Chamber and committees

The Government published budget proposals in December. Subject to parliamentary approval, that will determine the levels and duration of funding available.

Until this is finalised officials are not in a position to publish the application form and eligibility guidance. A final decision should be made in the coming weeks.

Two pathfinder Climate Action Hubs were launched in September 2021 covering the Northeast of Scotland (NESCAN Hub) and the North Highlands, Orkney and Shetland (North Highlands and Islands Hub).

Both Hubs have provided a vehicle for communities to come together stimulating community level climate activity and supporting communities to adapt to our changing climate.

The Scottish Communities Climate Action Network (SCCAN) is supporting the wider development of Climate Action Hubs. Funded by the Scottish Government they recruited 14 regional network coordinators in 2022 to bring communities together ensuring as inclusive an approach as possible. They are facilitating discussions on what is needed for each area, ensuring Hubs are shaped by and responsive to local need and build on existing support.

Work is currently underway in the Scottish Public Health Workforce Development Group to assess needs and agree priority actions in relation to the public health workforce. A programme of leadership development has already started with local Directors and Deputy Directors of Public Health, along with Public Health Scotland, working with Scottish Government. A further programme of succession planning will be developed this year.

Scottish Directors of Public Health have been prioritised within the Scottish Government Leading to Change Programme for bespoke and sustainable leadership development support. Their knowledge, expertise and leadership are recognised as central to Scotland’s success in the recovery and re-building of the health of the nation post COVID.

Within Leading to Change we are also developing a programme of NHS Board CEO, Executive and Director Succession Planning. The Succession Planning workstream aims to create a diverse, values driven senior health workforce, by supporting existing and aspiring CEOs, Executives and Directors, and developing and implementing a consistent national approach to NHS Board Succession Planning that ensures a pipeline of candidates for future senior leadership roles, who are equipped to realise our ambitions as set out in the Health and Social Care Delivery Plan. We have created a Leadership Success Profile (LSP) for NHS CEO roles and will be creating an LSP for Executive and Director level roles in early 2023.

An expert Menopause and Menstrual Health Policy Working Group has been established to progress this action.

ScotWind is at the very early stages, with Option Agreements setting out a potential development of 27.6GW. We are also awaiting the results of Crown Estate Scotland’s evaluation of the INTOG applications, which could deliver a further 5.7GW of targeted oil and gas decarbonisation projects. The need for future offshore wind planning and leasing rounds will be subject to ongoing evaluation of the current programme and the outcome of supporting assessments, such as the Iterative Plan Review, that take into account the further development of a just transition, new and emerging technology and our net zero commitments.

NHS Ayrshire & Arran and NHS Highland did not participate in the extraction of data from the Scottish Primary Care Information Resource (SPIRE), so we were unable to provide general practice data on the prevalence of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for these Boards.

The Green Heat Finance Taskforce meets on a bi-monthly basis with the last meeting taking place on 2 November 2022. All meeting summaries and action points of the Green Heat Finance Taskforce are published on the Green Heat Finance Taskforce webpage following confirmation of Member's approval at the following meeting. Therefore, the action points of the November meeting will be made available on the website in January 2023.

There has been no decision taken around excluding people receiving treatment for alcohol issues from Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) Standard 1.

The MAT standards set out the standards of care people should expect for accessing treatment for drug problems and MAT standard 1 aims to ensure people receive same-day treatment wherever possible on the day they wish to begin medication assisted treatment.

The Scottish Government recognise the benefits of Scottish Racing to the economy and the positive impact it has on employment in communities across Scotland.

While we have not undertaken a direct assessment of the potential economic growth that the Scottish horse racing sector can contribute to the economy, we are aware of Scottish Racing’s 2018 Annual Review, which highlights that the sport generates £306 million to the Scottish economy as well as sustaining 3,400 FTE jobs.

Through our emergency sports funding package, we provided Scottish Racing with £2.265 million, recognising the value of sustaining and supporting Scotland’s racecourses.

The Scottish Government continue to engage with Scottish Racing and look forward to their 2022 Review and Prospectus, which will be published shortly with updated figures.

The Scottish Government are currently working with a steering group comprised of key stakeholders from across the sector to develop an updated Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus (SHBBV) Framework. It is anticipated that the Framework will be published in Spring this year.

As at the 31 March 2022, there were 491 live homelessness cases that had been assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness where it was stated that at least one member of the household was formerly a member of the armed forces.

Statistics on former armed forces status for households assessed as homeless are available by year in table 22 of the latest annual Homelessness in Scotland publication , with further analysis available in the Veterans' homelessness in Scotland data tables .