The Scottish Government will begin accepting Adult Disability Payment (ADP) applications from new clients from spring 2022 and nationally from summer 2022. Existing Personal Independence Payment (PIP) clients will begin to have their entitlements transferred from the Department for Work and Pensions to Social Security Scotland, also from summer 2022. PIP clients will not have to apply for ADP and they will receive the same rate of ADP as they received for PIP at the point of transfer. They will continue to receive this amount until their ADP award is reviewed. The value of each component of ADP is the same as PIP so that we do not create a two-tier system with varying rules whilst Scottish disability benefit clients are transferred to Social Security Scotland.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission is responsible for forecasting spending on PIP and ADP. The Commission has not reported a breakdown of the proportion of the ADP clients in receipt of greater, the same, or lesser amount of financial assistance under ADP compared with what they receive from the Department for Work and Pensions.

For new applications, the Scottish Fiscal Commission assume that 25 per cent of clients who would have received a nil award under PIP will now receive the standard rate under ADP, and that 15 per cent of those who would have received a standard award under PIP will now receive an enhanced award under ADP.

Once clients are in receipt of ADP, the Scottish Fiscal Commission assume that the proportion of clients disallowed at award review will decrease from 19% to 5%. The decrease in the number of clients disallowed at award review reflects the substantial differences in the PIP and ADP award review process and the effect of rolling and client-centred ADP awards.

The First Minister has not visited any care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic to listen to the views of residents, but has closely monitored the situation in care homes throughout, discussing developments frequently with officials and Ministers.

The Scottish Government have not made contact with the Australian Government for advice regarding an apology for historical adoption practices.

This year’s Scottish Budget is a budget of choices and we have chosen to back our national mission to tackle child poverty and strengthen support available for families during the cost of living crisis.

The Budget commits almost £200 million to double the Scottish Child Payment to £20 from April 2022, immediately benefiting 111,000 children under the age of 6.

We remain committed to delivering the Scottish Child Payment for children and young people aged 6-15 by the end of 2022, subject to receipt of the necessary data from DWP, at which point more than 400,000 children will be eligible.

In advance we are supporting as many school age children and young people as possible through our Bridging Payments, worth £520 in 2022. This innovative response, which makes use of the data local authorities have, is delivering immediate support to around 150,000 children.

The Scottish Child Payment remains the best way to provide the support low income families need now which is why we have acted to double the payment from April.

Work to review the response to Storm Arwen is already well underway.

I requested that the Scottish Government’s Resilience Division begin work on the scope and terms of a review into the Storm Arwen response on 30 November 2021, and on 14 December 2021 I formally commissioned the Scottish Resilience Partnership to collate evidence from local resilience partnerships to inform the findings of the review.

The Scottish Government will also gather evidence from other relevant groups, for example the voluntary sector and utilities companies.
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I aim to publish a review paper with recommendations as early as possible in 2022, although I now expect that to be later than originally planned due to the need to enable resilience partners to prioritise the pandemic response.

The Scottish Government currently forecasts a balanced resource budget position by the end of 2021-22.

The £200 million of additional Covid support for Business’s and for Self Isolation Support Grants announced by the First Minister on 14 December 2021 has been reprioritised from existing budgets.

The 2022-23 Scottish Budget assumes £179 million of capital and financial transactions will be made available for carry-forward in 2021-22 through the Scotland Reserve.

The Scottish Government recognises the valuable contribution that positive, well supported transitions have on outcomes for care leavers and that the relationships care leavers build including with their foster carers are integral to these outcomes.

Since 1 April 2015, young people leaving care after their sixteenth birthday, and who have been looked after in foster, kinship or residential care have been eligible for Continuing Care and therefore able to continue in their care setting if that is in their best interests. The Scottish Government’s Continuing Care guidance stipulates that local authorities should carefully consider the financial implications for a carer offering a Continuing Care placement to ensure that a lack of financial support is not a barrier to the continuation of the placement.

The First Minister announced funding to support small and medium-sized businesses to improve their ventilation. The Business Ventilation Fund opened for applications on Tuesday 23rd November 2021.

The impact and effectiveness of the fund is being carried out in early January to consider take up and a full evaluation will be conducted on closure of the Fund in April. This will include reach by sectors and size of business.

A webpage is being set up for the Covid Ventilation Short Life Working Group, and the minutes will be available on there in due course.

There is no place for harassment or abuse of any form, whether in the workplace, schools, in the home or in society. Through our Equally Safe delivery plan and review of Personal and Social Education, we are taking action aimed at preventing sexual harassment and gender-based violence, in order to develop positive relationships amongst children and young people.

Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Education take matters of safeguarding very seriously. This is a well-established priority and approaches to safeguarding and child protection are evaluated in every school inspection.

We have committed to commissioning an independent review to establish positive practice and further areas for improvement, during this parliamentary session.

The number of Nurses employed by NHS Ayrshire & Arran in the last five years can be found on the NHS Education for Scotland (NES) website on the following link: Nursing and Midwifery | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot)

The number of GPs in each board is available at Table 2 of:

General Practice - GP Workforce and practice list sizes 2010 - 2020 - General Practice - GP workforce and practice list sizes - Publications - Public Health Scotland

The next update, including figures for 30 September 2021, is published on 14 December.

The number of Doctors other than GP's including Consultants, doctors in training and other trained doctors employed by NHS Ayrshire & Arran in the last five years can be found on the NES website on the following link:

Medical and Dental | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot)