Chamber and committees

The impact of school closures during the pandemic was carefully considered at local level by schools and community groups who are best placed to understand the needs of the immediate community.

The Attainment Scotland Fund (ASF) evaluation found that schools worked closely with community groups to mitigate the effects of school building closures for pupils. The Scottish Government has no plans to undertake additional research.

The easing of restrictions in recent months means that community groups are now in a position to re-establish their position and make use of school settings where appropriate. Therefore, all local and community facilities are encouraged to permit access to organisations and groups in line with the Strategic Framework and the Safer Workplaces guidance.

National Records of Scotland met with representatives from over 30 of Scotland’s Universities and Colleges, and with organisations such as Young Scot, FindAUniversity and NUS Scotland, to drive awareness across institutions of the importance of supporting and enabling students to complete their Census.

An information pack was sent to every manager of student accommodation, containing information on how students should be included within the census. For students living in privately rented accommodation, NRS included information on the census website to clarify roles and responsibilities for completing the census.

A multi-faceted promotional campaign was developed to reach as high a proportion of the adult population across Scotland as possible. This included targeted activity to reach groups of the population identified in research as likely to need more encouragement and support to complete the census, including students and young people.

Throughout May, six in person events were held at university campuses and college sites in order to directly engage with the student population and to provide help and support to complete the census. These events were targeted in areas of lower returns, including Glasgow and Dundee.

NRS, supported by Young Scot, created bespoke assets (posters, social media assets, podcasts etc.) shared on a variety of channels. Social media influencers were also used to target young people and students on relevant platforms.

In line with the Scotland wide approach, people living in houses of multiple occupation were offered a range of help and support to complete Scotland’s Census via the census website and Freephone helpline. Census Field Staff provided further in-person support to facilitate completion. Individual questionnaires were offered to anyone aged 16 or over who wished to provide responses in private.

The role of Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) Applications Service Manager at Zero Waste Scotland will be funded from Zero Waste Scotland’s Scottish Government Grant Award. The position is a fixed term appointment until 25 August 2023.

Further to your query on this report in February 2021 (S5W-34878 on 10 February 2021), the intention of the analysis of residual waste treatment was to help inform and support future work. The output from this research was, therefore, never intended to be published. The cost of this project was £27,700.

Subsequent work in this area included the Scottish Government commissioned ‘Waste Markets Study’ in 2019; and Zero Waste Scotland produced a report on the Climate Change Impact of Burning Municipal Waste in Scotland.

The waste markets study is available here: Waste markets study: full report

Zero Waste Scotland’s report is available here: The climate change impact of burning municipal waste in Scotland | Zero Waste Scotland

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

There is no place for racism and we recognise that structural and institutional barriers continue to exist in the NHS.

The NHS ethnic minority forum is working with the Scottish Government to drive change. Work is underway to develop anti-racist resources and targeted interventions to support minority ethnic staff and help them progress in their careers.

A refreshed Fair Work action plan will be published later this year, including a focus on minority ethnic employment. A new ethnicity pay gap strategy will also set out our approach for employers in addressing racial inequality in workplaces.

Further to Scottish Government’s answer to your query on this report in February 2021 (S5W-34878 on 10 February 2021), Zero Waste Scotland have confirmed that £51,000 was spent on this work.

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

Under the Edinburgh Process strand of the Nature Restoration Fund, Local Authorities have been allocated a share of £5 Million for 2022-23, using a formula based on the area of urban greenspace and local nature reserves, as set out in the following table:

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering a high quality healthcare service to the people of Scotland, including those with liver disease. To support NHS Scotland ensure it has the workforce capacity to deliver those services, we published the National Health and Social Care Workforce Strategy on 11 March 2022, which outlines our ambitions for recovery, growth and transformation of our workforce. Workforce projections for Health and Social Care will be published later this year. These will incorporate evidence from local Three Year Workforce Plans.

We will support Health Boards with their recruitment needs as set out in their plans directly through investment in international recruitment.

NHS Scotland's staffing levels are at a record high, and have now increased for ten consecutive years. We have also funded record numbers of healthcare education places this academic year.

The next set of data will cover the three month period up to 31 March 2022 and will be published once all 32 local authorities have provided the relevant information. This was requested from local authorities in April and reminders were sent in May and June. We will continue to publish this information on a quarterly basis.

To date, data until 31 March 2022 detailing expenditure, grant and refusal figures have been obtained for 23 local authorities. This shows £4,463,069.51 expenditure, 4,003 grants and 1,298 refusals.

The latest set of full available data, broken down by local authority, is the Tenant Grant Fund monitoring report: January 2022 , which was published in March 2022.

As local authorities can continue to use any remaining allocation in 2022-23 until fully spent, a final review will be carried out once all LAs have closed their funds.

Scotland has a wealth of experience and learning from previous refugee schemes and we have held discussions with experienced stakeholders including Room for Refugees. The New Scots strategy is providing the foundation for our response to Ukraine. It sets the clear principle that integration should begin and be supported from day one of arrival and has a tried and tested approach to integrating refugees into our communities, schools, and workplaces.

We are working closely and collaboratively with partners to ensure we rapidly respond to opportunities and resolve challenges and issues as they emerge, and ensuring that stakeholders and the direct experiences of those arriving in Scotland feeds directly into continuing to improve our programme.