Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government are currently funding a dedicated resource in NHS Education for Scotland to scope the current skills landscape and identify where earn as you learn programmes could be expanded and where further development work is required with aim of widening the pathways into health and care careers.

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

Following the introduction of the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016, SPS took the decision to not seek to amend its mandatory drug testing policy to include testing for psychoactive substances. This was due to the continual changing compounds used within psychoactive substances and remains the position to date.

By working closely with partners such as Police Scotland, SPS must and does remain vigilant to the continuously evolving nature of drug use to ensure our use of technology and tactical measures remain current, adaptable, and capable of detecting and preventing drugs from entering our prisons; and we continue to consider what testing options may be most effective for the SPS to use.

SPS will continue to work with partners to prevent the introduction of contraband and seek convictions where appropriate.

Funding allocated to the Centre for Sustainable Delivery’s National Elective Co-ordination Unit from the additional £30m for planned care has been used to support collaborative working with Boards to maximise capacity and provide centralised, coordinated, and innovative approaches to waiting times recovery. Specifically, funding has been directed towards the following:

• National Dermatology campaign. This includes patient digitally supported validation; high volume image capture; patient imaging and triage activity.
• National Endoscopy campaign, including validation and activity.
• Minor Operations: management of campaign, waiting lists, booking and clinics in urology and orthopaedics for most challenged health boards.
• Breast see and treat activity for NHS Grampian.

The nature of the relationship between the Acorn Project and other members of the Scottish Cluster is a matter for the UK Government to determine as part of the cluster sequencing programme. This includes when, and which, emitter projects (which may include gas-fired power plants) are selected. We urgently need a firm commitment from the UK Government on the timeline and funding arrangements for the Acorn project and stand ready to work constructively with the UK Government to ensure the fastest possible deployment.

The Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games will deliver a programme of 10 sports hosted within 4 venues in Glasgow. The programme and location of those sports are still to be finalised but Commonwealth Games Scotland anticipate that approximately 500,000 tickets will be available for sale.

The 2014 Commonwealth Games incorporated a programme of 17 sports across 14 venues in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Carnoustie. A number of those sports were outdoors and free to attend for spectators. Approximately 1.3 million tickets were sold, representing 98% of all tickets available for sale.

The Scottish Government supports the Commonwealth Games Federation’s strategy and the work undertaken by Commonwealth Games Scotland to create a new sustainable model for 2026, which opens up future hosting opportunities to a more diverse range of Commonwealth nations.

This is an operational matter for Skills Development Scotland. I have asked the Chief Executive of SDS, Damien Yeates to write to you outlining these costs.

It is the responsibility of individual grant funders to monitor a grant recipient’s compliance with the real Living Wage and effective voice conditions and its progress on the remaining five desirable Fair Work First criteria, as part of their standard grant governance, assurance and monitoring processes.

The Scottish Government is making arrangements to publish the requisite Impact Statements for the Student Mental Health Action Plan very shortly.

This is an operational matter for Skills Development Scotland. I have asked the Chief Executive of SDS, Damien Yeates to write to you outlining these costs.

The Scottish Government’s Public Service Reform (PSR) Programme sets out Scottish Government’s approach to driving efficiency and effectiveness, and to delivering service change to prioritise prevention.

An update on the PSR programme was shared with the Finance and Public Administration Committee in December 2023 and a subsequent update was shared in September 2024. The most recent update sets out the plans for the Public Bodies Programme and details of savings realised and projected from efficiency programmes within Scottish Government such as Single Scottish Estate and the Intelligent Automation Centre of Excellence.

Our Single Scottish Estate, National Collaborative Procurement, Commercial Value for Money and digital programmes are securing cost avoiding and cash releasing savings, expected to reach up to £280 million over a two-year period by the end of 2024-25, with further projected savings of nearly £300 million over the following two financial years to the end of 2026-27. The Scottish Government’s total workforce reduced in both the 2022-23 and 2023-24 financial years by 0.4% and 3.0% respectively, with ongoing monitoring to ensure the workforce is delivering as effectively and efficiently as possible.

In November we have published data on corporate costs from public bodies. This data will support Government and public bodies to work together to drive efficiencies and release resources to the frontline.

The latest Scottish Government labour productivity statistics for Scotland for 2023 show output per hour worked for Government services. The recent Scottish Government publication Public Sector: Economic Overview presents a range of public sector statistics including labour productivity statistics for relevant sectors.

Scottish Government analysts are also stakeholders in the ONS led Public Services Productivity Review. The first phase will look at measurement improvements for England but will also work with devolved administrations to share best practice and identify what data sources would be required to make improvements, with a view to how UK-wide measurement improvements will be incorporated into the national accounts in future. The latest ONS update can be found here.