Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government welcomes the UK Supreme Court’s judgment. We are carefully considering the judgment in the Scottish context and remain committed to supporting Gillian Mackay MSP with the development of her member’s bill to safeguard access for women in Scotland to healthcare facilities that provide abortion services, without fear, harassment or intimidation.

The Scottish Government recognises the critical importance of school age childcare and the benefits it brings for the whole family. That is why we are committed to designing an all-year-round system of school age childcare, which will be funded for those families on the lowest incomes.

In early 2023, we will publish a School Age Childcare Framework setting out the approach and principles that will apply to design and build a robust system of school age childcare. In developing our future system, we are taking a place-based, person-centred approach to designing services and will work collaboratively with families, childcare providers, communities, and the wider public sector to build a system that meets their needs.

We are also developing and testing the role that organised children’s activities will play in a school age childcare system, alongside the regulated childcare sector, to support families, provide choice and improve access to these activities for children.

I recognise that, as with many areas of the economy, there are workforce challenges in the childcare sector which may be contributing to waiting lists for afterschool childcare. We are committed to working with the sector to address these.

I would also refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-13097 and S6W-13098 on 9 January 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at Questions and answers | Scottish Parliament Website.

As noted within the Scottish Government's calendar of forthcoming statistical publications (link provided below), the Drug Seizures and Offender Characteristics 2020-21 publication has been delayed to provide additional time for data collection and validation.

Official statistics: forthcoming publications - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Scottish Government statisticians now intend to publish figures for 2020-21 and the following year of 2021-22 in the Spring of 2023, and we will pre-announce a specific month to users in the near future.

Scottish Government is a key partner in the Save a Life for Scotland partnership which is delivering the Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest: Strategy 2021 to 2026 .

The strategy includes an aim of increasing the percentage of Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) which have a defibrillator applied before the ambulance service arrive from 8% to 20%. Our focus is to ensure that defibrillators are publicly accessible, registered and to take a data driven approach to supporting their placement in areas where they are most likely to be used.

Scotland’s Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Report 2019-2022 underpins the data driven approach. This shows minor differences in availability or usage of public access defibrillators (PAD) between SIMD quintiles.

However, it remains the case that there are inequalities in OHCA outcomes for people living in more deprived areas. That is why the OHCA strategy includes an aim of targeting work to address known inequalities across the delivery of all actions.

Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) commits to providing all children, young people and their families with the right support at the right time, and where extra help is needed this can include a personalised child’s plan, which might contain therapeutic support, depending on the circumstances.

This year, we have also initiated a Whole Family Wellbeing programme of activity to help transform the delivery of holistic family support. This includes investing £32 million through Children’s Services Planning Partnerships and supporting them in driving this work at the local level. This is to ensure that all families, including adoptive and foster care families, can access support based on their needs, where and when they need it.

All local authorities have a legal duty to provide support to meet the needs of people who have been adopted and their families. We provided £128,000 this year for specific therapeutic support, namely to Adoption UK Scotland for the TESSA programme which provides therapeutic input for adoptive families, and to Health in Mind to run a Trauma Support Service for people affected by historical adoption practices, as well as implementing peer support for both groups and individuals.

The most recent data from the 2019 Scottish Housing Condition Survey showed 45% of Scotland’s homes to be EPC C or better. To ensure all homes reach at least equivalent to Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C, we are committed to introducing regulations from 2025. They will require Scotland’s homes to reach at least equivalent to EPC C at respective trigger points, where technically feasible and cost-effective to do so - with backstops of 2028 for the private rented sector and by 2033 for owner occupiers.

To enable this and a just transition, the Scottish Government have committed to investing at least £1.8 billion this parliamentary term to accelerate deployment of heat and energy efficiency measures. We intend to publish a consultation on the proposals for the Heat in Buildings Bill in the coming year.

Details of the grant allocations and outturns for each council as part of our Area Based Schemes programme since 2013 are published on the Scottish Government website:

Area-based schemes - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Information about the previous Home Insulation Scheme (HIS) and the Universal Home Insulation Scheme (UHIS) from 2008 to 2013 is available from the Energy Saving Trust website.

Home+Energy+Programmes+Summary+Report+20092013.pdf (energysavingtrust.org.uk)

The primary Scottish Government funds which enable local authorities to support town centre regeneration are the Place Based Investment Programme (PBIP) which includes the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund and the Town Centre Fund which pre-dated the PBIP. I have placed a copy of tables in SPICe bib number 63928 which set out the information we have available to date on what the South Scotland region has received in each year since 2007, broken down by Town and Local Authority.

In addition, though not included in the table, the Scottish Government has provided offers of other financial and non-financial support which has benefited high streets. This is not limited to:

• funding to agencies and partnerships such as South of Scotland Enterprise Agency, Scotland’s Towns Partnership and Business Improvement Districts, VisitScotland, Historic Environment Scotland;
• funds and funding such as Regional growth deals, the Climate Challenge fund, Active Travel funding. and Covid funds such as the £80m Local authority covid economic recovery funding;
• programmes such as the Scotland Loves Local, Empowering Communities, and Vacant and Derelict Land; and Climate Action Towns.

Restricting alcohol advertising and promotion is one of the World Health Organization’s three ‘best buys’ to prevent and reduce alcohol-related harms.

That is why we have launched a public consultation setting out potential restrictions on a variety of methods of alcohol advertising, including on sports sponsorship. The consultation closes on 9 March 2023 and we would encourage everyone to respond to this, including those involved in elite and grassroots sport.

The function of consulting at this stage, before any proposals are finalised, is to give organisations and individuals the chance to feedback on these proposals, and potential impacts. Following the consultation, we will analyse the responses and then further consider possible restrictions.

I will meet with key stakeholders, including sporting bodies, during the consultation period to directly hear their views on the proposals and better understand any potential impacts they may have.

Scottish Water has completed some works to the front facia elevation of the building and the dome structure as well as some minor roof repairs and replacement of downpipe and guttering. There have also been repairs made to replace vandalised windows. Scottish Water is now progressing work to replace the railings in line with the pumping station’s listed status and this is planned for early 2023 once the required traffic management on Argyle Street/Dumbarton Road is agreed with Glasgow City Council Roads Department.

In addition to this, Scottish Water is in the early design stages for improvements to the roof. This work is likely to be carried out towards the middle to end of 2024 following listed building consent being secured from the relevant authorities. Scottish Water is also planning some maintenance work on equipment integral to the operation and effective running of the pumping station.