Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government ambition is that everyone who wishes to is able to access fair and sustainable employment, which is why we have committed to at least halving the employment gap between disabled people and the rest of the working age population by 2038.

Employability has a pivotal role to play in supporting these commitments, ensuring those further from the labour market, including people who have a learning disability, have access to the right support at the right time to move towards, into and to sustain work. In partnership with Local Government, we have made clear our joint aim of delivering person-centred services that are inclusive and accessible.

The Fraser of Allander Institute report highlights the importance of monitoring and evaluation, which we agree with. We currently have a longstanding programme of evaluation on Fair Start Scotland, and have recently commenced a formal, independent and robust evaluation of No One Left Behind and the Young Person’s Guarantee, which we anticipate will cover a multi-year period.

In addition to this, we routinely collect data across our services about people with disabilities and their outcomes, including follow-up after 12 months to measure sustainment. As we move forward with our No One Left Behind approach, we are also taking into account learning from what has worked well in other areas, and where we can make improvements.

The report’s findings mention the visibility of people with learning disabilities in the data reporting under Fair Start Scotland. We have mainstreamed this through our recently published Employability Shared Measurement Framework, which covers activity under the No One Left Behind approach. This will allow us to better measure the reach of our services for people with learning disabilities, and the opportunities and outcomes we are supporting them to access.

Furthermore, in line with our commitment to person-centred services, the experience of users is a critical measure of success, which is why it has such a prominent role in our Shared Measurement Framework. As part of this programme of evaluation work outlined above we will consider opportunities to evaluate the experiences and outcomes of those with learning disabilities, where possible.

In addition to the socio-economic findings, we recognise from ‘Invisible No More’ that more must be done to understand the gaps in the existing data sources. To address this we are undertaking an exercise to assess the data collected across Scotland relevant to people with learning disabilities and autistic people. This will inform the development of a data action plan that Scottish Government and its partners will take forward to improve the data across a number of topics, including employment.

The duty to ensure equality of opportunity rests with employers and so the development and implementation of plans is a matter for Local Authorities. The Scottish Government does not collect this information centrally.

Public sector bodies, including local authorities, are subject to the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) which requires listed public authorities, in all their functions, to have due regard to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic, such as disabled people, and those who do not.

Furthermore, local authorities in Scotland are subject to The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012. This includes a duty to gather and use employee information in relation to their protected characteristics, before using that information to better fulfil their duties under the PSED; as well as a duty to publish statements on equal pay and occupational segregation (within organisations) regarding disabled people. Responsibility for ensuring compliance with these duties lies with the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The Scottish Government is currently reviewing the effectiveness of the PSED in Scotland. This means reviewing the Scottish Specific Duties as well as the implementation environment in which they sit. From December 2021 to April 2022 we ran a public consultation containing ambitious and detailed proposals for changes to the duties, several of which will help to address barriers faced by disabled people in the workforce.

After consultation responses have been analysed, we will continue to work with public bodies and equality advocacy groups with a view to introducing new regulations that will deliver better outcomes for those who experience inequality.

We published the Women’s Health Plan in August 2021. The actions in the Plan are divided into short term (one year), medium term (one to three years) and long term (three years or more) timescales.

As set out in the Plan we will be appointing a national Women’s Health Champion. In addition, a Women's Health Lead will be established in every NHS board to drive change and share best practice and innovation. These are medium term actions but scoping work is underway and further announcements will be made in due course.

The Scottish Government has published proposals on the collection of additional rent data on pages 76 to 78 of the Draft Rented Sector Strategy Consultation paper titled ‘ A New Deal for Tenants ’.

The scope of the feasibility will cover all the aspects raised on pages 76 to 78 and will also take into consideration any additional issues raised through Consultation responses and during discussions with key delivery partners.

The level of engagement with the ‘New Deal for Tenants’ consultation has been positive, generating a large number of responses. The Scottish Government are currently considering these responses to inform the development of our approach to collection of rent data. The emerging findings from the consultation will help to define the scope of the proposed feasibility study, which we will seek to commission as soon as we have fully taken into account the analysis of responses from the consultation.

The Scottish Government funded a £1 million Creative Digital Initiative to deliver a range of activity and support to upskill creative businesses in their digital capabilities and capacity through a public sector partnership.

Creative Scotland were allocated over £290,000 to deliver multiple projects, including a digital commissioning programme via The Space to help creative businesses grow the skills, knowledge and confidence required in key areas of their digital activity. Creative Scotland also delivered a Digital Pivot mentoring and peer support programme, and the Next Level Up programme to transform those who were already digitally engaged into digital leaders and support creative industries and to cultural sector participants to take the digital opportunity to the next level.

£40,000 of funding was allocated to the delivery of an XpoNorth web portal and nearly £30,000 was allocated to South of Scotland Enterprise to deliver digital skills webinars and short courses to support the understanding of the potential of digital.

Skills Development Scotland were allocated £60,000 to deliver a Creative Game Changers programme, providing specialist mentoring, coaching and 1-2-1 support, engaging with up to 20 creative businesses, freelancers or sole traders. Skills Development Scotland are also leading on an evaluation of the project to consider next steps for upskilling the digital capability of creatives.

£525,000 was provided to Scottish Enterprise to provide large enterprise grant support.

The CDI Steering Group will consider how best to allocate any remaining funds, using the CDI project evaluation to consider sector needs.

This Government is committed to broadening the range of people represented in Scotland’s public places, reflecting in particular the contribution of women and ethnic minorities. A specific fund is being considered in the context of the Scottish Government’s longer term spending plans and we will discuss how such a fund might be best deployed with Creative Scotland, whose remit includes public art.

In November last year, Police Scotland had established a Gold command on the issue of spiking. Led by an Assistant Chief Constable, this comprised of a network of health partners, victim support organisations, colleges and universities and night time economy sector to achieve the right balance of targeted and universal intervention to ensure the safety of the public.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with partners to strengthen our response to spiking, and ensure that people are supported to report, if something does happen.

This includes ongoing work with health partners to explore clinical and reporting pathways and to ensure clear and consistent messaging for anyone accessing health services where a drink is believed to have been spiked.

I have accepted the Griggs recommendations in principle and I am pleased to announce that I have formed a Ministerial Aquaculture Strategy Forum to progress the recommendations of the review and to advise on the development of the Vision for sustainable aquaculture.

Work to produce the Vision by the end of the year will consider how to ensure the whole aquaculture sector is sustainable environmentally, economically and socially, including how best to protect the marine environment and benefit communities.

I will personally lead the Strategic Forum to deliver this Government’s aspirations for the sector and ensure that Scotland’s aquaculture sector is supported, innovative, achieves its full potential, and operates within environmental limits and with social licence, ensuring there is a thriving marine ecosystem for future generations.

The aquaculture sector in Scotland supports over 11,700 jobs and generated £885 million Gross Value Added in 2018. I have observed first-hand the important role it plays in some of our most rural and coastal communities, in addition to the many, varied and skilled roles it supports across its wider supply chain.

To support the work of the forum, I have asked my officials to form a small consenting task group to make immediate progress on streamlining the consenting system to ensure processes are more efficient while maintaining high environmental standards. This work will start with an immediate change to the marine licence validity period for shellfish and finfish farms from 6 to 25 years, bringing it in line with the sea bed lease renewal cycle.

Today I have asked the Scottish Science Advisory Council to give consideration to the science recommendations. As Scotland’s highest level and independent science advisory body, the Council will help to ensure that the changes we progress ensure the long term success of Scotland’s aquaculture sector, helping understand and tackle environmental challenges, and to maintain its spot as the UK’s number one food export and its reputation as a healthy, low-carbon and quality food source.

The Healthy Working Lives programme, which is delivered on our behalf by the Public Health Scotland, was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Scottish Government is determining how best to take the Healthy Working Lives programme forward in light of the changing needs of the population coming out of the pandemic.

Needs arising from the pandemic, such as support for those suffering from Long Covid and mental health support, will be of particular focus as we adapt to the changed situation we find ourselves in. This will be in line with the commitments outlined in the Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan.