Chamber and committees

Chemicals regulation in the UK engages a complex mix of devolved and reserved competence. Scottish Government works with the Welsh and UK Governments (the “appropriate authorities”) under the UK Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (UK REACH) Regulation to ensure the risks posed by chemicals and chemicals in products, including period products, are adequately controlled for people and the environment across Great Britain.

During preparation of the 2022/23 UK REACH work programme officials considered a number of potential chemical risks for further investigation and, where necessary, control under UK REACH. One such case was hazardous substances in period products (See Rationale for prioritising substances in the UK REACH work programme, 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) ). Based on evidence presented by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the appropriate authorities concluded that no further investigation was necessary because existing evidence suggests such chemicals are either not measurable, or the levels present are too low to present a risk to human health. As with all previously considered cases that were not taken forward, this conclusion will be kept under review.

The conclusion was based on the findings of a study into feminine hygiene products by the French Chemicals Agency (see ANSES OPINION on the safety of feminine hygiene products & Feminine hygiene products: composition and toxic shock syndrome, our recommendations | Anses - Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail ) which did not find any risk associated with the presence of the substances tested for, and a related study by the Swedish Chemicals Agency (see kemi.se/download/18.6df1d3df171c243fb2331064/1589120703821/report-8-18-survey-of-hazardous-chemical-substances-in-feminine-hygiene-products.pdf & New report: No reason for concern about chemicals in menstrual products - Kemikalieinspektionen ) that concluded that the risk to human health of the 61 substances that were identified was low (although investigated, no per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS, were found). The French study recommended that manufacturers improve the quality of these products in order to eliminate or minimise the presence of chemicals.

With regard to PFAS, in April 2023 the HSE published a Risk Management Options Analysis ( UK REACH: Regulatory management option analysis (RMOA) (hse.gov.uk) ) recommending several actions to better protect people and the environment from this group of chemicals. Scottish Government strongly supports regulatory action on PFAS as a priority and we expect these recommendations to be taken forward without delay under the UK REACH Regulation.

Social Security Scotland do not make decisions on whether an application is fraudulent. Where fraud is suspected, appropriate investigations would be undertaken and when complete, a report would be made to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal for their consideration. If after due process a conviction is achieved, fraud is then confirmed by the Scottish Judicial System.

Prevention of fraud is a priority, with measures and controls embedded in Social Security Scotland’s processes and systems to minimise the opportunities for fraud.

With regards to combined levels of both fraud and error these are included in the Social Security Scotland Annual Report and Accounts.

Social Security Scotland carefully considers the information on counter fraud activity that can be placed into the public domain to ensure that any information released does not undermine the ability of Social Security Scotland to prevent and detect crime.

I have portfolio responsibility for hospital arranged post mortem examinations. These are undertaken for deaths in hospitals to establish the medical cause of death and require consent from the individual or the family.

Separately, post mortems can be carried out under the direction of the Lord Advocate as part of an investigation into a death. These are a matter for the Lord Advocate and the Scottish Government does not comment on or get involved in these.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published by UK government in June 2023, sets out funding in England of £2.4 billion between‎ 2024-25 and 2028-29. This funding is expected to be subject to the Barnett formula, however final budget allocations are currently unknown and will be subject to future UK budgets. No additional funding has been received in 2023-24.

It is for locally elected representatives to make local decisions on how best to deliver services to their local communities.

Local authorities have powers to award discretionary local relief under section 3A of the Local Government (Financial Provisions etc.) (Scotland) Act 1962, as inserted by the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. When considering the use of these powers, local authorities are statutorily required to have regard to their expenditure and income, and the interests of persons liable to pay council tax set by them.

The Scottish Government devolved empty property relief on 1 April 2023 with a generous additional revenue transfer of £105m annually to local government guaranteed for the next three years. Councils can use this funding as they see fit, including to offer local relief to empty property. All councils have introduced local relief schemes for empty property in their area for 2023-24, details of which may differ by council.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21182 on‎ 22 September 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

The Scottish Government aims to publish a draft strategy for consultation in Spring 2024.

By 31 August 2023, there were 84,660 cardholders in Aberdeen City within the National Concessionary Travel Schemes. In Scotland, there are a total of 2,263,403 cardholders. This includes cardholders in the free bus schemes for those aged 60 and over, those aged under 22 and eligible disabled people.

Cardholder data is supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO) and is provided by local authority.

NECPO supports the 32 local authorities by assisting with the integration of various national and local public services on the National Entitlement Card (NEC) and are the joint controller with local authorities of this data. The figure includes travel products collected from the Transport Scot Pass Collect mobile app.

Our veterans and armed forces community are an asset to our society and we want to make sure they have a suitable home that meets their needs. Funding can be made available through our Affordable Housing Supply Programme to deliver homes specifically for veterans where local authorities identify this as a strategic priority. Veterans and armed forces personnel also have priority access to the Low-Cost Initiative for First Time Buyers shared equity scheme. The Scottish Government continue to support Housing Options Scotland which includes their Military Matters project and our social housing allocations practice guidance includes a specific section on armed forces and veterans to help landlords consider the needs of this group and respond appropriately.

No NHS Forth Valley buildings have been assessed as containing reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete. The NHS Scotland Assure survey programme has identified eight buildings in the NHS Forth Valley estate with two or more characteristics consistent with the presence of RAAC. These buildings were included in the list of NHS Scotland buildings which was provided in the response to answer S6W-19366 on 21 July 2023. This list has also been made available on the NHS Scotland Assure website: RAAC -List of Properties v1 Jul 23 (nhs.scot). This list forms the NHS Scotland Assure RAAC survey programme, which commenced in July 2023.