilities in areas where NHS dental provision is less available. Qualifying areas include remote, rural and island locations, with the number of areas increased at the last annual review in December 2021.

The Recruitment and Retention Allowance has recently been reviewed to ensure that Boards with more rural geographies have the opportunity to attract newly qualified dentists. The new arrangements mean that newly qualified dentists joining the list of a Classification 1 area can receive additional payments of up to £25,000 over two years, with vocational trainees attracting payments of £12,500 over one year. The full details can be found at UPDATE: Amendment No. 155 to the SDR – Recruitment and Retention Allowance | Scottish Dental .

No assessment has been undertaken by the Scottish Government or VisitScotland.

VisitScotland does not create driving routes but rather, promotes successful ones on its website. Its website outlines that the route begins over the Border. VisitScotland is not however responsible for signage for such routes which is managed by the relevant authority. In the case of local roads, this falls to local authorities.

VisitScotland does not hold information on visitor numbers to businesses based outside of Scotland. VisitEngland may however hold this data.

VisitScotland’s summary of statistics in relation to pre-pandemic visitors to Dumfries & Galloway can be found here: Dumfries & Galloway - Tourism Statistics & Research | VisitScotland.org

All Covid-19 or presumed Covid-19 deaths where the deceased may have contracted the virus in the course of their employment or occupation or where the deceased was resident in a care home when the virus was contracted fall to be reported to COPFS. A specialist Covid-19 deaths investigation unit has been set up and continues to receive and consider all such reports and direct further investigations, where appropriate, into the circumstances of each death.

It would not be appropriate, at this stage, to comment on the potential outcome of its investigations or the course which those investigations will take. This includes any individual or collective actions or otherwise of those involved in Covid-19 deaths. However, in appropriate cases where criminal proceedings are in contemplation, all relevant charges will be considered.

Education Authorities have duties under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) Act 2004 (as amended) to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils. Under the Act, a formal diagnosis is not required for a child or young person to receive support.

However, we recognise that early identification of an additional support need, such as dyscalculia, dyspraxia or dyslexia, can ensure that children and young people get the support that they need to reach their full potential. Our national approach recommends that the Scottish working definitions of dyslexia and dyscalculia are used by practitioners, schools and local authorities during a collaborative and holistic assessment process. This process should take place over a period of time and should include consultation with teachers, school staff, parents, pupils and other relevant agencies when there are concerns about a pupil’s progress.

We provide a range of free professional learning opportunities for teachers aimed at supporting practitioners to further develop their knowledge, understanding and skills in supporting learners with dyslexia, and reduce barriers to learning. This includes the Addressing Dyslexia Toolkit and identification pathway, launched in 2017, and the Dyslexia and Inclusive Practice online professional learning modules, which enable staff to gain professional recognition in this area.

Public Health Scotland – the National public health body for Scotland is responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of blood borne virus’. This includes collecting data on treatment numbers which, pre-pandemic, was published regularly. Data collection for BBV and HCV has been significantly impacted due to the Covid 19 pandemic, however updated figures will be published later this year within the UK Hepatitis C report.

Information relating to the number of homes receiving measures from Home Energy Efficiency Programme Scotland (HEEPS) schemes for the last five years has been lodged with the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 63123).

Properties benefitting from an energy efficiency measure delivered as part of our Warmer Homes Scotland or Area Based Schemes will have received a survey. Properties benefitting from measures funded with the support of a Scottish Government loan or cashback will have been recommended for the measure in an Energy Performance Certificate.

The information requested about numbers of surveys completed in support of our Warmer Homes Scotland services has been published as:

Households Warmer Homes Scotland surveyed and delivered energy efficiency measures to: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

For our other Home Energy Efficiency Programme Scotland schemes, we do not collect or collate separate information about the number of properties that may have benefitted from a survey.

We do not collect or collate information for all schemes about the value of the support provided by local authority area. Information about allocations and spending as part of the Area Based Schemes delivered by local authority is published online and can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/home-energy-efficiency-programmes-for-scotland-annual-final-measures-reports/

That information is not held centrally. This data can be obtained from SEPA.

We are committed to ensuring Scotland takes more responsibility for its own waste, maximising its value and reducing the environmental and carbon impact. A large majority of Scotland’s waste is already managed within Scotland, but around 14% is currently processed elsewhere.

International waste export legislation is a reserved matter, and we are calling for further action from the UK Government to deliver existing commitments and bring forward measures to influence global markets and reduce imported and exported emissions. This includes making progress on the Committee on Climate Change’s recommendation to “phase out” exports of waste by 2030, which would support Scotland’s transition to a fully circular economy.

The current business case plans to deliver around 800 joint replacements, 1,200 day cases and 700 local anaesthetic orthopaedic cases.

The Scottish Milk and Healthy Snack Scheme expands and improves on the UK Nursery Milk Scheme, which it replaced in August 2021, promoting better health outcomes for children through a nutritious and varied diet. All pre-school child care settings who are registered with the Care Inspectorate are eligible to apply to the Scheme if a child in that setting attends for 2 hours or more each day. When a settings registers to the scheme each child will be provided with a serving of milk or non-dairy alternative and a portion of fruit or vegetable every day they attend the pre-school setting.

• The budget for the Scottish Milk and Healthy Snack Scheme in 2022-23 is £12.5 million compared to £9.5 million in 2021-22.

Through the Scottish Government-funded Living Wage Employer Accreditation scheme over 85 percent of workers receive at least the real Living Wage in Scotland. We are taking a range of action to further increase this number, including:

• Funding for Poverty Alliance to deliver Living Wage and Living Hours Accreditation and Making Living Wage Place recognition.
• ?Building on over £2.4bn worth of public sector funding between April 2019 and March 2021, including £619.8 million worth of contracts, through Fair Work First we are applying real Living Wage criteria to encourage employers to pay workers fairly.
• From October 2021, we are mandating payment of the real Living Wage in Scottish Government contracts wherever relevant and proportionate.
• Through the Bute House Agreement, by summer 2022, we will make it a requirement for public sector grant recipients to pay at least the real Living Wage to all employees, within the limits on devolved competence.
• Our funding agreement with COSLA to deliver Early Learning and Childcare expansion allows local authorities to pay sustainable rates that enables private and third sector services to pay at least the real Living Wage to staff delivering funded provision.
• We have led the way in increasing the minimum hourly rates of pay for the adult social care workforce among the four UK nations. In April 2022, the minimum hourly rate for those providing direct adult social care increased to £10.50 per hour - up from £10.02 which was introduced in December.
• Our Retail Strategy commits to delivering a Fair Work Agreement that retailers can sign up to and demonstrate their commitment to improve fair work, helping to reduce in-work poverty.