Chamber and committees

Transport Scotland has undertaken analysis of the emissions produced by the Scottish Government's ferries fleet which identified areas where progress can be made quickly to reduce emissions using the technology commercially available at this time. This includes the Small Vessel Replacement Programme that will see up to seven vessels replaced with low/zero emission vessels in Phase 1 of the programme.

As part of the Islands Connectivity Plan, we will explore and consult on pathways to zero/low emission ferry transport, learning from experience in other countries and on other modes. Our Climate Change Plan Update 2020 includes a commitment that 30% of the Government owned ferry fleet will consist of low or zero emission vessels by 2032.

The Scottish Government has and will provide funding to support the chartering of suitable vessels to assist resilience on our ferry networks, as demonstrated by the current charter of MV Arrow by CalMac Ferries Ltd.

Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) and CalMac Ferries Ltd continually search the market for suitable second-hand tonnage.

The resources referred to in the previous answer related to staffing resources within Transport Scotland.

Those officials who had been asked to respond to the challenges presented by the pandemic to our transport network and the impacts on Islands communities are now returning to normal duties, and has been made clear, a priority has been restarting the work taking forward identifying potential options for reducing fares on ferry services across the Pentland Firth.

The Scottish Transport Statistics report an increase in car use from 35,362 to 36,747 million vehicle kilometres driven in Scotland between 2016 and 2019. We do not yet have these figures for 2020, which will have been impacted by the Covid-19 restrictions. This happened alongside significant population and economic growth. During this time period, Scotland’s population grew by almost 60,000 and the country’s Gross Domestic Product grew by 3.6% in real terms.

Transport is Scotland’s highest carbon emitting sector, and the largest source of transport emissions is cars. This is why in the Climate Change Plan Update (published December 2020), we committed to reduce car use in Scotland by 20% by 2030. This is monitored as part of the Climate Change Plan monitoring and evaluation framework , which the Scottish Government reports on annually.

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to significant uncertainty for transport, with future trends and people’s work and lifestyle choices difficult to forecast at this point in time. Subject to this uncertainty, we will publish a route-map that sets out how we will meet this target by the end of this year. This is a cross-government and sectoral effort – not all the policy levers and answers rest in transport.

The most direct levers on the attractiveness of buying or running a petrol or diesel car – fuel duty and vehicle excise duty – are reserved to the UK Government. Additionally, transport demand derives from other factors – where people live work, learn and access goods and services are all key to their need to travel. Meeting the commitment will involve reducing people’s need to travel with more local access to goods and services, digital connectivity and flexible and remote working approaches.

The New Scots refugee integration strategy is built on partnership and collaboration, led by the Scottish Government, COSLA and the Scottish Refugee Council.

The second New Scots refugee integration strategy was published in January 2018 and runs until December 2022. Partners have begun discussions on arrangements to develop the third strategy, with the aim of publishing this in 2023.

The Standing Committee on Pandemics will be established by 25 August 2021.

The Standing Committee on Pandemics will be an advisory group to the Scottish Government, with a remit to advise on the future risks from pandemics and the steps we should take to address those risks. The Committee’s membership will bring together a range of scientists and clinicians with relevant expertise.

The Scottish Government has an annual dedicated budget for our autism strategy programme of work supplemented by additional support provided throughout the pandemic. (£3.1m for financial year 2021-2022) However, a much wider range of Scottish Government and Local Authority funding helps to support autistic people through education and employment initiatives, for example, as well as social care funding.

a) Strategy funding is currently directly supporting autistic people through:

-The Increasing Understanding of Autism Programme - we are aiming to make Scotland a more accessible, inclusive, and understanding place for autistic people to learn, work and live. As part of this Programme, Inspiring Scotland, in partnership with the Scottish Government has distributed £470,709 of funding from December 2019 to date. Funding decisions include input from the autistic people on the autism advisory forums.

-A new National Post Diagnostic Support Service pilot launched on 1 December 2020. Following a diagnosis of autism, individuals, parents and carers living across Scotland are routed to appropriate support to understand and embrace their identity as an autistic person. So far, £394,645 has been allocated to various autism organisations to provide direct support to autistic people.

b) Sportscotland has agreed £572,500 of investment for 2021-22 for Scottish Disability Sport (SDS). SDS has the lead role for developing the quality of disability sport for disabled people in Scotland; this includes supporting autistic people. Sportscotland also invests in and supports a number of programmes and projects that deliver wider benefits to autistic people in their communities through sport. This includes £30,000 to Strathmore Rugby Club to support Scotland’s first autism-friendly rugby sessions, and £51,600 to the Changing Lives Fund project , delivered through a partnership with Forth Valley College and Falkirk Community Football Foundation, which focussed on young people with learning needs (including autistic young people.),

c) The information requested is not held or monitored centrally.

The Scottish Government and COSLA jointly published our Learning/Intellectual Disabilities and Autism: Towards Transformation Plan in March 2021, which builds on existing autism and learning disabilities strategies. The plan looks at the actions needed to shape supports, services and attitudes to ensure that the human rights of autistic people and people with learning/intellectual disabilities are respected and protected and that they are empowered to live their lives, the same as everyone else.

The Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board has recently agreed the final version of the National Neurodevelopmental Principles and Standards of Care. The Principles and Standards of Care is for those children and young people who have neurodevelopmental profiles and support needs, including those with autism, and require more support than is currently available. The National Neurodevelopmental Principles and Standards will be published shortly.

The Additional Support for Learning Act places duties on education authorities to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils, including those with autism. We provide free professional learning opportunities for practitioners, including the Autism Toolbox and Inclusive Practice online professional learning modules.

In addition, we published our Autism Action Plan in December 2020, setting out the actions we will take to improve the support to children and young people with autism in Scotland’s schools. We have made significant progress in implementing these actions and will formally report our progress in December 2021. Our work on supporting young people with Autism in mainstream schools is also supported by our guidance on the presumption of mainstream education.

The Scottish Government also directly funds the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) which supports NHS Boards to consider best practice and improve service in the redesigning of autism diagnostic services.

The Scottish Government has recently announced a suite of measures to continue to support NHS dentistry, including a vital funding package of up to £5M for improved ventilation in dental premises, and an extension of free PPE for the dental sector, which from this month has increased by up to 50%. This builds on the continued phased remobilisation of NHS dental services, ensuring that as many patients can be seen within the current set of infection, protection and control measures required for the safe operation of dental treatment.

NHS dental services are largely provided by independent dental contractors. Information on appointments is held by each individual dental practice.

The removal of all dental charges for NHS dental treatment is a Scottish Government manifesto commitment and more detail will be published in due course. These changes will take place in the lifetime of this parliament and the processes are currently underway.

Scottish Government expect Local Public Bodies to engage inclusively with autistic people about decisions that affect them. However, it is the decision of Local Authorities on what engagement should take place and how this is monitored.

While Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland it is for local Health & Social Care Partnerships to assess local need and arrange support services, as mandated under statute in the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act. Local Authorities are distinct corporate bodies whose powers are set out in statute and as such are entirely separate from the Scottish Government.