The Scottish Government expects companies which are awarded public contracts to maintain high standards of business and professional conduct. Public procurement legislation, implementing the UK’s international obligations in this field, provides that companies may be excluded from bidding for contracts in certain circumstances, including where they have engaged in grave professional misconduct which renders their integrity questionable.

The exploitation of assets in illegal settlements could be regarded as constituting grave professional misconduct for the purposes of procurement law, but a decision to exclude a company from a competition must be taken on a case-by-case basis by the public body awarding the contract in question, in full consideration of all of the evidence available to them at that point in time. Decisions must be proportionate and are subject to challenge in the courts.

Scottish Ministers have no power to require that any company is excluded from all competitions.

The NHSScotland iMatter Staff Experience Survey provides an annual assessment of staff experience. All NHSScotland staff and local authority staff from participating Health and Social Care Partnerships, are invited to respond.

All Boards receive local reports, which provide them with a measure of employee satisfaction, and they are expected to take appropriate actions based on their results. Assurance that results are being acted upon is sought via our annual Staff Governance Monitoring exercise.

The following table shows the total value of grants awarded by Creative Scotland’s Open Fund for Individuals to applicants in the Highlands and Islands region from 1 May 2021 to 31 August 2024, which are broken down by local authority area.

I met with Ms Helen Rowntree, CEO of Blood Cancer UK, on 12 September 2024 to discuss their recently published Action Plan. The Scottish Government is pleased to note that the charity’s five recommendations align closely with the ambitions laid out in its own Cancer Strategy for Scotland, published in June 2023.

The cancer strategy takes a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways in cancer, from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care. The Scottish Government looks forward to continuing its work with the third sector to deliver on the ambitious strategy.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring our work is informed by the experiences of people and communities that are affected by racism, hatred and prejudice.

The Scottish Government’s Hate Crime Strategy, and its associated Delivery Plan launched in November 2023, sets out our strategic priorities for tackling hate crime in Scotland. It was informed by communities with lived experience of hate crime, including Irish communities. We are committed to supporting a range of ongoing and participatory engagement, and will continue to work in partnership with Irish community organisations in Scotland to understand issues of importance to them, as we deliver our Strategy.

Scotland’s National Performance Framework is our wellbeing framework that sets out a vision of societal progress through National Outcomes. The Framework has equality breakdowns available as standard for each of the 48 National Indicators relating to people.

Scotland’s Equality Evidence Strategy 2023-2025 demonstrates a clear, continuing commitment to improve the collection and analysis of racial data, to inform understanding of needs and differential experiences of marginalised groups. The strategy was developed in collaboration with a range of external partners. By the end of 2024, an Interim Review of the Equality Evidence Strategy will be completed and published. Aligning with one of the Equality Evidence Strategy Actions, analysis of Scotland Census 2022 data will be completed in 2025 to further add to understanding of differential experiences.

The Afghan medical students are eligible for support under paragraph 12B of the Student Support (Scotland) Regulations 2022, as amended by the Education (Fees and Student Support) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2024. This provision enables the students to be considered as Scottish domiciled for the purposes of funding and entitles them to apply for tuition fees and living cost support in the same manner as other Scottish domiciled students.

The service the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) provide is based on a medical and mobility requirement and the Patient Needs Assessment (PNA) is designed to identify the patients who have the following needs. All patients requesting patient transport are taken through the PNA.

SAS support patients who:

• Require a high level of mobility assistance
• Need specialist ambulance equipment to help them mobilise
• Require oxygen and are unable to self-administer this during transportation
• Have a communicable disease with which travel on public/community transport or in a taxi is not advised, and do not have access to appropriate private transport
• Have undergone a procedure and the potential side effects of the treatment require the assistance of a trained ambulance crew for the return journey
• Have been clinically determined by an HCP as at risk from using alternative transport due to being immunocompromised and do not travel routinely by other means
• They have a cognitive or sensory impairment that requires oversight to safely travel, and no escort is travelling
• Have dementia, mental health conditions that means they are unable to make their own way with alternative transport and could be a risk to themselves or others

More information on Scheduled Care Service can be found on the SAS website at www.scottishambulance.com including information on some other alternative transport providers within the local area. Alternatively, patients/representatives can contact the attending hospital who may be able to provide additional advice on options for travelling to and from any future hospital appointments and if eligible, patients may be able to claim help with travel costs.

Scottish Government analysis suggests that between 110,000 and 130,000 pensioners will remain eligible for payment in Scotland this winter. This represents a reduction of around 900,000 pensioners who will no longer be entitled in 2024-25.

The UK Government’s decision to restrict eligibility for Winter Fuel Payments has had a significant impact, reducing 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 replacement benefit, Pension Age Winter Heating Payment.

Court operational matters, including the system and arrangements for jury service, fall within the remit of the independent Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service.

Jury service is an important civic duty, and I am grateful to all those who undertake it.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans to review the list of “persons excusable as of right” for jury duty as set out in Schedule 1 of the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Scotland Act 1980.

It is the view of the Scottish Government that the pool of potential jurors should be as wide as possible, to ensure that an accused person is being judged by their peers from all walks of life. This also prevents the burden of jury service falling on a narrower section of society than can reasonably be helped.

However, it is recognised that there will always be people who have difficulty in serving as jurors. Therefore, in addition to those eligible to be excused as of right as set out in statute, individuals may also apply for excusal.

Clerks of Courts will be as sympathetic as they can to requests for excusal, and will consider, amongst other things; commitments at work, the cancellation of which would cause abnormal inconvenience - while at the same time balancing the need to have sufficient numbers of prospective jurors from which to ballot a jury.

The Scottish Government is working towards a launch date for the Changing Places Toilets fund and we will provide an update in due course.