Chamber and committees

STAF received £184,200 (2021-22) and £193,200 (2022-23) in core funding via the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention & Adult Learning & Empowering Communities (CYPFEI & ALEC) third sector fund. For both these financial years, the agreed outcomes from this funding were:

• That the wellbeing and success of young people leaving care across Scotland is indistinguishable from that of their peers in the general population.
• That there is a significant and measurable shift in culture and improved understanding by all corporate parents working with young people from a care experienced background leading to improved outcomes

• That young people from a care experienced background are informed and empowered to stay in care longer if that is what they wish in placements that meet their needs.
• That STAF increases its influence on behalf of young people and our stakeholders.

In addition a grant of £27,200 was paid to staff for the financial year 2021-22 through the Children and Young People Summer Programme, the objectives of the grant were:

• Provide targeted opportunities for care leavers and those who support them to reconnect with each other and to explore local outdoor wild spaces;
• Design activities with young people with lived experience to ensure that the programme is relevant to their needs; and
• Provide opportunities that promote and support improving physical and mental health in woodlands and forests with young people participating in activities relevant to the wild spaces they are in.

The Scottish Government welcomes The UK Commission on Bereavement’s report and the focus it brings to improving the experience of people affected by grief and loss. Bereavement affects many aspects of our lives, and we recognise that getting the right care and support following a bereavement is crucial for our health and wellbeing.

We are already taking forward a broad programme of work to improve the practical support, care and advice that is available for people who have been bereaved.

The Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention & Adult Learning and Empowering Communities (CYPFEI & ALEC) Fund has provided funding to 115 organisations - including Child Bereavement UK, Richmond's Hope and APEX Scotland who provide support to children and young people who have suffered a loss through bereavement. £14.5m core funding is prioritised annually, which is equivalent to £100m to date from these funds’ inception.

Officials will continue to engage and listen to bereavement sector partners as they take forward bereavement work, drawing on the UK Commissions findings.

As reflected in the answer to question S6W-22365 on 8 November 2023, the Scottish Bereavement Summit’s final report was published on 28 June 2023. The Report suggests 10 recommendations that the Scottish Government is considering how best to implement. The programme of bereavement work currently spans many Ministerial portfolios, reflecting the wide range of impacts bereavement has on people’s lives. The Scottish Government Bereavement cross-policy network continues to engage and listen to bereavement sector partners as we take forward & draw on the UK Commission’s findings.

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

The Health and Safety Executive (the HSE) operates across the UK including in Scotland under governance from the Department of Work and Pensions within the UK Government. The HSE is responsible for helping people be safer at work.

As part of their responsibilities for workplace safety, the HSE publishes workplace safety statistics for Scotland. In November 2022, they published the latest statistics:

Workplace health and safety statistics for Scotland, 2022 (hse.gov.uk)

In presenting these statistics, the HSE indicated that '... this report represents a profile of workplace health and safety in Scotland and its primary purpose is to provide Scotland specific equivalents of the statistics for Great Britain published across HSE’s Health and Safety Statistics pages. The figures also enable comparisons between Scotland and Great Britain to be made. However, any such comparative analysis should be interpreted with caution since any differences in health and safety outcomes are likely to be at least in part driven by differences in the industry sectors and occupations people work in.'

More specifically, the HSE has carried out a statistical analysis of fatalities in the workplace across the nations of the UK. On page 15 of their November 2022 report, they indicated the following:

'Over recent years, the fatal injury rate in Scotland has been consistently higher than that of Great Britain, but there is no difference in the rate of non-fatal injuries. One explanation is that in Scotland, a greater proportion of workers are employed in higher risk industry sectors or higher risk occupations, compared with Great Britain as a whole. It is possible to standardise fatal injury rates by adjusting them to account for differences in industry composition between countries and regions and a recent research report shows the effect this has on the relative rates of the countries and regions of Great Britain.

The following table shows estimates of the unstandardised and standardised country-specific fatal injury rates for the period 2015/16-2019/20 (the full report can be found at www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/adhoc analysis/updated-standardised-fatals.pdf) .

Number, un-standardised rate and standardised rate of fatal injuries per 100,000 workers (2015-16 – 2019-20)

The Scottish Government funded a national Childhood Bereavement Coordinator project, that concluded in September 2022 with the publication of the final report ‘Growing Up Grieving’. The Co-ordinator’s report included 7 recommendations which span a number of portfolios across Scottish Government. The publication of the report coincided with that of the UK Commission on Bereavement published in October 2022 and the Scottish Bereavement Summit which took place on 13 October 2022, which included delegates from a wide range of bereavement sectors. The summit looked at and summarised the UK Commission report and other recent bereavement reports - including Growing up Grieving , and asked delegates to vote on their priority areas. The final report was published on 28 June 2023, summarising the summit’s findings and compiling recommendations from the 5 recent bereavement reports with the views of summit delegates into one set of recommendations.

As the Scottish Government programme of bereavement work spans a range of Ministerial portfolios, the bereavement cross-policy network is continuing to engage with, and listen to, bereavement sector partners. Future bereavement work will draw on the UK Commission’s findings.

The transfrontier shipments of waste is a reserved policy and details of waste exports outside of the UK are not published or held by Scottish Government, but are held by SEPA.

The consultation on the Scottish Biodiversity Framework closes on 14 December 2023. We will consider the analysis of responses and publish the final Strategy and Delivery Plan in Spring 2024, and the Biodiversity Investment Plan will follow shortly thereafter. This follows a short delay in producing the consultation on the Delivery Plan.

We continue to work with partners to develop delivery plans, including phasing and funding options for this commitment. Details of timescales and funding allocations will be confirmed in due course.

The SPCB’s answer to question S6W-16094 explained that, in line with established procurement practice, the SPCB does not publish specific tenderer information which it considers might prejudice fair competition, which could prejudice the commercial interest of any person or organisation or where it would otherwise be contrary to the public interest to do so. The SPCB does not consider it appropriate to publish the information requested.

The SPCB’s procurement function operates in accordance with its published Procurement Strategy and established industry practice including guidance published by the Scottish Government. There are robust processes in place to deliver sustainable contracts that provide best value for money and resilient supply chain governance.

The latest SPCB Procurement Report can be obtained at Annual Report.

The SPCB’s answer to question S6W-16094 explained that, in line with established procurement practice, the SPCB does not publish specific tenderer information which it considers might prejudice fair competition, which could prejudice the commercial interest of any person or organisation or where it would otherwise be contrary to the public interest to do so. The SPCB does not consider it appropriate to publish the information requested.

The SPCB’s procurement function operates in accordance with its published Procurement Strategy and established industry practice including guidance published by the Scottish Government. There are robust processes in place to deliver sustainable contracts that provide best value for money and resilient supply chain governance.

The latest SPCB Procurement Report can be obtained at Annual Report.