Chamber and committees

Detailed cost analysis for all of the routes included in the Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan are undertaken on a phased basis as initial plans for each route are progressively prepared.

The Tackling Child Poverty Programme Board is part of the Scottish Government’s internal governance. It advises the Scottish Government’s Director-General Communities for tackling child poverty on the Scottish Government’s overall performance in relation to the implementation of Best Start, Bright Futures : Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2022-26.

The Board has both Scottish Government senior officials with expertise from areas which will contribute most to tackling child poverty and leaders, delivery partners and champions of change from beyond the Scottish Government. This includes representatives from organisations with extensive experience working with women with lived experience of poverty, such as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation; One Parent Families Scotland; Child Poverty Action Group; The Poverty Alliance; and Aberlour Children’s Charity.

The Scottish Government recognises the inextricable links between women’s poverty and child poverty. As part of overall monitoring and governance for the delivery plan, the Scottish Government will seek to maintain and further strengthen the collection and use of qualitative data in order to continue making progress towards the statutory Child Poverty Targets and to further understand and address the specific barriers faced by women experiencing poverty.

The Scottish Government is providing over £30 million this financial year to accelerate the shift to zero emission transport. This includes support for zero emission community transport and car clubs in addition to funding interest free loans for electric vehicles. This approach is designed to support more people and households on lower incomes to make the switch to electric.

In January we also announced a new fund that would enable £60 million investment in the public charging network over the next four years, anticipating over half of this investment will come from the private sector. The fund aims to ensure the right level of investment in public charge points across all of Scotland, including in settings, where lower demand for electric vehicle charging means that there is less opportunity for commercial investment.

NHS Lothian is currently refreshing the Outline Business Case for the Edinburgh Eye Pavilion replacement project and will subsequently submit a Full Business Case to the Scottish Government. The FBC will undergo the usual scrutiny and approval processes for infrastructure and investment projects within NHSScotland and a response will be provided once this process has concluded.

As committed to within our Heat in Buildings Strategy, work is currently underway to develop a new Heat in Buildings Public Engagement Strategy, to be published in early 2023.

This will build on the broader approach to public engagement on climate change that we published last year, and will aim to:

• Increase understanding of the changes we need to see in how we heat our homes and buildings, and why;
• Raise the profile of energy efficiency and net zero carbon heating options so that people are aware of the benefits and begin to see them as a positive choice; and
• Raise awareness of advice and support services to maximise uptake of the help available.

The strategy will to set out a range of activities for public engagement that will be implemented over the transition to zero emissions heating, including: national marketing campaigns; education initiatives; a social research programme; and public participation in policy and delivery programme design, to ensure the needs of different (domestic and non-domestic) groups are considered. This reflects our commitment to supporting a just and fair transition.

To inform development of the strategy, this autumn we will undertake a Call for Evidence. Alongside publication of the strategy, next year we will launch a national conversation and campaign on heat decarbonisation, working with a range of practitioners, consumer organisations and others across Scotland to increase awareness of the heat transition with different audiences over the coming months. Early focus will be on building readiness for change amongst a wide cross-section of society ahead of the introduction of proposed regulations. We will also launch a national marketing campaign this autumn to promote awareness of our free and impartial advice and support services – Home Energy Scotland and Warmer Homes Scotland.

We have committed to update Parliament regarding publication of the Project Neptune report and planned next steps and will do so after the summer recess.

The Scottish Government recognises the impact long delays in call answering times at NHS 24 could have on A&E attendances. NHS 24 is focussed on ensuring that patients receive the correct advice immediately without a requirement to be placed in a queue, in line with what extensive patient engagement has told the Service. Although this means patients may sometimes have to wait longer for their call to be answered, over 95% of calls are closed first time with patients getting appropriate support and advice without any requirement to be placed in a queue for a call back. This not only helps callers with a reduced journey time through NHS 24 but also hastens any onward referral to local services within NHS Boards reducing pressure across the system.

There are significant pressures residing across all areas of the system, including the NHS 24 111 service and, as a result, we have increased funding for the service by over £20m. This is supporting additional recruitment of call handlers and clinicians, including the addition of two new call centres in Dundee and Glasgow to help facilitate the increase in demand generated by the redesign of urgent care programme.

Furthermore, our new Urgent and Unscheduled Care Collaborative programme, supported by £50 million, will support the implementation of a range of measures to reduce A&E waiting times and improve patient experience, including alternatives to hospital-based treatment.

Near patient International Normalised Ratio (INR) testing is currently not routinely available on the NHS. However, INR testing is available through primary care settings for those who require it. Individual NHS Boards are responsible for providing services that work best with the needs of their populations.

SCVO estimate that the public sector as a whole invests around £1.8 billion each year to support the work of charities and social enterprises. Of that, around £500m comes from the Scottish Government via a broad range of programmes including those supporting community empowerment, mental wellbeing, children and families and health and social care.

The Scottish Government fund Third Sector organisations for specific projects or for core funding and these organisations often also attract income from other sources. That is a matter for those individual organisations and the Scottish Government do not keep a record of which organisations source additional funding from other sources and which do not.

In ‘A Fairer, Greener Scotland: Programme for Government 2021-22’, the Scottish Government committed to begin work on establishing a register of interests for the judiciary to increase public confidence and improve transparency.

To date, preparatory work on developing proposals for a judicial register of interests has been undertaken and my officials are currently developing options and next steps with the intention of engaging with stakeholders towards the end of 2022.