Chamber and committees

All decisions made in the development of measures under the Covid-19 emergency powers have included careful assessment of the necessity and potential impacts of the powers and their compatibility with the Convention rights set out in the Human Rights Act 1998.

Appropriate impact assessments are carried out as part of this process and are reported to the Scottish Parliament.

Through local Health and Social Care Partnerships, a wide range of support is provided to people aged under 60 who can no longer be looked after by their families at home due to complex medical issues.

This includes support from GPs and community Multi-Disciplinary Teams including therapists, nurses and social work teams. In some circumstances support from specialists may be necessary to handle specific complex medical issues, however the community team remains the cornerstone of care. Scottish Government recently announced £20 million to strengthen Multi-Disciplinary Teams, to support joint working between health and social care.

Self-directed Support (SDS) is Scotland’s mainstream approach to social care that seeks to give people choice and control over how their care is provided. Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) are required to ensure that people are offered a range of choices on how they receive their social care support.

Where it is no longer possible for people to remain at home, a wide range of residential options, in homely settings, are available. There is a robust assessment process to ensure that any receiving setting is assessed as a good match and can meet the health and social care needs of individuals.

We do not expect local authorities to develop new consultation processes on river catchment management and individual property protection measures.

The Flood Risk Management Act (2009) sets out Scotland’s catchment based approach to Flood Risk Management, including requirements for consultation on measures to reduce flood risk.

To support the implementation of the Act, the Scottish Government produce statutory and non-statutory guidance to help SEPA, local authorities and Scottish Water fulfil their responsibilities.

In 2019, the Scottish Government published the second edition of Delivering Sustainable Flood Risk Management . It includes advice for engaging with individuals, communities and landowners on flood risk, on steps that individuals can take to protect their families, homes and businesses from flooding, and of actions to avoid that can increase flood risk.

Our Living with Flooding Action Plan , also published in 2019 recommends actions for a range of stakeholders to take to help promote property flood resilience in Scotland. We continue to work with the steering group to help implement the actions set out in the plan.

We consider that these documents provide appropriate guidance for consultation on developing environmental considerations and policies.

We are committed to supporting public sector employers in improving wellbeing policies for employees, including exploring the benefits of being part of the four-day working week pilot.

The 2022-23 public sector pay policy introduces the option for employers, in discussion with trade unions, to take a multi-year, reform approach to pay. Employers pursuing this option can explore piloting a four day working week.

More detail regarding four day week pilots in the public sector will be set out in due course.

We work with stakeholders regularly including with our Cladding Stakeholder Group to ensure all appropriate solutions are considered for homeowners and residents in affected buildings.

The Single Building Assessment programme in Scotland will not have a restriction to 18m and above. The UK Government's recent announcement for England does focus solely on buildings over 18m. Whilst we welcome the announcement from the UK Government about ensuring that the polluter pays, a collective approach is needed to secure reparations from developers and the wider construction industry.

Since coming into post in August 2021 I have worked intensively with industry and stakeholders to agree a project plan that we can have confidence in to deliver Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). This has included frequent engagement with Circularity Scotland Ltd (CSL) who have been open and realistic about the scale of challenge facing implementation of DRS due to COVID-19 and EU Exit, as the Gateway Review recognised.

In line with the principle of producer responsibility, CSL is a private company, established by industry to lead on delivery of Scotland’s DRS as scheme administrator. As an independent, industry-led organisation, CSL’s procurement decisions are not a matter for the Scottish Ministers.

Producers of in-scope drinks are responsible for having their scheme packaging collected from return points free of charge from the full implementation date for DRS, either directly or through a scheme administrator. Industry is therefore liable for delivery of DRS by the full implementation date whether or not a scheme administrator is in place by that date. Until and unless amended by the Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Amendment Regulations 2022, that date is set in regulations as 1 July 2022.

The Scottish Government recognises the important role upskilling and retraining interventions play in improving productivity and business competitiveness, and is committed to providing relevant support for businesses of all sizes in doing so. This is particularly the case in regard to our transition to net zero emissions.

In December 2020 the Scottish Government and Skills Development Scotland published the Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan (CESAP) setting out the actions required to ensure Scotland’s labour market is able to effectively support the transition to net zero. Through CESAP, the Green Jobs Workforce Academy administered by Skills Development Scotland, launched on the 23 August to help workers identify and access relevant green jobs and training.

In addition, the National Transition Training Fund is supporting a number of work-based training opportunities/funding streams to support net zero, including:

• Training support for those businesses receiving Green Jobs Fund grants to enable necessary workforce upskilling;
• Support for a range of projects being delivered as part of the Green Skills Workforce Academy, including awareness for SMEs and work placements through Naturescot;
• Funding for the delivery of Passivhaus design and insulation through the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre;
• Energy Skills Partnership delivery through colleges of courses to support net zero including heat pump fitting.

In December 2020 the Scottish Government and Skills Development Scotland published the Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan (CESAP) setting out the actions required to ensure Scotland’s labour market is able to effectively support the transition to net zero. As a priority action identified in the CESAP, the first phase of the Green Jobs Workforce Academy administered by Skills Development Scotland, launched on the 23 August to help individuals of all ages identify and access relevant green jobs and training. The Academy will continue to provide training opportunities for green careers throughout 2022-23.

In addition to the work taking place through the CESAP, financial support has also been made available through the National Transition Training Fund (NTTF) and the North East Economic Recovery and Skills Fund (NEERSF).

While both NTTF and NEERSF are short-term funding programmes, we offer long-term support through skills programmes including: the Individual Training Account (ITA) scheme, which provides people who are unemployed or in low paid work with the opportunity to access £200 towards training; and the Flexible Workforce Development Fund (FDWF), which supports employers in delivering upskilling and retraining opportunities for their existing employees.

Scottish Government officials continue to hold frequent meetings with SEPA to support the organisations recovery measures following the cyber-attack in December 2020.

All applications made to SEPA for authorisation under the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations for new marine finfish farms or significant changes to existing farms are subject to public consultation. Information about these applications is made publicly available on SEPA’s consultation hub: https://consultation.sepa.org.uk/permits/car-regulations-aquaculture-applications/

Additionally, as part of its pre-application process for marine finfish farm developments ( https://www.sepa.org.uk/regulations/water/aquaculture/pre-application/ ), SEPA produces screening modelling and risk identification reports. These reports are published on SEPA’s website (the first posted 6 September 2021) ( https://www.sepa.org.uk/regulations/water/aquaculture/screening-modelling-and-risk-identification-report/ ) to inform pre-application consultations with interested parties as well as the later consultation on any application. The reports

A small subset of the information submitted to SEPA by applicants (ie large raw data sets, such as visual imagery footage of the seabed) is not available via SEPA’s website because of the large data file sizes involved. This information is provided by other means to the public on request.

Information relating to assessing fish farms was unavailable for the majority of 2020, however was restored on 6 September 2021.

Apprenticeships are a key way for all employers to invest in their workforce, providing the skills the economy needs both now and in the future.

Published in December 2020, the Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan (CESAP) sets out the actions we need to take to ensure our workforce is able to support the transition to net zero. Agile and responsive work-based learning, including apprenticeships, will support these ambitions and the CESAP notes the importance of developing new work-based learning pathways to capitalise on net-zero opportunities and maximising the uptake of apprenticeships in green jobs.

In this context, the Scottish Apprenticeship Advisory Board (SAAB) commissioned IFF Research to carry out a consultation with SAAB members, and other employers, covering industry views on the importance of reflecting sustainability into Scottish apprenticeships, and the steps required to achieve this. A final report of findings and recommendations was published in November 2021 which highlighted the need to raise awareness of climate change amongst apprentices and their employers.

Ministers are due to meet SAAB to discuss their findings on 27 January 2022. Although climate literacy skills are not currently mandatory within our apprenticeship frameworks, we are keen to work with SAAB and businesses to explore how we could effectively integrate climate awareness into work-based learning in Scotland, ensuring apprenticeships remain flexible and relevant to the current working environment as we transition to net zero, and encouraging apprentices to be at the forefront of behaviour change within their organisations.

The Scottish Government will continue to work collaboratively with Skills Development Scotland, the Scottish Funding Council and the Scottish Apprenticeship Advisory Board to maximise apprenticeships and prioritise a recovery that creates new jobs, good jobs and green jobs, supporting the long-term future of work-based learning and the economy.