Chamber and committees

A grant of £15 million for the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults was distributed to Third Sector Interfaces across Scotland in August 2022, to support local, grassroots community organisation. £14,975,678.28 had been distributed by the end of March 2023. Third Sector Interfaces reported a total underspend of £24,321.72 for that year.

A grant of £1,136,695 was provided to support administration costs and the capacity building efforts of Third Sector Interfaces in 2022-2023. Third sector interfaces reported a total underspend on the administration grant of £4,948.63.

Securing positive effects for biodiversity is one of six statutory outcomes for the National Planning Framework, as identified in section 3A(3)(c) of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997, as amended. National Planning Framework (NPF4) was adopted and published on 13 February 2023. Improving biodiversity is a cross-cutting theme which runs throughout NPF4. Our strategy and policies support development that helps to secure positive effects for biodiversity.

Current building regulations include a standard which promote sustainable development, including advice on how biodiversity can be well served as a topic in new school developments – this is published under Aspect 4 of our ‘statement of sustainability’, standard 7.1 in the Non-domestic Technical Handbook . We plan to revisit this topic, in the context of other ongoing activity, to understand further opportunities for building regulations to make a positive contribution to biodiversity within new developments.

National Planning Framework 4 Policy 3 (c), which relates to local developments, is underpinned by NatureScot’s Developing With Nature guidance published on 13 February 2023. This guidance includes 24 measures that development can incorporate to enhance biodiversity, one of which is Homes for Small Birds (measure 13).

The Swift Conservation website also provides guidance to the building industry on swift bricks and nest boxes Swift Conservation Homepage (swift-conservation.org) .

From academic year 2023-24, the Scottish Government have updated the residency criteria for home fees status and student financial support in Further Education and Higher Education. This update means we can now consider applications for tuition fees, bursaries and/or loans from students with all forms of leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom providing they meet the other eligibility tests set out in Regulations. This extension of support has seen more groups of students become eligible, including those students granted leave on the British National (Overseas) visa route.

The Scottish Government does not have any immediate plans to waive the requirement for 3 years ordinary residence in the UK for this group.

Scottish Ministers are committed to re-opening the Independent Living Fund (ILF) 2015 Fund on the basis of affordability and sustainability. The Scottish Government will continue to actively consider re-opening the Fund as part of the annual budget setting process. Stakeholder engagement opportunities are planned in the coming months to strengthen communication, explain the funding position and stress that future options for the ILF Scotland 2015 Fund would be developed in co-design with disabled people and their representative organisations.

There is no single reason behind the increased rates of terminations of pregnancy shown in the 2022 Public Health Scotland statistics. Scottish Government is working with NHS Boards to explore this further.

Whilst the Scottish Government believes that all women should have access to abortion services should they require them, the Women’s Health Plan published in 2021 sets out a number of ways to reduce the risk of unintended pregnancies. This includes ensuring that women across Scotland have timely access to contraception, and to information which allows them to make informed decisions about their own sexual and reproductive health. We are working with NHS Boards to improve contraception provision for post-partum women, and also to encourage the take up of Long Acting Reversable Contraception (LARC) post-abortion care.

The Scottish Government’s Sexual Health and Blood Borne Viruses (SHBBV) plan for 2023-2026, which is due to be published towards the end of summer 2023, will include a focus on improving access to sexual health services across Scotland.

In Scotland, NHS prescriptions charges were abolished in 2011 and are free to all at the point of access. This is also the case in Wales where charges were abolished in 2007. Patients not entitled to free prescriptions in England are liable to a charge of £9.65 per item from April 2023.

NHS eye examinations in Scotland are free to anyone ordinarily resident in the UK and to some eligible overseas visitors. In England and Wales, the eligibility criteria for free NHS sight tests are different and can be accessed here: https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/opticians/free-nhs-eye-tests-and-optical-vouchers/ .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19557 on 26 July 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 .

A financial modelling exercise for the cost of re-opening the Independent Living Fund (ILF) 2015 Fund was carried out for the Independent Review of Adult Social Care (IRASC) and explored the number of people in receipt of care packages over a range of support costs. This analysis suggested £32 million per annum was required to re-open the ILF 2015 Fund based on an indicative care package value of £600 per week.

Subsequently the SG undertook further analysis to better understand the data relating to the costs of care packages offered by Local Authorities (LAs). This identified significant variations in how these costs are recorded and therefore uncertainty around likely costs of reopening the ILF 2015 Fund. Work is ongoing to improve social care data more broadly to support the establishment of the National Care Service in Scotland.

Funding for the Independent Living Fund (ILF) Scotland is transferred each year to ILF Scotland to meet existing commitments to the current ILF population under the ILF Scotland policy framework. These policies are set by Ministers and can be found on the ILF website: ILF Scotland Policies | ILF Scotland .

The Scottish Government receives £53.3 million per year from the UK Government to help maintain support for the former ILF/UK population transferred in July 2015. The following table shows the funding allocated by SG to ILF Scotland annually since the first full financial year of 2016-17. In addition, the annual outturn of ILF Scotland can be found within their published accounts (linked here: ILF Scotland Annual Accounts )

Unused recipient funds, including those in consequence of the death of recipients, are returned to ILF Scotland who in consultation with SG officials, decide whether to use it for spending priorities associated with ILF or to offset ILF Scotland’s monthly drawdown on its annual funding allocation. In the past funds have been used to cover the cost of Scottish Living Wage uplifts for personal assistants employed by ILF recipients, reductions in contributions from recipients towards the cost of their support and a Digital Transformation for ILF Scotland IT systems.