Chamber and committees

We are in daily contact with Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) facing the greatest challenges and are monitoring the situation closely. Health Boards and HSCPs have provided assurances that people in need of the most urgent care will continue receiving care during this challenging period.

We are working with local partners to address these pressures at a local and national level, including putting in place measures to support recruitment and multi-disciplinary working. Some of the immediate actions we have taken include: funding support to advertise vacant posts on a dedicated social care webpage; and targeted communication with Further and Higher Education nursing students and Social Work students, to encourage applications to join the workforce.

We have allocated an additional £380 million to Health Boards to help with costs arising from the pandemic. This comes on top of the £1.7 billion already provided to Health Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships last year.

For unpaid carers, we have invested an additional £28.5m for local carer support in this year’s budget, bringing total investment in the Carers Act to £68m per year. The previous Cabinet Secretary wrote to authorities in March to highlight the importance of using this additional funding to expand carer support. We also added a further £1.1m last year to the annual £3m voluntary sector Short Breaks Fund and have committed an additional £570,000 this year, enabling more families/carers and young carers to take a break from caring.

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

The SPS is currently undertaking a policy review of its ‘ Gender Identity and Gender Reassignment Policy for those in our Custody’. The review is comprised of two main stages.

The first stage is underway and consists of an in-depth analysis of evidence that has emerged since the SPS’ current policy was introduced in 2014.

The second stage will consist of a series of discussions with key stakeholders. The SPS will also publish the current policy and underpinning legal framework on its website, inviting comment and feedback.

It is anticipated that the review will conclude in spring 2022 and a refreshed, evidence based policy position will be published by the SPS.

No specific risk assessment has been carried out for the impact of the Household Recycling Charter on recycling rates.

The Scottish Government has committed to evaluate the Household Recycling Charter. This work has been delayed temporarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but we are working with COSLA and local authorities to take forward this evaluation.

Over and above the local government finance settlement, between 2015 – 2019 the Scottish Government provided around £8 million through Zero Waste Scotland to support local authorities in aligning their services with the Household Recycling Charter Code of Practice.

In March, we launched a £70 million recycling improvement fund to support improvements in local authority recycling infrastructure. One of the objectives of the fund is to Support Local Authorities with aligning their services to the Code of Practice which accompanies the Household Recycling Charter.

The Scottish Government has made clear its commitment to maintain or exceed environmental standards in place upon EU exit, and to maintain alignment with developing EU standards, as far as possible. We have legislated under the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021 (“the Act”) for a discretionary power to align devolved law with EU law, where appropriate and practical to do so.

Scottish Ministers are currently preparing the policy statement, as required by section 6 of the Act, which will set out the approach to be taken, the factors to be taken into account and the process to be followed when considering whether to exercise this discretionary power.

The Scottish Government is committed to action to protect its natural environment. The policy on the protections and standards afforded by the Habitats Regulations remains unchanged following our departure from the European Union. The proposed amendments to the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 must not result in a reduction of the level of environmental protection.

The UK Internal Market Act was imposed against the will of the devolved administrations and is a risk to our ability to exercise devolved decision-making powers across a wide range of policy areas, including environmental policy. The Scottish Government will seek to ensure that regulations made by the UK Government take into account potential cross-border impacts on Scottish interests.

Scottish Government does not hold information on the cost of tackling litter in each local authority. Local Authorities are responsible for clearing litter on public land. They will be providing information on the costs of tackling litter as part of the forthcoming research on the scale and cost of litter and flytipping in Scotland.

Self-Directed Support (SDS) is Scotland’s mainstream approach to social care that seeks to give unpaid carers and people receiving care and/or support flexibility, choice and control to meet their own personal outcomes, using a human rights based approach. In March 2021 the SDS Framework of Standards was published. This enables and encourages both local authorities and individuals to use Self-Directed Support in a flexible manner, enabling consideration out with traditional support services that may have been previously provided.

Scottish Government also funds independent support providers across Scotland to support people to arrange support that meets their needs by providing advocacy, information and advice on social care at local levels.

We do not support the halting of further expansion of salmon farming. The 2018 report by the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee, Salmon Farming in Scotland , noted calls for a moratorium on new salmon farm developments and expansion of existing sides, but considered that there was insufficient evidence to support this. The Scottish Government agreed with the Committee’s recommendations that the status quo was not an option.

Since then, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s new finfish regulatory framework has launched and, through the Farmed Fish Health Framework, we have delivered a strengthened farmed fish sea lice compliance regime, including sea lice reporting legislation which came into force in May.

We are also committed to taking forward an immediate programme of work to better protect wildlife and the environment, including a response to the Salmon Interactions Working Group in September 2021; consultation on a spatially adaptive sea lice risk assessment framework for fish farms by the end of the year; and strengthened controls on sea lice, wrasse and fish escapes in the course of 2021-22. There are no grounds to support a moratorium.

No risk assessment has been carried out regarding the potential impact on recycling rates of charging for garden waste collection.

There is no statutory requirement for local authorities to separately collect garden waste and charging for its collection is not a new option available to councils. Garden waste is included in Schedule 2 of the Controlled Waste Regulations 1992 which contains the types of waste for which a charge for collection may be made. It is up to individual councils whether to charge or not.

As set out in our update to the Climate Change Plan, we will consult on requirements to separately collect garden waste by 2023, to further promote reuse and recycling.

Our Housing to 2040 strategy includes a vision that everyone who can is enabled to live independently in a home of their choice. Local authorities are responsible for assessing the housing needs in their areas and setting out in their Local Housing Strategies how this will be met. Local Housing Strategy guidance published in September 2019 also requires local authorities to set targets for wheelchair accessible housing across all tenures, including reporting annually on progress.

Through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP), we provide a range of housing including new build, off the shelf purchases and rehabilitation projects. For new build projects, wherever possible, all affordable homes are built to Housing for Varying Needs standards. This standard sets out good practice on the design of housing to achieve flexibility and suitability for people of all abilities. Our annual AHSP Outturn Reports publish the percentage of affordable new build home completions meeting Housing for Varying Needs standards.

The following table shows, of the information returned, the percentage of new build social rent, mid-market rent and low cost home ownership homes supported through the AHSP, which have met that standard since 2005.

In addition to supporting new accessible affordable homes, in the period between 2007-08 and 2019-21 a total of £175 million has been provided directly to housing associations to help them provide adaptations for older and disabled tenants.