Chamber and committees

At the present time 25 of these diesel trains operate between Scotland’s key cities and their replacement is planned with electric or bi-mode intercity trains at the earliest possible time, which is expected to be when Network Rail has completed the electrification of all or most of the routes they serve.

The current Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service contract is due to expire in September 2024. Development and planning work is currently underway by officials to consider potential options for future contracts and to create an engagement plan for key stakeholders and local communities.

This work would usually be at a more refined stage but has been impacted largely due to staff resources being redeployed over the past two years to manage the challenges presented by the Covid -19 pandemic. We will be announcing further detail in due course.

The Scottish Government continues to invest in the registered nurse role across community, social care and primary care settings. We have introduced in partnership with NHS Education for Scotland a funded scheme to enable former nurses and midwives to complete a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) approved Return to Practice (RtP) programme and to re-enter the professional register across all fields of practice.

We have also invested over £45m since 2021 to train and introduce into the workforce an additional 375 nurses within the district nursing service. This investment supports the shift in balance of care into community settings by delivering more care in homes and reducing rates of admission to the acute hospital service.

The Scottish Government launched a national marketing campaign in November 2021 to attract more people with the right skills and values to the social care sector including nurses for social care settings. This campaign concluded in February 2022. In addition, the Scottish Government is working with the Department for Work and Pensions to host a series of sector-specific job fairs across Scotland during April and May to support recruitment efforts to all role types, including nurses, within the sector.

We have been working with NHS Boards to increase the use of international recruitment to alleviate pressures and fill key roles by supporting a number of measures. We have already provided £1m across NHS Scotland to build capacity within recruitment teams and a further £1m to fund International Recruitment Lead Posts. We are also recruiting at least 200 registered nurses from overseas with funding of £4.5m available to Health Boards to take forward this recruitment.

On 11 March 2022, we published the National Health and Social Care Workforce Strategy.

As part of the Strategy, we have committed to taking forward specific actions to improve how we gather, use and assess NHS Workforce data. This includes taking steps to improve the demographic data we collect and the analysis we undertake of data obtained at different geographic levels within our health and social care system.

The Strategy further commits us to taking forward complementary actions to improve workforce planning capacity and capability within our health boards and health and social care partnerships (HSCPs).

New guidance has already been communicated to health boards and HSCPs to support the production of demand-led 3-year workforce plans, supported by local systems’ workforce data. Later this year we will also publish new staffing projections for health and social care.

Complementary data systems and data improvement work is taking place, as part of the Implementation Programme being established to support delivery of the Workforce Strategy. We have undertaken to publish annual updates outlining progress with the Strategy’s implementation, in support of our tri-partite ambition to achieve long-term workforce sustainability through recovery, growth and service transformation.

Between December 2019 to March 2022 Transport Scotland undertook regular meetings with trade unions, staff representatives and passenger/transport groups at which the subject of ScotRail services moving to a Scottish Government owned operator i.e. ScotRail Trains Limited from 1 April 2022 would have been discussed.

The former Minister for Transport, Mr Dey, met with the collective Rail Trade Unions twice and individually with them once, with the exception of RMT who declined to meet at the time. There was a third collective meeting schedule to take place on the day Mr Dey resigned.

I have had one collective Rail Trade Unions meeting and have held five individual meetings with Trade Union representatives. Public ownership was discussed at all these meetings along with other issues such as pay negotiations and industrial relations for example.

The former Minister for Transport also met with Transport Focus and I met with Transport Focus on 21 April where I provided an update on the transition from Abellio ScotRail to ScotRail Trains Ltd.

The Bill includes a provision proposing to restrict the permitted days of supply of fireworks to the general public, as well as restrictions the permitted days the general public can use fireworks, to broadly align with what are already considered traditional firework periods when fireworks are used to celebrate certain religious festivals or cultural events. A strong message to come from both the 2019 and 2021 public consultations was that the unpredictable and sporadic use of fireworks was increasingly seen as problematic and disruptive to many people and animals.

The Bill proposes that permitted days of supply to the general public over the bonfire period is restricted from 27 October to 10 November. The proposed period is already a significant reduction from the current selling period at this time of year, which is from 15 October to 10 November. Following careful consideration and taking into account the feedback received on Bill proposals through the 2021 public consultation and engagement with stakeholders, the Scottish Government believes that the proposed period of supply is a proportionate balance between enabling the use of fireworks over traditional firework periods while allowing those impacted by fireworks to be aware of when they are likely to be used and put appropriate safeguards in place to minimise that impact.

While there are no current plans to reduce the days of supply further the effectiveness of the measures introduced will be monitored following implementation, and the Bill includes a regulation making power that can be utilised to amend the permitted days should evidence show that this is required.

Fireworks can currently be used by the general public on any day of the year, subject to existing rules about the time of day that they can be used. The Bill includes a provision proposing to restrict the permitted days of use of fireworks by the general public, as well as restrictions on the permitted days of supply to the general public, to broadly align with what are already considered traditional firework periods, when fireworks are used to celebrate certain religious festivals or cultural events. A strong message to come from both the 2019 and 2021 public consultations was that the unpredictable and sporadic use of fireworks was increasingly seen as problematic and disruptive to many people and animals.

The Bill proposes that the permitted days of use of fireworks by the general public over the bonfire period is restricted from 27 October to 12 November. This broadly aligns with the proposed permitted days of supply of fireworks to the general public, however it is considered appropriate to include an extra two days where fireworks can be used to mitigate for circumstances such as poor weather conditions. Following careful consideration and taking into account the feedback received on Bill proposals through the 2021 public consultation and engagement with stakeholders, the Scottish Government believes that the proposed period of use is a proportionate balance between enabling the use of fireworks over traditional firework periods while allowing those impacted by fireworks to be aware of when they are likely to be used and put appropriate safeguards in place to minimise that impact.

While there are no current plans to reduce the days of use further the effectiveness of the measures introduced will be monitored following implementation, and the Bill includes a regulation making power that can be utilised to amend the permitted days should evidence show that this is required.

The Welcome desk at Glasgow airport is staffed to coincide with individuals from Ukraine arriving who may require assistance and my officials continue to work in partnership with the local authority to provide support and services for all arrivals. The welcome desks are staffed during daytime hours, outwith these hours, they can phone the Scottish Refugee Council helpline number who can give advice based on the appropriate visa route.

The Scottish Government does not hold this level of information, however, I can assure you that the Glasgow airport welcome desk is staffed to coincide with individuals from Ukraine arriving who may require assistance. Outwith daytime hours, signage providing telephone numbers is set up at both the domestic and international arrivals area. A welcome hub has also been established at Glasgow Airport, where displaced people will be fully supported, including an immediate needs assessment. The Welcome Hubs are multi-agency and local authority led. In addition to this, our national contact centre reaches out to people we know have received their visa before they travel to Scotland. Through this we are able to offer travel advice and obtain planned arrival information, including where and when someone is planning to arrive in Scotland.

The Scottish Government does not hold information containing a detailed breakdown of stroke rehabilitation services provided in individual health boards.