Chamber and committees

The overall social security budget for the 2021-22 financial year was set in January 2021, at almost £4 billion. This includes £3.5 billion for demand-led benefits expenditure, and almost £0.5 billion for Social Security Programme implementation investment and Social Security Scotland operating costs.

The Scottish Government has put in place robust processes to manage the risks associated with demand-led expenditure on this scale and the potential impact any variations could have on the wider Scottish Budget. After the financial year has ended, our Budget position will be presented to Parliament in the Provisional Outturn statement and confirmed in the 2021-22 consolidated accounts in the normal way.

The Cost of Care model will be updated and the uplift will be applied to both care staff and senior care staff.

The total capital grant funding provided by the Scottish Government to North Ayrshire Council, in real terms, since 2008-09 is set out in the following table. Prior to 2008-09 the Scottish Government supported local authorities’ capital funding programmes through a combination of loan charge support for historic debt, supported borrowing allocations and a range of separate capital grants outwith the annual local government finance settlement (the details of which are not held centrally).

The capital funding for local authorities changed fundamentally with effect from 1 April 2008 with these individual capital grants being incorporated into the annual local government finance settlement. It should also be noted that funding for Police and Fire transferred out of the local government finance settlement with effect from 1 April 2013. As a result the years prior to 2013-14 are not comparable to the years after 2013-14.

The real terms figures were calculated using the October 2021 HM Treasury GDP deflators.

Scotland’s Covid-19 vaccination programme has been extremely successful, with over 8 million doses administered within 10 months. With the ongoing pandemic, we are following the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advice by prioritising based on age and health status with highest health needs first as we know both increase the risk of serious illness from Covid-19.

Given the scale and the challenges that the programme faces, delivering all boosters will take place over a period of several months, however the vaccination programme is continuing at considerable pace – including administering over 436,000 COVID-19 and flu doses in the first week of November.

Health boards are working at pace and appointing those in most vulnerable groups for when they become eligible for a booster. Since the booster programme began in mid-September, the number of booster and third doses administered stands at 1,342,841 as of 19 November.

You can view more information on the number of 1st , 2nd , 3rd and booster doses delivered at: COVID-19 Daily Dashboard | Tableau Public .

Human trafficking is a hidden and often complex crime. Accurately assessing the scale of the problem in Scotland and beyond is challenging, although a range of estimates exist around the prevalence of the issue, both in the UK and globally.

Data on the number of trafficking victims in Scotland is drawn from the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). The NRM is the UK-wide framework for identifying potential victims of trafficking and ensuring they receive appropriate support and assistance.

Information from the NRM is released by the Home Office Single Competent Authority quarterly and in an end of year summary. Data relating to 2020 and 2021 can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-referral-mechanism-statistics .

This cohort was appointed locally and Health Boards used this data to make arrangements. Anyone who was identified as part of this cohort in tranche 1 should automatically be included for the second.

The majority of Health Boards sent personal NVSS invitations through Royal Mail in the traditional blue envelopes to eligible 12-17 year olds, which contained a scheduled appointment and information leaflet. Boards will also undertake mop up sessions in communities and schools to ensure that young people who wish to be vaccinated are able to have this.

Online material was promoted to young people, parents/carers from 17 September. Drop-in clinics across Scotland accepted young people from 20 September onwards, ideally attending with their parent/carer. A smaller number of more rural Boards have opted to undertake school based delivery models and they sent the national invite letter, leaflet and consent form home in September.

NHS Inform has been updated with information, and information leaflets have been provided by Public Health Scotland. News releases by Scottish Government have been issued and communication material has been issued to Health Boards. There will be a mixture of local Board and Nationally coordinated social media and marketing – this is aimed at providing the key information to support people being aware of what is being offered and how NHS Scotland is delivering this.

We are not aware of any issues of this cohort not being notified of appointments for second doses. If the member is aware of any instances, please contact me for officials to investigate.

Children and young people aged 12 to 15 can attend open access services to receive their vaccine: Open access services | The coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine (nhsinform.scot) , or an appointment can be arranged a few weeks in advance by contacting the vaccination helpline on 0800 030 8013.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04361 on
‎ 24 November 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Booster vaccinations in Scotland started as soon as possible once the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) provided their advice on boosters, which stated that the booster dose should be offered no earlier than six months after completion of the primary vaccine course, however there is some flexibility to offer a booster vaccination to the most vulnerable groups after five months.

1,342,841 people have received a booster or 3rd dose to Friday 19 November, and we are working as quickly as we can, prioritising those most vulnerable.

Data on boosters by JCVI priority group is not yet published. We continue to work closely with Public Health Scotland to develop the vaccination data to provide robust statistics that enhance public understanding.

Initial work is underway to support the establishment of a PRS tenant participation panel. The first phase of this work is focusing on hearing from PRS tenants in developing our draft Rented Sector Strategy consultation document. As part of this, we are working in partnership with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and through the Tenants Information Service and the Tenant Participation Advisory Service exploring tenants’ priorities for change.

This initial work, alongside engagement with tenant organisations, including tenants’ unions, such as Living Rent who the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights met with in September, will help to inform the longer term establishment of the panel and recruit participants.

Information on cases of sheep worrying is not held centrally in the format requested.

Information is available on the number of offences recorded by Police Scotland under the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953 – which relates to dogs worrying livestock on agricultural land (table below). However, as this legislation applies to all forms of livestock, these figures are not available for specific types of animal.

Table 1: Offences of Protection of Livestock from Dogs, North Ayrshire, 2018-19 to 2020-21.