Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question to S6W-12299 on 1 December 2022, the Scottish Government will publish its response to the Asylum Inquiry Scotland’s final report in due course.

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 Scottish Government contract Corporate Travel Management (CTM) who contract and manage all of the Scottish Government’s hotel bookings. This includes invoicing. We are aware of one hotel recently that indicated a delay in payment of an invoice. CTM colleagues have worked with the hotel manager to resolve this issue.

Any hotel who has concern around a delayed invoice should liaise with CTM. Hotel managers have regular contact with CTM, and contact details are provided where they can raise any concerns. The Scottish Government also chair a weekly call - which all hotel managers are invited to - along with CTM colleagues and our Scottish Government temporary accommodation team. This call provides a further regular opportunity to raise any concerns hotel managers may have with both CTM and the Scottish Government.

Information on the number of dentists is provided by NHS Education for Scotland and can be found at: Data tables | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot)

We do not hold information on country of origin of dentists, nor information on Dental Care Professionals as this group is in the main employed by independent dental practices.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The initial implementation date for the NDSP pilot was indicated as January 2023, however, this is currently under review by Police Scotland. I will meet with Police Scotland to discuss the importance of delivering the NDSP and to obtain a timescale for the programme’s implementation later this month.

Initial scoping work is being undertaken, and has not yet been completed. This work will be included in the broader considerations of the Housing to 2040 strategic board.

In total, £68 million was allocated to local authorities through the Town Centre Fund with £50 million allocated in 2019-20 and £18 million allocated in 2020-21.

This is the final year of our four year commitment to support over 80 additional counsellors in Further and Higher Education which we set out in our Programme for Government in 2018 and reiterated in 2021. We have exceeded that target, with 89 additional counsellors now working to support students across our institutions.

This has been delivered with investment of £11.5 million to date, with a further £2 million provided to March 2023. We have also confirmed that we remain committed to provide further funding in the remainder of Academic Year 22-23 (April – July 2023), which falls into the first four months of our FY 23-24. Funds have been earmarked within the final 2023-24 Scottish Budget process and final allocations will be confirmed as soon as possible as part of the Scottish Government budget setting exercise.

To Date the Scottish Government has had no contact with the UK Government regarding M&Co entering administration.

The Scottish Government will do everything in its power to help those affected by any possible forthcoming redundancies through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations, Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE). Our PACE team contacted the administrators for M&Co immediately to offer support for any individuals affected by redundancy.

I have also contacted the administrators at Teneo directly and offered to speak with them to discuss the situation.