Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is aware of a discharge payment scheme being piloted in North Lanarkshire. This has been discussed by the Social Care & Social Work National Response Group and details are being circulated to other authorities who may be considering similar measures. Monitoring and evaluation of the scheme is being undertaken by North Lanarkshire.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14206 on 2 February 2023. 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 .

We expect universities and colleges to be places where students and staff are free from all forms of Gender-Based Violence (GBV), including spiking.

Universities and colleges are autonomous bodies. However, they have a responsibility for the welfare and safety of their students and it is for each institution to determine procedures to keep students safe from spiking.

The Scottish Government held several roundtable meetings to bring together partners including representatives from colleges and universities to discuss the prevalence of spiking and a range of initiatives and information available on spiking for students.

Representatives from College Development Network, Universities Scotland, NUS Scotland and The Student Services Organisation (AMOSSHE) were involved in these roundtable discussions. Significant collaborative work through the roundtable format was undertaken to raise awareness and heighten vigilance in the run up to the return to college and university campuses.

The Scottish Government currently funds the Emily Test charity to develop the Emily Test Charter and the accompanying LISTEN Risk Assessment Tool. The Charter provides a framework to help institutions start or improve their work in tackling GBV, and we would encourage all institutions to engage with it.

We will continue to work closely with the university and college sectors, and their representatives, through the Equally Safe in Colleges and Universities Core Leadership Group, as part of our approach to tackling all forms of GBV.

The Scottish Government is committed to developing digital skills for all staff across health and care, and ensuring that we embed digital leadership at all levels to enable digital service transformation. As part of our commitments in the Digital Health and Care Strategy’s Delivery Plan 2022-23 we are developing an Action Plan to articulate the range of learning and development opportunities more clearly, identify gaps and document outcomes. The Digital Health and Care Leadership Programme led by NHS Education for Scotland and sponsored by the Scottish Government supports staff to influence digital health and care in their organisations through strategic leadership, opportunities for learning, collaborating, and networking with others to maximise the use of technology to benefit service delivery within their organisations. The Programme is open to staff in NHS Scotland, social care, housing and the third sector, and will increase capacity in digital leadership, encouraging innovation in services and cross-organisation learning and development.

Our commitment in the Digital Health and Care Strategy is to work with these organisations, and others, to realise the potential of digital health and care, not necessarily to provide additional investment.

However, please see the below response in respect of funding that is provided, covering the period of April 2021 to December 2022:

Scottish Government invested £1,306,888 in support of the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI). To confirm, the aquaculture and construction innovation centres are not relevant to digital health and care investment. For Precision Medicine Scotland, there was no spend in 2021-22 and 2022-23 figures are not available due to the financial year not yet being complete. Scottish Innovation Centres is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), detail on SFC spending is available publicly on their website Funding announcements (sfc.ac.uk) . Given the various funding streams from across Scottish Government to Innovation Organisations it would not be possible to quantify those funds in support of digital health and care related work only.

Scottish Government funding to Public Health Scotland is set out in each year’s Scottish Budget which is publicly available on the Scottish Government’s website: Scottish Budget - gov.scot ( www.gov.scot ) Detail on PHS spending is set out within the organisation’s annual accounts which are publicly available on their website. Additionally, we directly provided £1,597,088 in support of various programmes of work relating to Digital Health and Care.

The Scottish Government has allocated £1,132,500 for its strategic work programme to build cyber resilience across sectors, as well as an initial spend during 2022/23 on setting up the Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre.

Since 2021-22, we have provided £2.45 million funding to the Scotland 5G Centre which has contributed to the development and implementation of digital health and care 5G use cases.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) – In 2021-22 Golden Jubilee/CfSD received allocations from planned care of £5.4m - £3m in programme funding and £2.4m in staffing costs at CfSD. The 2022-23 figures are not available due to the financial year not yet being complete.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10150 on 29 August 2022 . 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 .

I have asked Jim Kerr, Interim Deputy Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

From a learning and education perspective, all individuals admitted to custody are invited to participate in a screening process conducted by SPS education provider (Fife College), who deliver contracted learning services across all SPS sites. If during this process the assessor identifies any behaviours, presentation or capacities that are indicative of a neurodivergent condition, a further referral can be made to utilise a profiling tool called Do-IT with the consent of the individual concerned. In these circumstances specifically trained Fife colleagues apply the profiling tool. The referral process is open to all staff, not just SPS uniformed staff, if they believe an offender in SPS care needs additional support.

In addition SPS may also fulfil its role in the identification and treatment of offenders in its care by referral of individuals who present with potential learning difficulties to the NHS. NHS are then responsible for assessment, diagnosis and the development, in partnership (with SPS), of a support plan. Formal clinical assessment and diagnosis falls within the remit of NHS colleagues who would refer to specialist services where indicated. A shared support plan would be developed and implemented as required. Where an offender is admitted into custody with an existing diagnosis, NHS colleagues would support transition from those community services with which individuals have been engaged.

The Scottish Government has published online guidance which explains to local authorities’ their responsibilities to displaced people from Ukraine under the Homes for Ukraine (and Scottish Super Sponsor) scheme. This guidance can be found online here: Person checks - Super Sponsor Scheme and Homes for Ukraine: guidance for local authorities - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

At present no resources have been utilised in the preparation for the introduction of the scheme, other than a small amount of management time to consider the proposals.  Consideration is being given to how the regulations will be met and one option under consideration is leasing or hiring of a Reverse Vending Machine.

Planning authorities are required to determine planning applications in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise, including, for example, taking account of the socio and economic impacts of a proposed development.

It would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government to comment on the terms and impacts of the planning decision by Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority.