Chamber and committees

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The following table provides the total number of drug tests conducted in each financial year, along with the results.

No One Left behind and Fair Start Scotland are integral parts of the employability support landscape in Scotland and aim to support individuals, including veterans and their partners, to overcome barriers through person-centred tailored support, enabling them to access and sustain fair employment.

No One Left Behind supports those transitioning out of military service, to deliver local place based approach to facilitate easier alignment of employability support with existing local level support services including housing, health, justice and advice services to ensure that individuals can access the holistic packages of support that they need to move towards, into and to sustain employment.

Fair Start Scotland, our national employment support service, offers 12 to 18 months of tailored, person-centred pre-employment support, along with up to 12 months of in-work support available for individuals and their employers. Support includes access to workshops and guidance utilising the transferrable skills that people leave military services with.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) the Scottish Government’s skills agency, also work closely with the Service Families Federations in Scotland. Recently, they commenced a new delivery model at the Drumfork Community Centre aimed at spouses and partners within the naval community in Helensburgh and the surrounding area. Prior to the pandemic, SDS engaged with spouses and partners in Inverness and have also re-engaged with the Fijian community, which includes a number of armed forces spouses and partners.

The Scottish Government continues to offer work placements and Fixed Term Appointments to veterans and the partners/spouses of veterans and Serving personnel through the Going Forward Into Employment (GFIE) programme. This programme is ongoing with plans to identify more vacancies and match these to suitable veterans, their partners or partners of currently serving personnel.

Furthermore, an updated version of Welcome to Scotland was published in April 2022 following extensive consultation with Military, third sector and public sector organisations to ensure that the guide is both up to date and contains the most important information for Service personnel and their families ahead of relocation to Scotland or those returning to Scotland after leaving the Armed Forces.

The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places statutory responsibility for local roads, including the procedure for reporting road defects/damage on local authorities. As such it is the responsibility of the local authority to determine how best to meet its duties on local roads in their respective areas, including how the public report issues, and no formal guidance is issued on this matter.

SCOTS (the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland) – www.scotsnet.org , are responsible for implementing new materials and best practice on local road maintenance.

The Scottish Government is committed to continuing to work with partners across Tayside to support sustainable change, which ensures the safe and effective delivery of mental health services.

It is crucial that, as the workforce responds to additional pressures and challenges, leaders model and promote compassion. People working in health, social care and social work are the most significant asset for creating positive culture change.

Leaders must examine the needs of staff, ensuring their wellbeing is a priority to help them deal with the rapidly changing situation. This is why the Scottish Government has created Leading to Change, a national leadership development programme, which will be focused on growing compassionate and inclusive leaders who role model these values and create an open and welcoming culture that will help to improve recruitment and retention, and supports staff wellbeing.

To complement the wellbeing support available at a local level, we are continuing to provide a range of resources including the National Wellbeing Hub, a 24/7 National Wellbeing Helpline, confidential mental health treatment through the Workforce Specialist Service, Coaching for Wellbeing and funding for additional local psychological support.

We also continue to work with leaders across health, social care and social work, as well as hearing directly from staff, to understand where the current pressures are, and what further actions can be taken to mitigate their impact on staff wellbeing. Our ongoing response will be informed by a new Improving Wellbeing and Workforce Cultures strategy that will be launched in 2023. The Scottish Government is committed to improving the mental health and wellbeing of Scotland’s population and to ensuring everyone receives the best possible care and support from our health and care services. Delivering this can only be achieved with the right workforce capacity and capability. With substantial investment, we have record numbers of staff providing more varied support and services to a larger number of people than ever before.

Individual NHS Boards are responsible for undertaking the local workforce planning required to deliver safe and high quality services with a sustainable workforce. The Scottish Government works continuously with NHS Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships to improve workforce planning. The report concurs with Scottish Government feedback to NHS Tayside on the content of its 3 year workforce plan, and draws attention to the need for the Board to ensure this links appropriately to the workforce required for mental and learning disability services in Tayside.

We are currently consulting on our strategic approach to workforce planning for mental health and wellbeing, this will contribute to the forthcoming Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, which is due to be published in spring 2023.

We will also be working closely with partners to identify short, medium and long term actions for a Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Plan, to be published in 2023. The Plan will build on the National Health and Social Care Workforce Strategy, published in March 2022, which sets out a new framework to shape Scotland’s health and social care workforce over the next decade, placing training, wellbeing, job satisfaction, retention and the principles of Fair Work at its heart. It will look at the whole workforce journey and how we can plan for, attract, train, employ and nurture our mental health workforce.

Officials regularly engage with institutions with expertise across further education, training, and skills. During the development of our draft ESJTP, we have had input from representatives from Robert Gordon University, Stirling University, University of the Highlands and Islands, University of Glasgow, University of Strathclyde, OPITO, X-Academy, Engineering Construction Industry Training Board, The Business Partnership, and Skills Development Scotland.

We will continue to engage with industry experts and wider stakeholders and encourage the broadest possible range of responses to the formal consultation of the draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan.

The Scottish Government published OHCA: A Guide to PADs in March 2018. The guide provides practical advice to those considering a purchase and installation of a PAD for their local community including information on safety and maintenance checks (page 3).

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the level and nature of foreign investment in universities in Scotland as universities are autonomous bodies.

The SPCB notes that members of the public can currently request a loved one’s 100th birthday to be recognised by the King and Queen Consort and it does not currently have any plans to facilitate requests for cards to be sent on behalf of the Scottish Parliament.

Yes.

Transport Scotland is continuing to consult with Local Authorities and others to develop both the secondary legislation required to allow them to enforce the National pavement parking prohibition as well as the Parking Standards Guidance which will underpin the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019.

The first of the associated regulations, which sets out the Exemption Order Procedures which local authorities must follow, was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 16 November and came into force on 9 December 2022.

My officials continue to work on the other secondary legislation which is required during the course of this year. These further regulations will ensure Local Authorities have all of the necessary tools to enforce the pavement parking prohibitions from late 2023 onwards.