Chamber and committees

The next set of results for the SCJS will be published in Autumn 2023. These results will cover a full years' worth of interviews through to December 2022.

Along with the other large household surveys that rely on face-to-face interviews, the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) was suspended in March 2020 to restrict social contact during the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, no SCJS interviews were conducted during 2020-21 and no report will be published for that year. In recognition of the evidence gap opened up by the suspension, the Scottish Government introduced the Scottish Victimisation Telephone Survey as a discrete and additional collection to the SCJS. This asked people about their experiences and perceptions of crime, safety and policing during the COVID-19 pandemic, with findings available at: Coronavirus (COVID-19): Scottish Victimisation Telephone Survey 2020 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . Fieldwork for the SCJS resumed in late 2021.

The Scottish Government wants children to grow up loved, safe and respected and to fulfil their potential, and our third sector partners play a critical role in achieving this.

We are providing over £34 million to a wide range of third sector organisations who are delivering support to families through a number of programmes – the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund, the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention & Adult Learning & Empowering Communities third sector fund, the Residential Rehabilitation Rapid Capacity Programme, the Drug and Alcohol Services – Improving Holistic Family Support Framework - as well as through direct grant funding to organisations who are providing relationship support and support to families affected by imprisonment.

As stated in the answer to question S6W-17851 on 31 May 2023 the Scottish Government has no role in setting the levels or assessing the impact on individuals of registration fees for the regulated health professions. These functions are within the statutory authority of the governing councils of the independent UK regulators, including the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

The Scottish Government recognises the unwelcome additional burden that higher fees will place on registrants, especially during the current financial climate. However, we acknowledge that the HCPC - as a registrant-funded independent regulator - is facing the same cost pressures as other organisations, including other regulators that have also raised their fees.

Occupational Therapy is one of the professions included in the Scottish Government's Agenda for Change (AfC). Following acceptance by all Unions, the 2023-24 Pay Deal was implemented, with both uplift and additional payment, in the April pay run. This pay deal came after Agenda for Change took difficult decisions to find this money within the health budget, confirming its commitment to supporting AfC staff, particularly during a cost of living crisis.

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

Public Health Scotland publish Acute hospital activity and NHS beds information which shows the number of available staffed beds and percentage occupancy (Table 4) by financial year (2012-13 to 2021-22) and by quarter (2020 Q2 to 2022 Q1), by NHS Board and hospital location. In addition, PHS produce a quarterly publication which provides similar beds information up to and including the quarter ending 30 September 2022. Data for the quarter ending 31 December 2022 was published on 30 May 2023. The PHS statistics do not provide specific information on COVID beds. NHS Boards reconfigured parts of hospitals during the pandemic, with, in particular, significant increases in critical care capacity, and this should be taken in to account when interpreting the annual bed statistics.

Public Health Scotland also publish statistics on the number of patients in hospital with COVID-19 which is available in the Weekly national respiratory infection and COVID-19 statistical report with Health Board level data available through the Open Data Platform: COVID-19 Statistical Data in Scotland - Daily Case Trends by Health Board - Scottish Health and Social Care Open Data (nhs.scot) . Until 7 May 2023, this also included the number of patients with COVID-19 in ICU.

The Scottish Civil Justice Council is a body independent of the Scottish Government, which has responsibility for drafting rules of procedure for the civil courts. We will await the outcome of the current review before taking a view on whether the requirements of Article 9(4) of the Aarhus Convention and findings of the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee in Decision VII/8s of October 2021 are addressed.

We welcome the focus on perinatal support in the report from the Maternal Mental Health Alliance. Development of perinatal mental health services is a key priority for the Scottish Government to improve the wellbeing and experiences of women, infants and families.

Since 2019, our investment of over £26 million has delivered a substantial increase in statutory and third sector services across Scotland leading to:

o 11 new and 3 expanded Community Perinatal Mental Health Teams

o 10 new and 4 in development Infant Mental Health Services

o 9 new and 1 expanded Maternity and Neonatal Psychological Intervention Services

During this period of significant expansion, some NHS Boards have understandably experienced a number of challenges including around recruitment. The Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Service Development Adviser is regularly in contact with identified NHS leads to help identify and tackle such issues; and we continue to work closely with the Network to look at additional ways to put support in place.

The Scottish Government is committed to continuing to work with NHS boards to support them in managing their allocations and the successful implementation of perinatal and infant mental health services.

The Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Programme Board concluded as planned in March 2023, having overseen the development of a range of high quality statutory services and increase in third sector provision across Scotland.

Implementation continues with an interim Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Advisory Group supporting further development of services in a sustainable manner, working alongside the Perinatal Mental Health Network Scotland.

New oversight arrangements are under development and will be announced in due course. We will ensure that the voices and experiences of women, infants and their families remain at the heart of this work.

Scottish Government officials will next meet with SafeDeposits Scotland on Thursday 14 September for their 6 monthly review meeting. There are currently no plans for myself to meet with SafeDeposits Scotland.

The New Deal includes collaborative work on a Fiscal Framework for Local Government, alongside a new Partnership Agreement. Following the First Minister’s introductory meeting with COSLA President, Councillor Morrison, on 31 March, work on the Partnership Agreement has progressed at pace. The Scottish Government has also undertaken intensive collaborative work on a Fiscal Framework for local government and will continue to work with COSLA over the coming months to agree further substantial aspects of a Fiscal Framework alongside the Partnership Agreement.

The dualling of the A77 was not recommended as an outcome of the South West Transport Scotland Study published in January 2020. Instead, options for targeted improvements and road safety measures were recommended and these were subsequently appraised and formed the basis of Recommendation #40 of the second Strategic Transport Projects Review published in December 2022.