Chamber and committees

Licensing authorities must determine their own fees and fee structures to recover establishment and running costs specific to their area. Licensing authorities must review their fees from time to time to ensure that revenue from fees remains in line with the running costs of the licensing scheme.

Schemes proposed in the flood risk management strategies (now referred to as plans) published by SEPA in December 2015 were prioritised according to their cost benefit ratio and taking into account a series of additional criteria, encompassing the environmental and social impacts of flooding.

This list was agreed by the National Prioritisation Advisory Group which was chaired by the Scottish Government. A list of the prioritised (Cycle 1) schemes can be found on the SEPA website.

Discussions are taking place with SEPA and the local authorities on the prioritisation arrangements for the Cycle 2 schemes that will cover the period 2022 to 2028.

42 Flood Protection Schemes (sepa.org.uk) .

We published our NHS Recovery Plan last August and continue to work with Public Health Scotland on updating guidance for Primary Care settings, covering key issues such as the removal of mandatory physical distancing requirements, access for patients and infection prevention and control.

We increased the Primary Care Improvement Fund to recruit multi-disciplinary teams from £110m in 2020-21 to £155 million in 2021-22, and this will increase again to £170m in 2022-23.

In line with JCVI advice, adults aged 75 years and over, and residents in a care home for older adults, as well as individuals aged 12 years and over who are immunosuppressed, will be offered an additional booster dose in spring 2022, at least 24 weeks after their last dose.

As per clinical guidance in the Green Book, health boards have the flexibility to offer spring boosters sooner than this (at least 12 weeks since last dose) where appropriate, to help provide additional protection during the spring and summer months. Those eligible will receive a scheduled appointment letter and should wait to be contacted.

Home Energy Scotland (HES), administered by Energy Saving Trust on behalf of the Scottish Government, provides free, bespoke, impartial advice and support on energy efficiency, renewable heating and fuel poverty support in Scotland.

This year, we have committed to expanding the Home Energy Scotland advice service by 20%. This will allow the service to support an extra 12,000 households a year in making their homes warmer and easier to heat.

HES also acts as the gateway to the Scottish Government’s domestic loans and grants programmes for energy efficiency improvements to homes in Scotland and a referral service to Scotland’s flagship fuel poverty scheme, Warmer Homes Scotland. We are increasing the budget for the Warmer Homes Scotland scheme to £55m for 2022-2023, up from £50m in 2021-2022.

The Scottish Government’s full response to the recommendations made by the Zero Emissions Social Housing Taskforce will be published after the local government elections.

Licensing authorities will recover the costs of establishing and running the licensing scheme in their area through licence fees.

SEPA’s flood risk management plans for Scotland were approved by Scottish Ministers in December 2021, and published on SEPA’s website. The plans, produced in partnership with responsible authorities, identified flood management actions for over 440 priority communities.

This work is split into six-year cycles and covers a range of actions including furthering the understanding of climate change impacts, increasing community resilience, and developing and implementing flood protection schemes. Coordination of the proposed actions will be developed in the local flood risk management plans, currently being prepared by the 14 lead local authorities, which are due for publication in December 2022.

A flooding working group is currently considering its recommendations to the joint Scottish Government / COSLA (officers) Settlement Distribution Group (SDG). These will be considered by the SDG in late-summer of 2022, and will inform subsequent discussions between Ministers and Council Leaders on the arrangements required for the effective delivery of flood risk management for the period to 2028.

Flood Risk Management Plans | SEPA .

Since May 2020, the Scottish Government has invested over £48 million in our Connecting Scotland programme, which provides people on low incomes with a device, connection with unlimited data for two years, as well as training and support. Since programme launch 60,000 digitally excluded people in total have been brought online. We are now working on an extension to the programme to reach 300,000 people by the end of this Parliament.

The programme is part of our wider package of support to help everyone in Scotland benefit fully from the advantages of the digital world – from broadband connectivity to digital skills training and support for schools and business.

This is a matter for Local Authorities. The information requested is not held centrally.

The National Services Division (NSD) of NHS National Services Scotland commission a number of highly specialised services in Scotland for patients who require investigation, treatment and ongoing follow up care for rare and complex conditions such as Cystic Fibrosis. Each designated service is subject to strict governance and performance reviews to ensure they maintain the highest possible standards of person-centred care across Scotland.

More information about specialist services is available on the NSD website: About specialist services | National Services Scotland (nhs.scot)

Where a formal review has been undertaken, a report of the review findings and recommendations is presented to both the National Patient, Professional and Public Reference Group (NPPPRG) and National Specialist Services Committee (NSSC) for scrutiny.

We have set out the wider policy within which NHS Scotland is expected to deliver services, and expect all NHS Boards to provide high quality care that is safe, effective and person-centred. Where there are specific issues that prevent them from doing so, robust processes are in place for NSD to provide support as required.