Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to developing a voluntary code of practice on dismissing and replacing land-owning land maintenance companies (“the Code”).

Whilst work on the development of the Code continues, other work pressures have impacted the rate of progress.

I fully appreciate the need to get bookings released in good time so that businesses and individuals can plan ahead. Bookings for dates beyond 31 December 2024 will be opened as soon as possible.

Children’s Services Plans are key to the delivery of Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) at a strategic, operational, and frontline practice level, and are the legislative, strategic planning and delivery context in which Holistic Whole Family Support and action to Tackle Child Poverty and Keep The Promise is set. Children’s Services Planning partners have a key role embedding GIRFEC at a local level, to ensure joined up support for families so they get the right help at the right time across services.

The GIRFEC approach lies at the heart of all our policies and services which support the wellbeing of children and young people. It provides a framework for the delivery of high-quality universal and targeted support across public services, the third sector and community partners. At a local level, Children’s Services Plans set out how services, supports and improvement activities will be delivered to meet the national and local priorities which aim to improve wellbeing outcomes for children, young people and families.

The Scottish Government’s Whole Family Wellbeing Funding Programme was established with the purpose of driving the system change required at local level, principally through Children’s Service Planning Partnerships (CSPPs), to deliver holistic family support so that families get the right support, at the right time, for as long as they need. Recognising the varying circumstances in local areas, the Programme does not seek to mandate a specific delivery model – an approach which has been welcomed by delivery partners. Instead, CSPPs are asked to assess their current delivery system and consider what the gaps and opportunities were for them in delivering holistic support for families.

Since 2022 we have invested over £110m in a programme of activity aimed at responding to what the sector told us was required to support local areas to deliver whole system change, including £96m provided directly to Children's Services Planning Partnerships to build local service capacity for change and transform family support services.

In addition, the Scottish Government has allocated over £12 million for the provision of free income maximisation support, welfare and debt advice in 2024-25. This vital funding ensures that people who are struggling the most can access the support they need in a way that works for them – be it face to face, online or over the phone. Building on the success of the Welfare Advice and Health Partnerships, the Scottish Government also established the Advice in Accessible Settings Fund last year. This fund supports the delivery of advice services in a range of community, health and education settings to further increase the availability and accessibility of advice.

We remain committed to supporting advice services as they continue to provide much needed support to households across Scotland.

The Scottish Government does not undertake assessment of the accessibility of streets nationally.

National Performance Framework (NPF) 4 policy 14, highlights the six qualities of successful places which development proposals should demonstrate. The qualities of safety, attractiveness, connectedness and adaptability can improve the accessibility of a place to all users. NPF4 is part of the development plan, which means that planning decisions should be made in line with NPF4 policy unless material considerations indicate otherwise.

Designing Streets is a policy statement that promotes the consideration of street design towards placemaking and away from the system focus upon the dominance of motor vehicles. It emphasises the need to consider accessibility and inclusive design for people over vehicular movements. It is not a standards based guidance but promotes a balanced decision making on designing for place and movement, and relates to both planning and transport policies.

NPF4 policy 13 is clear that development proposals will be supported where they have taken into account, at the earliest stages of design, the transport needs of diverse groups including users with protected characteristics to ensure the safety, ease and needs of all users.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans to introduce a HGV overtaking ban on either of the two lane sections of the M8 motorway.

I refer the member to the answers to questions S5W-32637 on‎ 9 November 2020 and S6W-22271 on 16 November 2023.

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 .

The Chancellor has set out plans to end universal Winter Fuel Payments in England and Wales by restricting it to those receiving Pension Credit and other means tested benefits from this year onwards. This decision was taken without any consultation or discussion with Scottish Government Ministers, which is deeply disappointing given both governments committed to resetting the relationship between them.

The UK Government’s approach reduces the Block-Grant Adjustment associated with devolution of the UK’s Winter Fuel Payment by an estimated £140 million to £160 million in 2024-25 – nearly 90% of the cost of the Scottish Government’s new replacement benefit, Pension Age Winter Heating Payment.

Following careful consideration of the options available for Scotland it is with deep regret that I confirm that the Scottish Government must replicate the decision made by the UK Government and restrict eligibility for Pension Age Winter Heating Payment to older people on relevant eligible benefits. This has been a very difficult decision and not one we want to, or expected to, be making. However, despite all efforts to review our financial position it is a necessary decision when faced with such a deep cut to the budget and in the most challenging financial circumstances since devolution.

The timing of the UK Government announcement has meant it is not practical to make changes in good time for the launch of Pension Age Winter Heating Payment. Delivery will therefore be deferred until winter 2025. However, I can offer reassurance that the Scottish Government is in discussion with the Department of Work and Pensions, which has committed to make payments this winter to eligible pensioners in Scotland on terms equivalent to Winter Fuel Payments in England and Wales.

We are also keen to understand the UK Government’s wider plans to protect energy customers in greatest need, such as a social energy tariff, and will work closely to ensure that they take every possible step to drive up the take-up of Pension Credit and other benefits which pensioners are entitled to.

The information requested on how many epilepsy specialist nurses there have been in each NHS board in each of the past two years is not centrally available.

Information about school clothing grants is recorded centrally through the Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics returns. Information about the number of school clothing grants paid to eligible families as well as expenditure on school clothing grants, during the five most recent financial years for which we hold this information, is as follows:

Health Boards and Health & Social Care Partnerships are responsible for considering local health needs and taking population growth and infrastructure expansion into account when planning and providing for General Medical and Dental Services.

The Scottish Government annually uplifts General Medical Services funding specifically to account for population growth. In 2023/24, this amounted to £8.3 million.

The Scottish Government also introduced dental payment reform on 1 November 2023; this programme aims to better reflect the increased costs of modern dentistry, providing longer term sustainability and encouraging the dental sector to increase its existing NHS provision.

The latest statistics from Public Health Scotland show 90.9% of the population of Lothian Health Board were registered with a NHS dentist on 31 March 2024, over 833,000 adults and children: tables.xlsx (live.com)