Chamber and committees

The safe use of breathing apparatus is central in the role of every firefighter. Training, the provision and assessment of equipment requirements, and the competence of firefighters is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

SFRS continues to respond to every incident with appropriate levels of resources. Staffing levels and recruitment is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

The Scottish Government is supporting 29 Health and Social Care partnerships in their national media campaign of actively raising awareness of the importance of taking out a power of attorney with their local communities.

We will consider the recommendations In the Scottish Mental Health Law Review carefully and decide how we can further promote and highlight the need for every adult in Scotland to consider appointing an attorney whilst they have capacity to do so.

The Scottish Government encourages everyone to arrange power of attorney so that their needs and wishes can be met in the unfortunate event that they cannot make decisions for themselves.

Currently financial help is available, through legal aid for those who qualify, to assist people who might not be able to afford the cost of a solicitor to draw up a power of attorney. A fee exemption is also available for registering the power of attorney with the Office of the Public Guardian for people who qualify.

The Scottish Mental Health Law Review published its final report on 30 September 2022 and set out over 200 proposals for reform. The report recommendations are complex and wide-ranging, and cross-government work is underway to consider them and assess their implications. The Scottish Government intends to set out its initial response to the Review report, including priority actions that will be taken forward, by summer 2023.

Patient care and service delivery are the statutory responsibility of local healthcare providers. NHS Boards are responsible for working with their partners to plan and provide health services which meet the needs of their populations. Use of the independent sector has been an option open to all Health Boards to help address short-term capacity issues.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-15310 on 2 March 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 level of local authority reserves from 2007 to 2022 is set out in a document that has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, Bib number 64019. Please note that the information you have requested is not available at individual local authority level prior to 2007.

The Scottish Mental Health Law Review published its final report on 30 September 2022 and set out over 200 proposals for reform. The report recommendations are complex and wide-ranging, and cross-government work is underway to consider them and assess their implications. The Scottish Government intends to set out its initial Scottish Government response to the Review report, including priority actions that will be taken forward, by summer 2023.

Currently financial help is available, through legal aid for those who qualify to assist people who might not be able to afford the cost of a solicitor to draw up a power of attorney. A fee exemption is also available for registering the power of attorney with the Office of the Public Guardian for people who qualify.

The Scottish Government recognises that acting as an attorney can be very demanding and attorneys must have information on their rights and responsibilities and the safeguards in place to protect individuals. This will benefit both them and the adults they are supporting.

The Scottish Mental Health Law Review published its final report on 30 September 2022 and set out over 200 proposals for reform. The report recommendations are complex and wide-ranging, and cross-government work is underway to consider them and assess their implications. The Scottish Government intends to set out its initial response to the Review report, including priority actions that will be taken forward, by summer 2023.

Scottish Government officials have access to Corporately Owned Privately Enabled (COPE) mobile devices. They are built with business in mind but with the flexibility to allow the users to install other applications. These devices are securely configured in line with NCSC best practice and third party applications (such as TikTok) are prevented from interacting with corporate applications. The Scottish Government has a social media policy that defines the responsibilities of all Scottish Government staff when using social media, this can be found on their website at www.gov.scot/publications/social-media-policy/ .