Chamber and committees

Work is ongoing to finalise the guidance to promote the use of automatic fire suppression systems for historic building conversions to hotels in the non-domestic technical handbook and is expected to be published in November 2023.

The Right to Breaks Regulations and Guidance Working Group’s role is advisory, to help with the development of the statutory guidance and regulations that will be required to deliver the right to breaks for carers proposed by the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill. This work cannot be finalised until after parliamentary scrutiny of the Bill has concluded and is likely to feed into wider consultation on the approaches proposed.

The Right to Breaks Regulations and Guidance Working Group is made up of representatives from:

• unpaid carers
• Shared Care Scotland
• Coalition of Carers in Scotland
• MECOPP
• Carers Trust Scotland (representing young carers)
• Carer Centre Managers Network
• Health and Social Care Partnerships – Borders, Edinburgh, Falkirk, North Ayrshire
• COSLA
• Social Work Scotland
• Scottish Government

As the names of group members is personal data of a third party, disclosing that would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring we have a comprehensive and high quality free school meal programme and we regularly work with other nations to ensure good practice is shared.

We have no plans at this stage to join the School Meals Coalition. For over a decade, Scotland has been actively involved with International School Meals Day which provides us with the opportunity to promote school meal uptake in Scotland and to showcase Scotland's model of school food provision and food education on the international stage.

To date 63 countries are engaged with International School Meals Day, each sharing their knowledge and experience of supporting children and young people to access balanced and nutritious school lunches to support their healthy growth and development.

We continue to work with COSLA and local authority partners to develop delivery plans. This includes consideration of funding, monitoring and reporting. At present local authorities are responsible for the management of their own digital assets and will have their own local processes in place to handle any repair or replacement.

The General Medical Council (GMC) is responsible for setting the national standards of medical education and training as the UK regulator. As part of work improve medical training on women’s health the GMC are introducing specific assessments for undergraduate medical students on women’s health, including on menopause, obstetrics, and gynaecology. This will apply to all medical students in Scotland.

Additionally, NHS Education for Scotland (NES), the body responsible for setting the postgraduate medical education curriculum in Scotland, have been asked to develop menopause and menstrual health training for all healthcare professionals working across the multi-disciplinary teams in primary care general practice.

It is not within Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s legal remit to assess decisions made nationally. Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s Community Engagement arm supports, ensures and monitors NHS Boards and Integration Authorities activity in relation to patient focus and public involvement in health services.

When decisions are made by the Scottish Government on NHS services, they are scrutinised through the Parliamentary process, the Health and Social Care Committee and Audit Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s Participation Framework provides information / guidance on relevant commitments to public participation that Scottish Government must adhere to. The Participation Framework supports Scottish Government to take decisions about how to open up opportunities for participation in ways that best suit the needs policy areas, the types of contribution being sought, and the characteristics and needs of the people being engaged with.

Zoopla published a report titled “ Rents for new lets rise 10.3% over the last year ” on 03 October 2023, covering changes in average rents for new tenancies over the latest year to September 2023. This report is based on newly advertised rental data and does not include trends in rents for existing tenancies, and does not therefore cover trends in rents for the whole private rented sector in Scotland.

This report states that the average monthly advertised rent for 1 to 4 bedroom properties on the open market in Scotland in September 2023, was £750, 36% cheaper than the average rent across the UK as a whole of £1,164, and lower than the average rent figures across each of the UK countries and regions of England except for Northern Ireland (£744) and the North East of England (£649).

The report also states that these rents in Scotland increased by 12.8% in the last year to September 2023, similar to the corresponding increases in some other regions in England and Wales, with increases of 10% and above in the West Midlands (10.1%), Wales (10.2%), the North West (11.3%) and London (11.5%).

The Scottish Government considers that there are a wide range of factors contributing to high increases in private rents in Scotland and across the UK. The Programme for Government confirms the intention to introduce a Housing Bill to deliver a New Deal for Tenants, including the introduction of long-term rent controls for the private rented sector to address large increases in rents both during and between tenancies in Scotland.

The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 provides stability of rents for the majority of existing tenants in the private rented sector in Scotland. Since 1 April 2023, rents for tenancies subject to the rent cap can increase by up to 3%, or landlords can apply to Rent Service Scotland for approval of an increase of up to 6% in specific circumstances. Our emergency legislation has led the way at a time when rents have been rising across the UK, stabilising rents to help tenants to stay in their homes. Anywhere else in the UK, private tenants have faced a double impact of unfettered rent rises both during and between tenancies.

This emergency legislation is time-bound and temporary, and the ongoing necessity is regularly reviewed and reported on. The First Report , Statement of Reasons for the Act’s extension from March 2023, Statement of Reasons for the Act’s second extension from September 2023 and the latest Report covering the period 1 June to 30 September 2023 are available on the Scottish Government website.

The Scottish Government is aware the School Meals Coalition Global Summit took place in Paris on 18 and 19 October 2023, but as non-members did not attend.

The Best Start Report, published in 2017 followed a review of maternity and neonatal services in Scotland, and was based on research evidence, the views of clinicians and the views of service users. Based on data on birth data, the report recommended that we move to a model of three intensive care units in Scotland.

The process of determining which units should provide Neonatal Intensive Care followed an Options Appraisal process undertaken by an expert group, including clinical leads and service user representatives. The Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Aberdeen Maternity Hospital scored highest based on an agreed short list criteria, definitions and weighting. The group were asked to recommend three units and there was no consideration given to including a fourth unit.