Chamber and committees

NHS Scotland’s Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) Specialty Delivery Groups (SDG’s) have been established to support, innovate and develop high quality services across Scotland, reducing unwarranted variation, promoting a 'best in class' services and, where appropriate, a 'once for Scotland' approach.

The multi-disciplinary groups, which include clinician and operational managers, have remit across the following areas: Processes, Pathways, Workforce, Innovation and Measurement.

The SDGs provides strategic direction for the work-programme in the following specialities:

• Cataract
• Dermatology
• Ear Nose and Throat
• Gastroenterology
• General Surgery
• Gynaecology
• Neurology
• Orthopaedics
• Rheumatology
• Symptomatic Breast
• Urology
• Vascular Surgery

The groups focus on implementation of existing proven programmes such as Actively Clinical Referral Triage (ACRT) and discharge Patient Initiated Review (PIR) and high impact changes such as Day Surgery and Enhanced Recovery after Surgery.

ACRT and PIR focus on 6 key specialties: Dermatology, ENT, General Surgery, Gynaecology, Orthopaedics, and Urology. Between April 2022 to March 2023, these specialties have managed almost 66,000 referrals through ACRT by returning patients to primary care and almost 43,000 patients were added to discharge PIR pathways.

SDGs also have a key role in establishing and embedding new approaches and innovations, such as Cytosponge and Colon Capsule Endoscopy.

Further information about each of the SDG’s can be found on CfSD’s website.

Following initial discussions between Ministers in the aftermath of Storm Babet, the Deputy First Minister chaired the first formal meeting of the Storm Babet recovery taskforce this morning. It brought together relevant ministers and the Chair of the Tayside Recovery Group to discuss the impact of Storm Babet and any support the Scottish Government can provide for impacted communities working in partnership with local recovery partnerships.

The taskforce agreed a package of Scottish Government support for those suffering from the impacts of Storm Babet. This package will include a £1,500 community recovery payment for individuals whose properties have been flooded, and a £3,000 business recovery grant for businesses impacted by flooding. Grants will be administered by local authorities, further information on when and how to access will be made available in due course. 

In addition, support is already available to impacted households and businesses through Council Tax and Non-Domestic Rates, with powers available to Councils to exempt households and provide reliefs for impacted properties. Ministers also agreed to an extension of the timeframe to which the Bellwin scheme will apply, which will further support Local Authorities with the cost of recovery. The Scottish Welfare Fund is also in operation to help people in Scotland on low incomes through crisis grants and community care grants. There will also be support for the repair of agricultural floodbanks as well as an additional £50,000 for the Royal Scottish Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RSABI) to help bolster the charity’s Flooding Crisis Fund.

This support is in addition to our long-standing annual funding of £42 million and the additional £150 million for flood risk management and £12 million for coastal change adaptation over the course of this parliament.

The taskforce will also consider medium and long term impacts of Storm Babet, and will meet in another two weeks to assess progress.

The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 requires the Auditor General and the Accounts Commission to secure the audit of all accounts of local authorities and associated bodies (including health and social care integration boards and other joint boards) by appointing either Audit Scotland or firms of accountants as the auditors.

The extent to which local authorities did not meet the Accounts Commission’s deadline to submit their annual accounts is a matter for the Controller of Audit or the Accounts Commission and the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The Rural Affordable Homes for Key Workers Fund was announced in the First Minister’s Policy Prospectus in April 2023, with further details included in the Rural and Islands Housing Action Plan, published on 13 October 2023.

To date no homes have been secured through funding from the Rural Affordable Homes for Key Workers Fund. Local Authorities have been made aware of the demand-led fund and we expect those with rural communities to be considering and developing proposals to access the fund as part of their annual Strategic Housing Investment Plan process.

As set out in the Policy Memorandum, accompanying the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill, the policy intention is that a local authority can establish exemptions to a visitor levy scheme in its area as it believes are appropriate. The Bill therefore provides for a local authority to put such exemptions in place, which will be informed by advice in national guidance being developed by local government and business organisations in the Visitor Levy Expert Group.

As set out in the Policy Memorandum, accompanying the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill, the policy intention is that a local authority can establish exemptions to a visitor levy scheme in its area as it believes are appropriate. The Bill therefore provides for a local authority to put such exemptions in place, which will be informed by advice in national guidance being developed by local government and business organisations in the Visitor Levy Expert Group.

As set out in the Policy Memorandum, accompanying the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill, the policy intention is that a local authority can establish exemptions to a visitor levy scheme in its area as it believes are appropriate. The Bill therefore provides for a local authority to put such exemptions in place, which will be informed by advice in national guidance being developed by local government and business organisations in the Visitor Levy Expert Group.

As set out in the Policy Memorandum, accompanying the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill, the policy intention is that a local authority can establish exemptions to a visitor levy scheme in its area as it believes are appropriate. The Bill therefore provides for a local authority to put such exemptions in place, which will be informed by advice in national guidance being developed by local government and business organisations in the Visitor Levy Expert Group.

Our home energy upgrade and retrofit schemes provide high levels of support. For example, eligible households can access up to £15,000 in grants and interest free loans to install clean heating systems and energy efficiency measures. Up to £18,000 is available for those households living in rural areas.

We run regular marketing campaigns to promote awareness of the support available and to raise awareness of the need to take action to reduce emissions and contribute toward net zero objectives. Earlier this year we ran a marketing campaign promoting the support on offer via our newly launched Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan scheme. During the campaign we saw a 23% increase in applications compared to the previous month.

Currently we are running a nationwide marketing campaign promoting the offer of support available from Home Energy Scotland. In the new year we will launch a new targeted awareness raising campaign targeting households who are able to consider installing a heat pump. This will be complemented by bolstered activity under our Let’s Do Net Zero marketing campaign which will highlight the benefits of making changes such as installing insulation or a climate friendly heating system.

The Energy Savings Trust, who manage Home Energy Scotland, also regularly promote the Loans and Grants scheme through their own channels including digital promotion via the advice centre network.

By the end of this year we will publish our Heat in Buildings Public Engagement Strategy setting out how we will work with stakeholders to increase public awareness and understanding of clean heating systems, the different technological options available and how to access advice and support.

The Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grant and Loan Scheme was launched in December 2022. The figures provided show the number of heat pump funding offers issued between this launch date and the end of August 2023.

The Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan scheme is available to all domestic owner occupied households in Scotland, therefore data on household income and age of applicants are not collected during the application process. In the following table, the data requested has therefore been supplied for local authority area only.