Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold separate data on the percentage rise in the cost of living for older people who are in relative or absolute poverty. The information below provides an indication.

Inflation, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index rose by 5.5% in the 12 months to January 2022. This has been the highest yearly increase since the 1990s.

Figures from the ONS suggest that retired and non-retired households have experienced similar levels of inflation rates since April 2021, and so have high- and low-income households. However, rises in costs are being driven by different things - including different exposure to transport costs (affecting non-retired people more heavily) and housing and household services (affecting retired people more). Separate figure are not available for Scotland

With regard to water charges, the water and sewerage charges for households will rise by 4.2% on 1 April 2022 – this means the average household charge in Scotland will be £391 in 2022-23. Water charges are linked to council tax bands and discounts which apply to council tax also apply to water charges (such as student exemption or the single occupant discount). From 1 April 2021 the water charges reduction scheme discount – available to customers in receipt of full Council Tax Reduction – has increased to 35%, up from 25%. Over the next year (2022-23), households in receipt of the full council tax reduction discount will actually pay less than they did in 2020-21.

A key driver of price increases is energy prices, which have increased significantly over the year and continue to increase due to the crisis in Ukraine. Low-income households are particularly exposed to increases in the price of energy as they spend a larger proportion of the household income on fuel and housing costs. The Institute for Fiscal Studies suggest that by April lowest-income households will be facing inflation rates of almost 7%, higher than the average rate of 6%. The Resolution Foundation estimate that later this year the poorest third of households will be spending at least 10% of their household income on energy bills alone, compared to around 7% now.

The information requested can be found in the publication Poverty and Income Inequality in Scotland 2017-20 . This is available online at Poverty and Income Inequality in Scotland 2017-20 (data.gov.scot).

The Scottish Government does not collect information on the number of foster carers registered with each local authority or voluntary provider.

The valuation bands for council tax are part of the wider council tax system set out in the Local Government Finance Act 1992 and associated secondary legislation. We are committed to reforming council tax to make it fairer, working with the Scottish Green Party and COSLA to oversee the development of effective deliberative engagement on sources of local government funding, including Council Tax, that will culminate in a Citizens’ Assembly. This will be established and completed in this Parliament, with a response to its recommendations debated and agreed within 6 months of them being provided.

The Scottish Government is not aware of other Health and Social Care Partnerships using the same criteria being used by East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership, although other local partnerships take similar issues around staffing and safety in to account.

NHS 24 aims to provide high standards of care and despite the substantial increase in demand placed on the Service by the outbreak of COVID-19, NHS 24 continues to provide a highly effective, safe triage system to the people of Scotland.

As a result of this increased demand, and changes to service delivery, we have increased funding to NHS 24 by over £20m this year for additional recruitment and the addition of a new call centre in Dundee, which opened in December 2021.

This is supporting the additional recruitment of 575 full time equivalent call handlers and 140 full time equivalent clinicians to date, including through the recently established 24/7 mental health hub.

Calls to the 111 Service can be abandoned for a variety of reasons, including telephony providers ending calls after a period of time or patients choosing to end the call after being connected and hearing the options available to them. These include accessing self-care advice via NHS Inform, or contacting another area of the health service better placed to meet their needs.

NHS 24 is undertaking a piece of work to evaluate abandoned calls and determine how many of these callers are accessing other advice/support as directed and how many are re-dialling the Service after their call has been cut off by telephony providers or they have hung up the call. This will involve working closely with telephony provider and significant engagement with callers to the Service and will help the Service reduce instances of abandoned calls.

We will commission and support the Understanding Scottish Places (USP) consortium to review evaluation and data needs and share that understanding so that local partners can develop solutions that respond to the local circumstances.

In addition, the approach adopted via the Scotland Loves Local programme works with local partners to shape local opportunities that encourage and motivate people to change behaviours by thinking local first and supporting their local businesses and communities.

The independent review of the 2013 Town Centre Action Plan, A New future for Scotland’s Town Centres, was commissioned by Scottish Ministers and published in February 2021. We are working collaboratively with COSLA and partners to respond to the review with a revised action plan which will be published later in the spring, subject to approval from Ministers and COSLA.

The Scottish Government is establishing a group to help identify potential place demonstrator projects, including in towns and town centres, as part of our 5 year £325 million Place-Based Investment Programme.

The budget allocated to the Energy Investment Fund in 2021-22 was up to £13 million, no budget has been allocated for any future financial years. There are new investment mechanisms in place through the Scottish National Investment Bank which supports the Scottish Government's strategic priorities to achieving our net zero ambitions.