Chamber and committees

While the Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally, the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) hold information about defibrillators across Scotland – available at: Registering your Automated External Defibrillator . The key aspect of the information held relates to the location in order to support SAS call handlers to direct OHCA bystanders to the nearest publicly accessible defibrillator, rather than maintaining a record of the type of building where the defibrillator is placed.

In searching this publicly accessible information, there are over 150 defibrillators at school locations across Scotland currently registered with the Scottish Ambulance Service.

It is, however, it is important to note that registration of defibrillators is voluntary, and the responsibility of the defibrillator guardian, therefore this may not be an accurate picture of the number of defibrillators placed in schools across Scotland. I refer the member to my answer given to PQ S6W-01501, in which I recommend that you may wish to contact Scottish Local Authorities individually for information they may hold.

We do not underestimate the severe impact the pandemic is having on the night-time sector and restrictions will not be kept in place a day longer than necessary. As the First Minister made clear on 13 July, a gradual approach to the lifting of restrictions gives the best chance of sustainability and will help build people’s confidence to return to their normal lives and support these businesses.

We have previously made additional funding of up to £750 per week available to nightclubs depending on their Rateable Value. We regularly engage with the night time industry. Guidance for the night time economy will be developed in partnership with the industry in line with the decisions on moving beyond level 0 and taking account of the baseline measures which will be in place. We are however, at this time, unable to commit to further funding for businesses or their employees including those in the night time economy due to a lack of further consequentials from the UK Government.

We continue to urge the UK Government to extend both the Self Employment Income Support Scheme and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to support both workers and the self-employed impacted by the ongoing influence of COVID-19 the economy .

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-35673 on 5 March 2021. Since that answer, the working group met again on 5 July and will continue to make progress over the rest of 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

Initial estimates suggest that 5,786 invitations have not yet issued to people affected by the pause, but it should be stressed that this will be for a range of reasons, including participants being excluded from the programme after it restarted, or taking the opportunity to be screened at their GP ahead of their scheduled prompt to make an appointment. Data on patients who had their routine cervical screening test delayed and have (a) now received a test, (b) referred for further investigation is not routinely available at present.

Public Health Scotland will release their annual statistical report on the cervical screening programme on 1 September 2021.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the annual spend for oil and gas workers specifically for net zero training. However the Oil and Gas Transition Training Fund (TTF) ran from 2016 to 2019 to help workers affected by site closures to re-skill and retrain to find employment. The total spend against the fund is listed in the following table:

The Independent National Whistleblowing Officer (INWO) was launched on the 1 st April 2021. The service is provided through the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO). As INWO operates independently, the Scottish Government does not hold information on cases which have been referred to it.

The Scottish Government encourages any defibrillator guardian, including those placed in primary or secondary schools, to register their device with the Scottish Ambulance Service to enable an accurate and up to date central record of defibrillators across Scotland.

Through encouraging registration of defibrillators across Scotland, we can better understand their placement, usage and maintain a more accurate and up-to date record.

Through our membership of the Energy Skills Alliance, we are working collaboratively with the industry, trade bodies and unions to ensure the right skills and training are in place to protect and create jobs as we become a net-zero economy. Our Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan puts knowledge and skills at the heart of a systematic approach to retaining skills and expertise as we transition to becoming a net-zero economy and, this year, the first wave of our £100 million Green Jobs Fund got under way.

In 2020 we launched our £62 million Energy Transition Fund to support the oil, gas and energy sectors grow and diversify, accelerating its transition to net-zero emissions. Fair Work principles are being applied across projects funded by the Energy Transition Fund, supporting the creation of green jobs and training individuals with the skills they need to ensure a just transition to net-zero that puts people’s wellbeing at the heart of our net-zero economy. By capitalising on our strengths in energy, innovation, and our skilled workforce, Scotland can show the rest of the world how it’s done – and ensure our people, businesses and communities are at the forefront of our new green economy.

We have also introduced the National Transition Training Fund (NTTF) to support individuals at risk of Covid-19 related redundancy to move into new industries. A number of colleges are delivering courses to support the transition to net zero. In the coming weeks we will set out how NTTF will continue to address the impact of Covid-19, but also take account of the impacts of EU exit, and support upskilling or retraining for the transition to net zero.

We will also invest an additional £500 million over the next parliament to support new jobs and reskill people for the jobs of the future.

The impact assessments for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) published on 16 March 2020 recognised that a single scheme administrator would likely be responsible for the day-to-day operation of the scheme, in line with the Scottish Government’s preferred scheme design. We therefore have no plans to update any of these impact assessments in light of the approval of Circularity Scotland Ltd as scheme administrator of DRS.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-01556 on 4 August 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 .