Chamber and committees

The Grangemouth Future Industry Board has been established in acknowledgement of both the significant economic role that the wider Grangemouth industrial cluster plays today, and its potential to support Scotland’s Just Transition to net zero. The overarching remit of the Grangemouth Future Industry Board is therefore to support the delivery of the Grangemouth Just Transition Plan. This will help to ensure a that future low-carbon opportunities are realised, whilst ensuring that any transition puts equity and fairness at its heart for people who live and work there.

The Grangemouth Future Industry Board has representation from Petroineos and Unite the Union. My officials are currently working to secure membership of senior leaders from across the businesses located at the Grangemouth Industrial cluster.

I refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-24538 and S6W-24539 on 26 January 2024. 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 .

Further to my answer to S6W-22701, there have now been five meetings of the Culture Conveners since the publication of our 2020 Culture Strategy. These took place in November 2020, March 2021, December 2021, January 2023 and September 2023.

The next Culture Conveners meeting will take place before the end of summer 2024.

The UK Government Apprenticeship Levy is a reserved tax on employers of which Scotland receives a proportionate share of tax revenues via the block grant as per the Fiscal Framework agreement with UK Treasury. Scottish Government do not receive a specific allocation of Apprenticeship Levy revenue.

While recognising the challenging budgetary pressures, Scottish Government have been clear that we will continue to invest significant funding in education, training and skills – including apprenticeships - to meet the needs of employers, the workforce, young people and Scotland’s economy. The overwhelming majority of funding, including investment in our apprenticeship programmes, is available to employers regardless of their size or whether they pay the Levy.

Local Development Plan regulations, which came into force last year, require planning authorities to have regard to any Local Housing Strategy when preparing their plans. This includes their outcomes and actions to address housing need and demand.

National Planning Framework 4 forms part of the statutory development plan and sits alongside Local Development Plans. It contains a general expectation of at least 25% affordable housing provision on development sites, but allows some flexibility to reflect local circumstances. The NPF4 definition of affordable housing explicitly includes ‘housing sold at discount’.

We are committed to bringing people back into towns and encouraging local footfall as we continue to implement the Town Centre First Principle and deliver the Town Centre Action Plan.

In collaboration with Scotland’s Towns Partnership, we continue to support the Scotland Loves Local programme, which encourages people to think local first, increase footfall in town centres and ultimately support local shops and businesses. This package of support includes the Scotland Loves Local week, highlighting good practice, and continued promotion of the physical and digital Gift Card.

Case rates are uncertain and vary over time with different social mixing patterns. According to the Winter COVID-19 Infection Study, prevalence of COVID-19 in Scotland showed early signs of decreasing in the two weeks to 3 Jan.

Public Health Scotland continue to gather epidemiological information on seasonal respiratory infection activity in Scotland and publish the latest data in their National respiratory infection and COVID-19 statistics report.

The Scottish Government’s decision-making throughout all COVID-19 vaccination programmes has been guided by the expert clinical advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and at present they are not recommending any additional action this winter.

The winter vaccination programme began in September 2023 and all those eligible were invited forward prior to Christmas. The vast majority of vaccinations were completed before the festive break, but appointments are available until the end of the programme on 31 March 2024. So far, over 1.38 million COVID-19 vaccines have been administered, equating to 56.8% of the eligible population.

As the majority of the programme is now complete acceleration is not required, with a focus between now and the end of March on encouraging eligible people who to this point have chosen not to receive vaccination to come forward. PHS and the Health Boards have developed additional communications to support this. In addition the Chief Medical Officer, Chief Nursing Officer, and Chief Pharmaceutical Officer have been working to encourage uptake within the health and social care workforce, to support winter resilience across health and care services.

Medical Associate Professions (MAPs) are not new professions and have been practising across the UK for 20 years. They are an important and valued part of the NHS Scotland workforce.

Guidance regarding ways in which MAPs communicate and engage with patients and the wider public, was issued by the Scottish Government to all Health Boards via a Director’s Letter in 2016.

A programme of work jointly led by the Scottish Government and NHS Education for Scotland, and supported by a Programme Board consisting of partners from across the healthcare system will consider the most appropriate means of public engagement in relation to any future plans for this workforce.

In addition, as part of an ongoing programme of stakeholder engagement it is our intention to host a number of workshops throughout 2024, providing an opportunity for a wide range of key stakeholders to engage in detailed discussion regarding key elements of this work.

The Scottish Government does not currently directly fund training for physician associates or anaesthesia associates via the Health and Social Care Portfolio. Health Boards may choose to put in place local arrangements for staff to train as an anaesthesia associate through existing UK-based course provision, in line with their local workforce and operational plans.

We are working with NHS Education for Scotland to determine whether, and to what extent, we make investment in additional domestic training provision for medical associate professionals (MAPs), in order to strengthen future workforce supply in a way that is commensurate with our commitment to take a progressive and evidence-based approach to the expansion of MAP roles across NHS Scotland.