Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government currently directly employs the following number of solicitors, set out below by pay band/grade. SCS - Director is the most senior grade with legal trainees being the most junior grade. It should be noted that there are other individuals who may be qualified solicitors employed in non-legal roles in policy/operational directorates across the Scottish Government but that information is not centrally known or held.

Directorate for Legal Services

In the following table, the data provided covers the period from when the Scottish Government took control of the shipyard to the present day. The table includes a yearly workforce count, and a count taken when the shipyard entered administration on 16 August 2019. The Agency/Contracted count includes workers employed through agencies and contractors working under FMPG management control, including interims.

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

The SPS does not hold the requested data. Since 2013, SPS has asked all persons on admission to custody to self-declare any known disability. The response is recorded on SPS’ internal system as either: yes, no or prefer not to disclose. However, the type of disability it is not specifically recorded.

Every individual in SPS custody is interviewed by a Healthcare Professional on admission in order to assess their healthcare needs. Where there is an identified need for additional support or reasonable adjustments whilst in custody, SPS, NHS and our education service partners will work in partnership to facilitate this.

Covid-19 was the highest single cause of excess mortality during summer 2021. Every one of these deaths is a tragedy. All those affected by the virus have our sympathy and we are working to prevent others from experiencing that same heartbreak.

As a result of the Scottish Government’s vaccination programme and increased medical knowledge of the virus, in summer 2021 the mortality rate was far lower, despite greater transmission of the virus. We are now offering boosters to protect the population further.

We are also working to remobilise our NHS safely and will be providing over £300 million in a winter funding package to support the health of people across Scotland this winter.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the lived experiences of young people who require additional support, and to ensuring that young people are at the centre of all transition planning for their future.

The Scottish Government has partnered with Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland to deliver the Principles into Practice Trial Programme that sets out practical steps to be taken locally to coordinate planning and practice to deliver better outcomes for young people who require additional support to make the transition to young adult life, and to measure the difference they are making.

The Scottish Funding Council’s (SFC) funding helps learners with additional support needs to overcome difficulties they may encounter in the course of their studies. Their Access and Inclusion strategy facilitates the SFC to outline areas of strategic importance and to direct funds to address these priorities. The Access and Inclusion Fund is an integral element of colleges’ core funding and is used to support the teaching and learning of disabled students.

The college funding formula also contains a bespoke price group which recognises the higher cost of teaching students who have greater difficulty in learning than the majority of other students and who have been assessed as requiring additional support. The bespoke courses delivered through this price group have smaller class sizes, and the funding model provides the college with additional resource to recognise the additional costs involved.

For 2021-22, SFC also issued clarification that students with disabilities, supported learners and students whose educational development does not match a standard progression model may be supported over an extended timeframe and on a non-standard pattern of progression.

The Scottish Government has committed to Keeping The Promise by 2030 and will continue to work with The Promise Scotland, and partners to do so.

The consultation on the creation of a National Care Service closed on 2 November 2021 after receiving over 100 written responses, over 3000 people reached through engagement events. The consultation paper set out questions, which go further than the recommendations, made in the Independent Review of Adult Social Care, and propose that social work and social care services for children and young people should be considered as potentially beneficial for inclusion within the scope of the NCS.

Scottish Government need to consider how best to ensure the consistent delivery of services to all families, with a focus on those children and families in vulnerable situations. This is frequently related to the need for provision of joined-up support to families, and wellbeing needs arising where a parent/carer requires services for adults.

All views on the National Care Services and the inclusion of Children’s Services are welcomed and will be carefully considered in planning for the future design and delivery of the NCS. We are working with children’s participation groups to ensure that meaningful engagement can take place with children and young people.

The Scottish Government has commissioned a study from the Plant Health Centre on the implications of gene editing for plant health, including environmental impacts.

The Scottish Government has access to a wealth of expertise in its advisors, including the Chief Scientific Advisor for Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture, who follow the latest scientific evidence and are qualified to comment on the environmental impact of gene editing.

We anticipate that the long COVID Support Fund will be allocated over the next three financial years, providing Boards with additional resource to respond in a flexible and tailored manner to the needs of people with long COVID.

Our 2021-22 Budget takes the total health portfolio funding to in excess of £16 billion, with a further £1.9 billion of funding to address pressures related to COVID-19. This substantial additional investment is already benefiting a range of NHS services which are supporting the needs of people living with long COVID.

The First Minister travels for a range of reasons including ensuring that the people of Scotland are effectively represented and ensuring that Scotland’s voice is heard on important issues.

Before arranging to travel on official business, Scottish Government employees and Ministers are first required to consider if their journey is really necessary. If they conclude that they are unable to conduct their business by other means, such as video or teleconferencing, they are then required to travel in the most cost–effective and time-efficient method available.

Travel is an essential part of official government business we take our responsibility to travel sustainably very seriously and aim to use more sustainable forms of transport wherever possible.

Any business flights taken by Ministers and Scottish Government employees are subject to a carbon levy payment. Pre-Covid the levy collected approximately £40,000 per year, and is used to compensate for carbon emissions generated. For example, in August 2019 the levy was used to partially fund solar panels on the roof of St Andrews House in Edinburgh. The panels have so far saved 15 tonnes of CO2 equivalent to planting 696 trees.

The Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) published a stakeholder consultation , including a list of provisional recommendations regarding the addition, retention, regrading or removal of each species on 8 November 2021. Those proposed recommendations do not include the removal of schedule 5 legal protection for pine martens, adders or basking sharks.

We will carefully consider the findings of the JNCC seventh Quinquennial review prior to implementing any recommendations. Before making any changes regarding species removal from schedule 5 we would have to be satisfied that there would be no detrimental impact to the individual species or to the wider biodiversity and environmental landscape in Scotland.