Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is providing £17,000 in 2016-17 from the Children, Young People & Families Early Intervention Fund to support John Muir Awards. Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) is also providing £96,000 for delivery of John Muir Awards. The number of awards delivered in Scotland to the end of Quarter 3 of 2016-17 was 16,241.

Scotland’s two National Parks provide support for the John Muir Award. Since August 2013, a total of 4,776 John Muir Awards have been achieved in and around the Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park. In the Cairngorms National Park the John Muir Award has been used as a primary education model since 2003 and approximately 3,000 awards are completed each year.

The Scottish Government, SNH and the two National Parks also support a range of initiatives to encourage engagement with wildlife and nature. The 2020 Challenge for Scotland’s Biodiversity published by the Scottish Government in 2013 (http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2013/06/5538) sets out our approach to protecting biodiversity and promoting engagement with nature.

SNH are contributing to the development of Our Natural Health Service (http://www.snh.gov.uk/land-and-sea/managing-recreation-and-access/healthier-scotland/natural-health-service/) and the National Walking and Cycling Network (http://www.snh.gov.uk/enjoying-the-outdoors/where-to-go/routes-to-explore/walking-and-cycling-network/). SNH also provide information for the public on enjoying the outdoors responsibly (http://www.snh.gov.uk/enjoying-the-outdoors/).

Both of Scotland’s National Parks support activities to encourage engagement with wildlife and nature. Details are available on their websites: http://www.lochlomond-trossachs.org/park-authority/how-we-can-help/outdoor-learning/ and http://cairngorms.co.uk/caring-future/education-learning/.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-06777 on 17 February 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-06951 on 22 February 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

On 24 June 2016, following the result of the EU referendum, the First Minister made it clear that she would respond to the democratic decision taken by the people of Scotland and explore all options to protect Scotland’s vital national interests. This included providing as much immediate reassurance and certainty as possible, taking all possible steps and exploring all options to protect Scotland’s relationship with the EU and place in the single market, and consideration of a further independence referendum if it became clear that was the only or best way of protecting Scotland’s interests.

All staff in the Scottish Government were informed of these commitments through internal communications.

The Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise are working together through Scottish Development International to attract inward investment to Scotland. Over the last year 55 inward investment projects have been attracted to Scotland and 354 for 4 of the last 5 years. The 2016 Ernst and Young Attractiveness Survey on inward investment to the UK has shown that Scotland is the 2nd most attractive location for Foreign Direct Investment outside of London. With 79% of investors citing the Single Market as an important factor in their decision to locate in Scotland the UK Government's hard approach to Brexit puts this at risk.

Attracting inward investment is becoming increasing competitive on a global basis and it is important we prioritise and co-ordinate our efforts and resources to increase our success rate. To that end we look to match Scotland’s capabilities, assets and resources with the global market opportunity through our sectoral approach. In particular, we are increasing the co-coordinated efforts of our One Scotland approach in the technology and Financial and Business services sectors in California and London given its global hub position.

One of the key factors for an entrepreneur moving to a new country is the presence of a strong, supportive ‘ecosystem’ enabling them to easily access the help they need to grow and develop their business. Through Scotland CAN DO (www.cando.scot), the Scottish Government has been focussed on ensuring that just such a network is in place, with a range of support available from initial advice and signposting to mentoring and networking and a variety of funding options. This support spans public, private and third sector partners who are jointly committed to helping Scotland become the most entrepreneurial society in the world.

Data held by Information Services Scotland, for 2012-13 to 2015-16, demonstrates a decrease in the number of young people under 26 years of age admitted to a general acute hospital in NHS Ayrshire and Arran for an alcohol related condition.

The Scottish Government has taken forward a range of actions around children and young people through Changing Scotland's Relationship with Alcohol: A Framework for Action. This includes improved substance misuse education in schools through Curriculum for Excellence, improved identification of, and support for, children affected by parental substance misuse and support for diversionary activities. We are in the process of refreshing our Framework and will consider what further action to take.

In addition the Alcohol etc. (Scotland) Act 2010 imposed a mandatory condition onto licences to have an age verification policy (Challenge 25) to make it harder for under-age drinkers to gain access to alcohol and the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015 will make it an offence to give alcohol to children or young people in a public place helping the Police to address the scourge of drinking dens.

Skills Development Scotland, Scotland’s national skills body, provides online advice available to individuals and employers via the My World Of Work careers web service, the OurSkillsforce employer web service and apprenticeships.scot

My World of Work offers a unique mix of tools, features and job information and provides careers advice to users, including matching users skills, interests, education and experiences. It also shows how users can work towards their career of choice.

OurSkillsforce helps employers to find and access national and local support. It includes free advice, skills planning, HR support, funding and information to help businesses engage with education.

Furthermore, apprenticeships.scot is now established as the national website dedicated to supporting employers to recruit apprentices. The site allows employers to post apprenticeship vacancies, and provides wide ranging information on the different types of apprenticeships and their benefits.

SDS promote these online services through a number of ways including initiatives such as the MyWoW Ambassador Programme and MyWoW Live, a set of interactive activities designed to inspire young people’s interest in careers in STEM.

Domestic violence is completely unacceptable and the Scottish Government believes that a zero tolerance approach to it is the right approach for Scotland to take and is investing significant levels of funding as well as bringing forward new legislation to tackle it.

We are investing £24 million over 2015-17 from the Equalities portfolio to support a range of projects and initiatives – this continues to support a range of front line specialist services working with women and children who have experienced domestic abuse. In 2015, we announced an additional dedicated £20 million over 2015-18 from Justice budgets to be invested in a range of measures to tackle all forms of this type of violence.

We are implementing Equally Safe, Scotland’s strategy to tackle all forms of violence against women and girls. This aims to prevent violence from occurring in the first place, build the capability and capacity of mainstream and specialist services to support survivors and those at risk, and strengthen the Justice response to victims and perpetrators. Equally Safe delivery plans will come forward later this year.

We will introduce legislation in this Parliamentary year to create a specific offence of domestic abuse that will cover not just physical abuse but also other forms of psychological abuse and coercive and controlling behaviour that cannot easily be prosecuted using the existing criminal law. Creation of this new offence will bring clarity for victims so they can see explicitly that what their partner or ex-partner has done to them is wrong and can be dealt with under the law. Justice agencies are already showing strong leadership in this area; Police Scotland have established a National Domestic Abuse Taskforce to target the most prolific perpetrators, and the Crown Office have a dedicated National Prosecutor for Domestic Abuse.

The Scottish Government are investing £128 million in 2017-18 in Territorial Boards in supporting delivery of service reform. NHS Ayrshire & Arran will benefit from this investment, which clearly demonstrates our commitment to protecting frontline services and supporting reform. NHS Ayrshire & Arran’s budget allocation for 2017-18 includes an uplift of 1.5% - £10.0 million - which protects the underlying budget in real terms. In addition, NHS Ayrshire and Arran will receive a share of £50 million of additional parity funding, which will ensure that all NHS Boards, for the first time, are no further than 1% from their target share of funding. As with all NHS Boards, we will work with NHS Ayrshire & Arran to deliver savings to ensure public money is being used effectively and for the benefit of patients, and every penny of these savings will be directly re-invested in the front-line budget.

Latest cancelled operations figures for the month of 31 January 2017 shows that in NHS Ayrshire and Arran nearly 1,947 operations were carried out with only 9 operations cancelled due to capacity or non-clinical reason - a rate of 0.5% Most cancelled operations continue to be due to clinical reason or patient cancellations. The Scottish Government continues to work to support health boards to manage their capacity planning to keep cancelled operations to a minimum. Decisions to cancel a patient's operation is never taken lightly, any postponed operations will be rescheduled at the earliest opportunity. The Scottish Government has also already announced a £200 million investment to create six new elective treatment centres which will carry out procedures like hip, knee and cataracts operations. These centres will allow people to be treated more quickly for planned surgery to help the NHS meet increasing demand from a growing elderly population and reduce the number of operations cancelled.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-06120 on 24 January 2017. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The provisions in this area have not yet been fully implemented. The Scottish Government will consider evaluation requirements in due course.