Chamber and committees

As part of our plans for the Rest and Be Thankful, we are developing a medium term solution to provide resilience whilst the long term solution is progressed. A number of options are currently being assessed, including the possible use of the existing forestry track and improvements to the Old Military Road.

Depending on whether statutory consents are needed, it is envisaged that a finalised proposal for a medium term solution could be developed by late 2022.A timetable for the construction phase of a medium term solution can only be set once the scope of the proposals are finalised and any statutory procedures required have been successfully completed.

I have asked SQA to respond:

SQA has not entered into any non-disclosure agreements in the past 5 years. In accordance with the Scottish Public Finance Manual, SQA has entered into settlement agreements and COT3 agreements both of which include a confidentiality clause. A COT3 is a form of settlement agreement which is reached with the assistance of ACAS, usually before a tribunal takes place. The agreements do not under any circumstances prevent an employee from making a protected disclosure under whistleblowing legislation.

Please find below the numbers of settlement agreements and COT3 agreements over the last 5 years.

Since May 2020, the Scottish Government has invested over £48 million in our Connecting Scotland programme, which provides people on low incomes with a device, connection with unlimited data for two years, as well as training and support. Since programme launch 60,000 digitally excluded people in total have been brought online. We are now working to scope out an extension to the programme to reach 300,000 people by the end of this Parliament.

The programme is part of our wider package of support to help everyone in Scotland benefit fully from the advantages of the digital world – from broadband connectivity to digital skills training and support for schools and business.

The Scottish Government is committed to an infrastructure solution to address the A83 Rest and Be Thankful landslip risks. Delivery of a permanent and resilient solution is a priority and we continue to seek ways to achieve that as quickly as possible, noting all of the options require complex civil engineering.

Identifying the preferred route corridor for a solution last year was a major step forward for this vital project and we continue to push forward the design and assessment of alternative options within that online corridor, as we look to identify a preferred route option next year.

As with other trunk road improvement projects, we will need to complete the necessary engineering and environmental assessments and statutory process to allow any land to be acquired before construction can commence.

A detailed timetable for the construction phase of the project can only be set once the statutory procedures have been successfully completed.

Yes. We fully acknowledge and understand the importance of coordinating any work on the A83 Rest and Be Thankful with the A82 Tarbet to Inverarnan scheme.

Delivery of both projects can only commence following statutory approval, and the coordination of construction works will be given full consideration as both schemes continue to be developed.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05447 on 27 January 2022. 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

Each year since 2010-11, and as demonstrated through the Budget publications, the Scottish Government has delivered its commitment to pass on frontline health consequentials to the Health Portfolio. This refers to resource consequentials arising from increases in funding allocated by HM Treasury to the Department of Health and Social Care.

As the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy has made clear in Parliament, there are some areas of required spend where Covid consequentials have fallen short of expectation. In addition, there are some timing differences between spend in England and equivalent spend in Scotland .

In this context, the Scottish Government has taken steps to align funding from the UK Government with actual spending profiles in Scotland. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy highlighted in her letter to the convenor of the Finance and Public Administration Committee, Covid 19 Financial support Scottish Government update | Scottish Parliament Website , that the Scottish Government has required to repurpose some health consequentials to specifically support wider public health measures. Further detail will be provided in the Spring Budget Revision.

There are very strong links between education and health on the matter of mental health and wellbeing in schools.

Formally, the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board, established in 2021, oversee reform across relevant areas of education, health, community and children’s services and wider areas that impact on the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people. Membership on the delivery board includes a wide range of stakeholders from health and education.

The Mental Health in Schools Working Group was established in 2019 to support the Scottish Government’s ongoing commitment to supporting positive mental health in children and young people in school. The Group has a large membership including national organisations who work to support children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing and representatives from the education and health sector.

The Working Group has sought to establish a comprehensive approach to supporting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing in schools through a Whole School Approach Framework, published in August 2021. The framework is clear on the importance of a holistic approach to mental health and wellbeing and encourages partnership working with community and health partners.

Our commitment to invest in school counselling services across secondary schools in Scotland, announced in our 2018-19 Programme for Government, is now delivered across all local authorities. The first reporting exercise for the commitment highlighted the various referrals made by schools to health services, including GPs, school nurses and other health professionals. The approach to counselling in schools has been developed and implemented by education officials using resources provided by the health department and progress has been jointly reported to Ministers with portfolio responsibility for both health and education.

Health and Wellbeing is one of the eight curricular areas in Curriculum for Excellence. Its substantial importance is reflected in its position at the centre of the curriculum and at the heart of children’s learning. Mental health and wellbeing has specific experiences and outcomes, within this framework.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving Mental Health services and the Programme for Government commits to ensuring that by the end of this Parliament, a minimum 10% of frontline NHS spend goes towards mental health, with at least 1% going towards child and adolescent mental health services.

We also remain committed to meet the standard that 90% of children and young people begin treatment within 18 weeks of referral. We have allocated nearly £40m additional funding in 2021-22 to NHS Boards to improve CAMHS from our £120m Recovery and Renewal fund. £4.25m of that allocation is directly focussed on offering treatment to those already on CAMHS waiting lists, with a view to clearing all backlogs by March 2023.

We are closely monitoring those NHS Boards with significant performance challenges and supporting the continuous development of their detailed local improvement plans. The creation of these plans is further supported with direct enhanced support from subject matter experts and the sharing of best practice. This support is centred around and supported by the implementation of the CAMHS national service specification which outlines the expectations of the quality of care that families can expect.

NHS Boards who are receiving this enhanced support have provided trajectories to meet the 90% waiting times standard and we are using these to monitor and drive improvements within CAMHS.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of mobile and broadband connectivity for almost all aspects of everyday life which is why we are working closely with BT, Ofcom, UK Government and other network operators to ensure the migration from the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to digital based services is as seamless as possible.

It is important to note that resilience of the Communications Sector, which includes telecommunications and internet, is reserved and therefore the responsibility of the UK Government

It is also important to note that the move to digital based services is an industry-led decision and process. This decision to upgrade the legacy PSTN network is driven by the increased difficulty in maintaining the current network, due to reduced availability of replacement parts and the reduction of expertise in aging analogue systems.

The telecoms regulator (Ofcom) have imposed a regulatory obligation on communications providers in General Condition A3 to take all necessary measures to ensure uninterrupted access to emergency organisations for their customers.

Through the Scottish 4G Infill programme, we are investing £28.75 million in future-proofed infrastructure to improve access to 4G services for some of Scotland’s rural and island communities. The programme is targeting total notspots, areas where there is no outdoor coverage on any 4G network.

At present, the Scottish 4G Infill Programme is providing future-proofed, 4G mobile infrastructure at 25 locations across Scotland, from New Luce in Dumfries and Galloway to Reawick on Shetland. Up to 55 sites will be live and providing service by the end of the programme in 2023.

During Storm Arwen, telecoms operators were quick to respond, deploying emergency response teams that provided mitigating measures such as backup generators to affected sites.

Local Resilience Partnerships also provided welfare centres and offered Wi-Fi and mobile phone charging facilities where possible.

The Scottish Government is currently undertaking a Review into the response to Storm Arwen which aims to learn lessons and improve the response to power outages and associated impacts like those experienced in November 2021.

We will continue to press the UK Government and the regulator (Ofcom) for assurance that increasing resilience of the telecoms network in Scotland is a priority.