Chamber and committees

A letter was sent to Health Boards from National Clinical Director on 30 December 2020 requesting that Wheelchair and Seating services maintain and replace wheelchairs used by veterans to at least a level commensurate with that issued to them at the time of their discharge, provided it is safe and continues to meet their clinical and wheeled mobility needs. It confirmed that any additional costs associated with servicing, maintaining, replacing – which are expected to be low – will be met by the providers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13888 on‎ 27 January 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

This Government firmly believes that every child growing up in Scotland, regardless of their background or gender, should have an equal chance of attending university and participating in higher education.

To date we have made progress on work to support fair access to higher education. The number of students attending university from the most deprived areas in Scotland is at a record high and we have exceeded the Commission on Widening Access target to have 16% of students from the most deprived areas at university by 2021. We recently appointed a new Commissioner for Fair Access, Professor John McKendrick, to continue to progress this important agenda.

Scottish universities are covered by the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), which requires them to, amongst other things, report on mainstreaming the equality duty; publish equality outcomes and report progress; and assess and review policies and practices.

As part of its March 2020 Memorandum of Understanding with the EHRC, the Scottish Funding Council developed a National Equality Outcomes framework to address the most persistent inequalities in further and higher education (HE) that institutions are asked to consider and report on as part of the 2021-25 PSED reporting cycle.

Sex, as one of the nine protected characteristics under The Equality Act (2010), is considered as part of the National Equality Outcomes, with outcomes including sex imbalance on courses and mental health support for male students.

The Scottish Government is committed to the production of a Student Mental Health Plan to support all students in further and higher education throughout their learner journey.

The Student Mental Health Plan will sit within and link to the wider actions across Scottish Government, including our Suicide Prevention Strategy, ‘ Creating Hope Together ’ which was developed and published in collaboration with COSLA in September 2022, and our forthcoming Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

Please refer to my previous answer to question S6W-13027 for the details of which organisations failed the technical checks process and the reasons for this.

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

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

It is anticipated that the majority of the women living at Cornton Vale will transfer to HMP & YOI Polmont during the interim period where there is already a comprehensive range of services and interventions available for them.

Every effort has been made to ensure the care of the women is not compromised or reduced during the transition period and each woman will engage in an individual case discussion supported by Health Care and Social Work colleagues to identify the most appropriate transfer location for them.

A dedicated area within Polmont has been identified and work is currently underway to increase the number of available ‘safer rooms’ ahead of any relocations taking place. A number of staff who currently work with the women will also relocate to Polmont to provide continuity of care. This will be supplemented by ongoing support from partner agencies including NHS Forth Valley, Social Work Services within Stirling and Falkirk local authorities and Voluntary Third Sector Partners.

When the Connecting Scotland programme first launched, its early aims were to support people shielding or vulnerable to Covid-19. This allowed for devices, connectivity and skills to be provided alongside guidance and information on how to access health and care services such as Near Me video appointments or finding information on NHS Inform.

Our digital in care homes programme was launched to complement Connecting Scotland and saw over 75% of all adult and children's care homes in Scotland take up the offer of digital devices, data packages and skills. These homes cover over 90% of all residents in Scotland with devices being used to help residents to remain connected to friends and family and to access key services such as the NHS.

The Scottish Government have set out plans in the Digital Health and Care Delivery Plan to launch a new digital inclusion in health and care programme by March 2022 that will look to support people in housing and mental health with greater access to services.

Connecting Scotland is also working closely with the Digital Lifelines team to identify opportunities and further enhance digital services to support people with multiple and complex digital needs. The digital lifeline programme aims to connect individuals and support services to prevent drug related deaths, or reducing the risk of harm.

The Trade and Investment Envoy network was established in 2017 and is made up of appointees who work on a volunteer basis to provide Ministers with strategic business insights and connections. We do not directly measure their contributions, however their programme of activities, which are agreed with the Scottish Government, do make a valuable contribution to building strategic relationships for Scotland.

The network has had great success in opening doors, and identifying strategic opportunities to support our export, capital investment and foreign direct investment efforts. Envoys provide critical business insights, intelligence, introductions and advocacy focused on building trade, as well as inward and capital investor relations, with a particular focus on high growth markets in technology, life & chemical sciences, financial & business services and energy. Envoys have supported numerous Ministerial visits including the Dubai Expo 2020, facilitated Government to Government engagement, assisted Scottish companies expand overseas, participated in various (Ministerial) steering groups and supported GlobalScot network expansion.

Envoys, along with GlobalScots were vital in the development of National Strategy for Economic Transformation, Sector Export Plans as well as supporting the delivery of Scotland’s Inward Investment Plan.

Given the above we are confident that our Envoys have contributed towards Scotland retaining its position as the leading UK destination for inward investment outside of London for the past seven years, landing 122 new projects in 2021 according to the EY Annual Attractiveness Survey 2022.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

As of Friday 20 January, 15 women had transferred from Peebles House in Cornton Vale to either HMP & YOI Polmont, The Lilias Centre or The Bella Centre.

2020 was designated Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters, a year that would spotlight, celebrate and promote opportunities to experience and enjoy Scotland’s unrivalled coasts and waters, encouraging responsible engagement and participation. The visitor opportunity in terms of experiences and events was broadly presented across four cross cutting strands:

1. Our Natural Environment and Wildlife

2. Our Historic Environment and Cultural Heritage

3. Activities and Adventure

4. Food and Drink

Originally scheduled for 2020, as a result of the COVID pandemic, and following discussion with the events and tourism industry, Scottish Ministers agreed to extend the year into 2021.

Analysis of Outcomes

Despite the impact of COVID, the Year of Coasts and Waters exceeded the targets set by the external Steering Group, delivering activity in communities across Scotland and playing an important part in the recovery of the events, tourism and associated sectors.

VisitScotland will shortly provide an evaluation of the year, which will be available on www.visitscotland.org . Initial findings from the year report success against the five agreed key objectives for a Themed Year: Promotion, Celebration, Participation, Collaboration and Industry Engagement.

Headline outcomes include:

• Promotion : the award-winning PR campaign achieved at least 3,662 pieces of media coverage generating a world-wide media reach of circa 3.7 billion whilst the marketing campaigns reached 196.4 million.
• Celebration: 110 events were delivered across the funded and (non-funded) partner events programmes. All 32 local authorities hosted activity and all events were delivered safely within the relevant COVID guidance.
• Participation: almost 1.1 million attendances were recorded across the 28 funded events. This included 702,000 in-person attendances and 389,000 at digital events. Of those participants who responded, 79 per cent said they will appreciate Scotland’s coasts and waters more, 67 per cent said they will get out, by or on the water more and 63 per cent said they planned to take a more active role in the preservation of our coasts and waters and-or marine environment.
• Collaboration: More than 30 organisations were involved in the Steering and Working Groups and were directly involved in shaping, promoting and delivering the year. Demonstrating the level of collaboration, the campaign hashtags were used more than 122,000 times by hundreds of organisations and individuals, all co-promoting the year. Many collaborative projects were also created in response to the Year – e.g. 18 Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) and partners came together to create the West Coast Waters campaign, reaching around 2 million and creating a legacy of partnership working.
• Industry Engagement : Pre 2020 69 per cent of tourism businesses were already aware of the planned Year of Coasts and Waters, 31 per cent were already engaged and 80 per cent of those not engaged were considering it. 76 industry presentations reached at least 2,000 tourism industry representatives. This resulted in over 18,000 views of the online industry toolkit and 896 logos (including 165 Gaelic versions) were downloaded to support partner promotional activity. 11 case studies and 18 interviews showcasing industry engagement were published on visitscotland.org generating 7,000+ page views.

The Year of Coasts and Waters 2020-21 put sustainability and responsible tourism at its heart and worked with supported events organisers to advance responsible events delivery practices. This resulted in:

• Positive Impact : 100 per cent of funded events said that being part of the Year of Coasts and Waters had a positive impact on the way they would work in future.
• Higher Prioritisation – 93 per cent were encouraged to think more about sustainable events management.
• New Processes – 68 per cent of event organisers implemented a new activity or process in managing their environmental impacts.

Direct Cost

Direct cost incurred by the Scottish Government for the Year of Coasts and Waters 2020-21 was the budget of £1.14 million over FY 2019-20 and 2020-21. Of this, £1.09 million was allocated to VisitScotland and £50,000 via a grant to YouthLink Scotland to support the Micro Local Area Grant (MoLAG) programme.

Other public bodies and partners including VisitScotland also supported the year through their own resources, with a wide range of projects and campaigns created or aligned to take advantage of the collaborative platform created by the Year of Coasts and Waters.

Indirect Costs

In terms of indirect costs, within the Scottish Government, work on the Year of Coasts and Waters 2020-21 was coordinated by the then Major Events and Themed Years Unit. With 2.6 FTE members of staff incorporating this as part of their existing roles: the overall resource allocation for the year was less than 2.6 FTE as the team also worked on other projects. In addition, a small number of other civil servants in different teams across a range of portfolios contributed to varying extents as part of their wider responsibilities. In line with usual practice, details of individual tasks associated with the year carried out by civil servants, including the number of hours spent on them, are not routinely recorded because there is no business need to do this.

Year of Coasts and Waters 2020-21 Events

Across the Funded and Partner event programmes 110 events were delivered with activity taking place across all 32 local authorities. Of the 36 events initially awarded funding support through the Year of Coasts and Waters Open Events Fund, some were unable to progress due to COVID. 28 were eventually able to progress and were delivered across 26 local authority areas.

Alongside the Funded events, unfunded Partner events were still supported through the free marketing and media resources offered by VisitScotland. 174 events initially registered as Partner Events across 30 local authorities, with 82 events of these unfunded events eventually able to go ahead when COVID conditions allowed.

The following table therefore shows the locations (including across multiple local authority areas), grant awards and final dates for the 28 events funded through the Year of Coasts and Waters Open Fund administered by VisitScotland.