Chamber and committees

Local authorities can claim a general tariff of £10,500 per Ukrainian Displaced Person (UDP) arriving on the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

Local authorities will also receive additional education funding for Ukrainian Children and Young People under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme. The education tariff depends on the age of the child, to align with providing ELC, primary or secondary education. The agreed annual rates for this funding are as follows:

• early years (ages 2 to 4) - £3,000

• primary (ages 5 -11) - £6,580

• secondary (ages 11-18) - £8,755

These tariffs include support for children with Additional Support Needs. Both the general and education funding streams should be used to help ensure Ukrainian families are supported as they settle into a new area, and can help meet specific needs that arise in relation to accessing education, including having English as an Additional Language.

This education tariff funding is to be provided by the UK Government. The details of how this funding will be transferred to local authorities is still being resolved with UK Government and we are working intensively with them to release this funding as soon as possible.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission published its latest set of benefit forecasts in May 2022 where they estimated, based on outturn information, that in 2020-21 there were around 103,000 people in receipt of Adult Disability Living Allowance in Scotland, forecasting that in 2021-22 there could be around 95,000 people.

We need bold action to tackle the climate emergency and Scotland has some of the most extensive renewable generation capabilities in Europe with which to accelerate our just transition to net zero.

We do not believe that Scotland can achieve our 2030 decarbonisation targets without a substantial increase in onshore and offshore wind deployment.

In October 2020, Scottish Government published our Offshore Wind Policy Statement, setting out our ambitions for offshore wind in Scotland in the context of our commitment to achieve net zero by 2045. The Offshore Wind Policy Statement sets a new ambition to achieve 8-11 GW of offshore wind in Scotland by 2030. This recognises that deployment must increase significantly if we are to meet our climate change targets.

The Onshore Wind Policy Statement consultation was launched on 28 October 2021, which includes our ambition that an additional 8-12 GW of onshore wind be installed by 2030, in line with the Climate Change Committees' recommendations.

As of June 2022, there were 8.7GW of installed, operational onshore wind in Scotland, comprising approximately 3,940 turbines, and 1.86GW of installed, operational offshore wind in Scotland, comprising of 264 turbines.

Our recent ScotWind announcement includes 25GW of generating capacity of offshore wind [note: this figure was correct at July 2022], which is a massive vote of confidence in Scotland’s potential. The planning and consenting processes that lie ahead – together with the need to fully consider the views of stakeholders about impact – means it is not possible to know now exactly what scale of development will be permitted ultimately. However, we are seeking to maximise the opportunities from ScotWind, for energy, the environment, the economy and our supply chain, albeit in a way that aligns with the marine planning framework.

There are many variable factors, including advancements in turbine technology (i.e. larger turbines that produce more electricity), environmental considerations and landscape considerations, which make it difficult to determine precisely how may turbines will make up the estimated 8-12GW of onshore wind and 8 – 11GW of offshore wind required to meet our net-zero targets.

The Scottish Government believes that renewables, particularly wind, has a vital role to play to achieve our net zero targets and to the decarbonisation of the energy system.

Scotland’s natural resources, which include strong and consistent wind resource, along with our established expertise in offshore oil and gas, skilled offshore workforce, excellent port structure and strong innovation hub, make Scotland one of the best places in the world to develop offshore wind and its supply chain.

The recent ScotWind leasing round demonstrates this, by delivering around £700 million in option fee revenues to the public purse, plus the ScotWind projects committed to investment of up to £25 billion across the Scottish supply chain across the 17 ScotWind offshore wind projects as set out in their Supply Chain Development Statements

This work will be further complemented by the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council’s (SOWEC) Collaborative Framework. This Charter signed by 24 organisations offshore wind developments in Scotland, is a practical way for developers and Scottish ports to work together, helping to build a long-term pipeline of work and creating certainty that ports need to prioritise investment in higher value activities like fabrication. By working together developers can identify joint opportunities, mitigating risks in bringing together the infrastructure needed to build out the full pipeline of ScotWind projects.

The Resource Spending Review set out broad parameters for resource spend to 2026-27, provided an overarching financial framework to support the focus on delivery of key Scottish Government priorities and put in place a foundation for ongoing efficiency and reform. It was not a budget, with the normal processes of the Programme for Government and annual budget being where policy and funding decisions are made.

Following the publication of the review findings in December 2021, NHS Lothian has had extensive interactions with a wide range of professionals who work with children and young people to highlight the key findings in the report and this has included Speech and Language Therapists, Health Visitors, General Practice, Ear Nose and Throat clinicians, Community Paediatricians and teaching staff, with further communication to the Director of Education. This has involved individual meetings with professionals as well as the development of a staff briefing document, which was widely circulated across key networks. As part of this process, those working with children who had any concerns about a child's hearing were encouraged to contact the Audiology department directly or to refer the child through the normal referral route (e.g. Health Visitor, Speech and Language, GPs).

This is a matter for Public Health Scotland. The information requested is not held centrally.

The National Audiology Review Group convened on 3 May 2022 and on 28 June 2022. Review Group members were invited to share their key priorities for development of the Terms of Reference to help shape the future of audiology services in Scotland.

The Terms of Reference were agreed by the Group on 7 July 2022 and will be published on the Scottish Government’s website alongside minutes and a current membership list. Independent Review of Audiology Services in Scotland - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The consultation was developed jointly with DEFRA and the devolved administrations. This is a UK-wide consultation aimed at the pig industry, therefore the Scottish Government will not be responding to it.

At its heart, Scotland’s Baby Box strongly signals our determination that every child, regardless of their circumstances, should get the best start in life by ensuring that every family with a new-born has access to essential items needed in the first six months of a child’s life.

NHS Inform advice is to keep children aged under six months out of direct strong sunlight and promotes staying safe and healthy in the summer Summer health | NHS inform .

We do not propose including sunscreen products in the Baby Box at this time, however, we will continue to evaluate how Scotland’s Baby Box is helping families and continue to monitor how it can be improved.