Chamber and committees

Our approach to supporting people who have a terminal illness is demonstrated in the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018, which introduced a new definition of terminal illness. Rather than imposing an arbitrary life expectancy, the clinical judgement of the person’s doctor or nurse is relied upon. This allows people who have been diagnosed as having a terminal illness to receive fast-tracked access to Child Disability Payment or Adult Disability Payment

It is already the case that people who receive a disability benefit in relation to their terminal illness may be eligible to receive a Winter Heating Payment, where they otherwise meet the criteria for eligibility for the Payment. Any further developments to Winter Heating Payment including amendments to eligibility criteria will be considered once the new benefit is being delivered and its initial evaluation is complete.

The 2023-24 budget has made provision for £185.8 million to be allocated to local authorities for free school meals.

All food and drink served in education authority and grant aided schools must meet the standards set out in the 'Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2020' to ensure that pupils receive a balanced and nutritious meal that supports healthy growth and development.

The groups and sub-groups named in response to S6W-12330 that have an allocated budget are:

• Scottish Cities Alliance Leadership Group - £196,000 per annum (this is the Scottish Government’s portion of the funding for the Scottish Cities Alliance)
• Scottish City Region and Growth Deal Delivery Board - £261m for 2022-23
• Scottish Taskforce for Green and Sustainable Financial Services - £300,000 per annum for three years (2021-24)

Further to this, as indicated in the response to S6W-13018 on 22 December 2022, some further groups have been identified following the response to S6W-12330. Of these additional groups, one has an allocated budget:

• Fair Work Convention - £500,000 per annum (the Fair Work Convention are independent, but secretariat support is provided by the Scottish Government)

The other groups and sub-groups named in the previous response do not have allocated budgets. Any incidental costs associated with the running of these groups are covered by the relevant departments’ budgets.

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 Water Framework Directive does not currently include the requirement for the monitoring and assessment of microplastic pollution and specifically Bisphenol A in the water environment.

However, the Scottish Government continues to support active research under the current RESAS Strategic Research Programme 2022-2027 , and the Centre of Expertise on Water. Current plans include work which will further develop the understanding of sources and levels of emerging contaminants, including microplastics, in Scotland’s freshwaters and river sediments and recommend priorities and strategic approaches for future monitoring in Scotland.

The programme of travelling Cabinets was paused as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Scottish Government is now exploring options for restarting the programme in 2023 and will consider the South Scotland region as part of this work.

The Community Land Scotland Gaelic Development Officer was a partnership arrangement between Bòrd na Gidhlig and Community Land Scotland and any funding is a matter for their decision-making processes.

We remain committed to the expansion of universal free school meals in primary schools. In the Scottish budget for 2023-24, we announced additional investment of £16 million in revenue funding and £80 million in capital funding for free school meal expansion. This will continue to fund the next phase of our expansion, which will be targeted to Primary 6 and 7 pupils in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment, helping children most in need first. This will be the next step in fulfilling our commitment to universal provision of free school meals in primary schools.

CalMac is making good progress in relation to recruitment, in line with expectations for staffing both vessels.

The Scottish Government’s response to the Commissioner’s intervention is documented by the three progress reports which the Commissioner has produced during the intervention. These set out the progress which has been made and the areas in which the Scottish Government still requires to make further improvement. The Scottish Government published its Improvement Plan 2022-23 in July setting out its action plan to address these areas of improvement.

As the member is aware, the Government pivoted to respond to the Covid pandemic in early 2020, and the subsequent redeployment of staff to critical areas, has affected the delivery of improvements. As the Civil Service itself recovers from the pandemic, we are taking the time to ensure that we embed continuous improvement in the structures which facilitate and deliver information access to ensure sustained improvement.

The Government’s ‘on time’ response rate over several months remains comparable with the wider public sector in Scotland. This performance has been sustained despite higher year on year request volumes (as at the end of October 2022, requests are up 48% on the previous three years), and increasing complexity of cases. The Government is committed to achieving the 95% target set by the Information Commissioner.

Conditions may be attached to planning permissions for wind farm developments which “require wind turbines to be constructed and operated in accordance with the approved details and maintained in the approved colour, free from external rust, staining or discolouration, until such time as the wind farm is decommissioned”.

The Scottish Government does not monitor or enforce conditions attached to planning permissions, and therefore has not issued any fines relating to the failure to maintain wind turbines. It is the relevant local planning authorities who monitor and enforce development and operational controls imposed through conditions, and who can take enforcement action up to and including requiring removal of the turbine, as well as referring matters to the Procurator Fiscal to consider prosecution.