Chamber and committees

This process is currently underway. Health Boards have been asked to submit 22-23 plans linked to activity trajectories and requests for funding, which will be used to allocate resources to address orthopaedic surgery waiting lists.

Additionally, as part of our 100 days commitments, we published an NHS Recovery Plan in August 2021. This sets out our plans for health and social are over the next 5 years. Backed by over £1 billion of funding, the Plan will support an increase in inpatient, daycase, and outpatient activity to address the backlogs of care in orthopaedics and other areas, supported by the implementation of sustainable improvements and new models of care.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07181 on 24 March 2022. 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 .

The Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 provides local authorities with a discretionary power to set up workplace parking licensing (WPL) schemes. It will be for local authorities to decide whether to implement a WPL scheme in their local area, and to make decisions on how their local scheme will operate.

If implemented by local authorities, the WPL charge will be levied on employers and it will be a matter for employers, including the Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament to decide whether they pass the cost of schemes onto employees. However, no specific workplace parking licensing schemes have yet been proposed.

The responsibility for the review of education authority policy on additional support needs rests with each individual education authority. This is in addition to the requirements of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) Act 2004 (as amended) which requires education authorities to identify, provide for and to review the additional support needs of their pupils. Local authorities are supported to carry out their duties under the Act by the statutory Supporting Learners’ Code of Practice.

Education Scotland works in partnership with the Scottish Government, ELC, schools and local authorities to improve the outcomes and educational experiences for all learners, including those who require additional support through a range of activities. These include:

• Support and challenge from Education Scotland Inclusion Wellbeing and Equality Officers through the national and regional focus
• Information, guidance, professional learning and reflective opportunities which include a focus on additional support needs and inclusion
• The HM Inspection model of education which provides support and challenge to promote improvement for all learners through the fulfilment of statutory duties, inclusion and equality.

The Scottish Government and COSLA published our joint national response to the independently chaired review of implementation of additional support for learning in October 2020. Angela Morgan’s report sets a clear direction in how we can continue to build on progress in this area. The joint action plan sets out the measures we will take to implement her recommendations.

Local authorities should consider these recommendations as part of implementation of additional support for learning policy locally.

We published an updated action and progress report on 1 st November 2021. The action plan and governance arrangements for this work are available from: Additional support for learning action plan: progress report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places the statutory responsibility for local roads improvement, maintenance and repair with local road authorities.

The vast majority of funding to local authorities from the Scottish Government is provided via a block grant and we do not stipulate how local authorities should utilise their individual allocations. It is therefore the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budget and to allocate the financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

However, the Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics (SLGFS) provides an overview of actual spend based on Local Authority’s audited accounts which may be useful.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-local-government-finance-statistics-slgfs-2019-20/ .

Previous annual reports can be located at the following link; Local government finance statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The Scottish Government welcomes the work of the European Stroke Organisation and agree that it is vital to ensure improvements are made to stroke pathways and services, including prevention, treatment and care.

Through our Programme for Government commitments and the Stroke Improvement Plan, we are already reflecting the aims of the European Stroke Organisation’s appeal targets.

We are supporting the National Advisory Committee on Stroke to develop a progressive stroke pathway document which will set out the vision of what stroke services across Scotland should deliver across the whole patient pathway, including access to stroke rehabilitation, and access to support for people who have experienced a stroke. However, at this time, the Scottish Government does not have plans to use the tracker. The Scottish Stroke Care Audit will continue to track our progress against the Scottish stroke care standards.

Everyone living in Scotland is included in the census and we understand that not everyone will be able to, or wish to, complete their census online. That is why paper copies are available upon request by anyone who needs them, either by calling our helpline on 0800 030 8308 or by visiting our website www.census.gov.scot . Assistance in completing the census, either digitally or on paper, is also provided through these channels.

Consistent with other parts of Scottish Government, Scotland’s Census 2022 has been designed to be Digital First as set out in the Scottish Government’s Digital Strategy. We have worked hard to assure that the online census questionnaire is modern, usable and more accessible, while meeting the expectations and standards of a modern government service.

The online questionnaire can be accessed though the most common range of internet-enabled devices, such as laptops, mobile phones and tablets. This digital service has been extensively tested reflecting a range of user needs and has met the Scottish Government Digital First standards.

We recognise that digital exclusion (and other barriers to participation) may prevent people from being able to complete online, or it may be their preference to complete on paper. That is why paper copies are available upon request by anyone who needs them either by: calling our helpline free on 0800 030 8308; or requesting online at www.census.gov.scot/request/paper . Copies of the paper questionnaire can also be ordered via the free helpline automated service, without needing to wait to speak to an agent (option one).

Copies of the paper questionnaire will be sent with a freepost return envelope. It should not cost anyone to complete Scotland’s Census 2022. Help and support is also available from a wide network of organisations. We have worked with a range of stakeholders, partners, communities and third sector interfaces to develop relevant support materials.

The Scottish Government’s Vision for Agriculture, https://www.gov.scot/publications/next-step-delivering-vision-scotland-leader-sustainable-regenerative-farming

was published on 2 March 2022, and outlines our aim to transform how we support farming and food production in Scotland to become a global leader in sustainable and regenerative agriculture.

It is a positive vision for Scotland’s agriculture sector and will sit at the heart of a robust and coherent framework to underpin Scotland’s future agriculture support regime from 2025 onwards.

We want to encourage new entrants into the industry, and this Government has arguably invested the most in new entrant support compared to other parts of the UK.

• We added provision to allocate direct payments to new entrants and young farmers in excess of £7.2m;
• Our start-up provision alone under the SRDP totalled nearly £13m;
• Under the FONE group we have helped facilitate entry to 76 new entrants by providing 112 land opportunities across 7,070 hectares of land;
• And in conjunction with the NFUS, the Scottish Land Matching Service has got off to a very promising start despite the impact of Covid.

Women living and working in Scottish agriculture are an essential part of the rural economy. We have committed £300,000 this Financial Year, rising to £600,000 during the lifetime of this Parliament, to bring about practical solutions to support women, including: mainstreaming of Be Your Best Self, a personal development training programme; a project to test innovative solutions for childcare in rural areas; and the development of Skillseeder – a skills sharing app to encourage greater participation in rural and land-based training. We’ve also established the WIA Practical Training Fund, administered by Lantra Scotland. We will continue to embed and normalise equalities considerations in all future agricultural scheme development, and work with the industry to support equalities within organisations and boards.

Work is also ongoing, to develop the National Test Programme, which begins this Spring and, over the next three years will deliver Scottish Government investment of up to £51 million. It is based on and informed by the work and recommendations of the Farmer-led Groups, particularly to ensure we are beginning to tackle the most urgent needs and creating a base upon which to build a whole-farm low carbon approach. An outline of the National Test Programme has already been published: https://www.gov.scot/news/ambitious-future-for-rural-scotland/

The Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) opened for funding in 2022 to support the ambition of doubling the amount of land under organic management, set out in the Programme for Government 2021-22. We are committed to seeing more organic farming and organic produce for sale in Scotland, and working with the sector to establish a new Organic Food and Farming Action Plan. http://www.gov.scot/news/creating-a-fairer-greener-nation

The Sustainable Agricultural Capital Grant Scheme 2022 which is part of the wider agricultural transformation intentions, will be focussed on support for low emission slurry spreading equipment and slurry store covers which will help farmers, crofters and agricultural contractors comply with new regulatory requirements; reducing harmful ammonia emissions and adverse impacts on water quality resulting from the storage and spreading of livestock slurry and digestate.

https://www.ruralpayments.org/topics/all-schemes/sustainable-agriculture-capital-grant-scheme--sacgs-/

Proposals for future agricultural support will be co-developed with rural partners through the Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board (ARIOB) and with wider civil society through a consultation in summer 2022 to inform the introduction of a Scottish Agriculture Bill in 2023.

National Records of Scotland consulted a range of groups and organisations across Scotland to help decide what topics to cover and what questions to ask in Scotland’s Census 2022.

In order to be considered for inclusion topics must meet a significant and clearly-demonstrated user need. More information about the question development process can be found here . The question set was agreed as appropriate by the Scottish Parliament.

Scotland’s Census 2022 has also benefitted from an extensive programme of internal and independent assurance activity, including independent assessment of Statistical standards, through the UK Office of Statistics Regulation. This is to ensure that Census statistics will meet the high quality bar of being “official statistics.” Information on the Statistical Quality Assurance process can be found here .

The aim for the census is to deliver a set of questions and associated guidance that enables all of Scotland’s people to access, understand and complete the census. Whilst every household in Scotland has a legal obligation to complete a census return either online or by paper, we have ensured that people are supported to do so.

Participation of small producers is vital to the success of the scheme and we believe we have taken their needs into consideration in designing DRS.

We have consulted extensively with businesses of all sizes that will be affected by the implementation of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme. We are not aware that any producers have decided to cease doing business in Scotland, although we are aware that some have expressed concerns about whether they will continue to sell their products in Scotland.

This is one of the reasons why we have applied a de minimis for the SEPA registration fee. This will remove a cost for businesses operating below the current VAT threshold, benefiting around 1,600 of the more than 4,000 anticipated producers selling into the Scottish market