Chamber and committees

While it is reassuring that, during a further national COVID-19 lockdown in Q1 2021, once a decision to treat was made, cancer patients in NHS Forth Valley waited on average four days for treatment. However, the 62 day standard remains challenged and while the overall aim is to recover cancer waiting times performance, our priority - as the NHS continues to remobilise - remains ensuring that vital services are delivered safely to patients based on their clinical priority.

To support the improvement of cancer waiting times, we are now releasing an additional £10 million non-recurring revenue funding across NHS Scotland, of which £545,000 has been made available to NHS Forth Valley.

Recovery and Redesign: An Action Plan for Cancer Services was published on 9 December 2020. The Plan will ensure patients have access to the best possible treatment and care and is monitored and overseen by the National Cancer Recovery Group.

The Scottish Government is in weekly contact with NHS Forth Valley to ensure that patients referred with an urgent suspicion of cancer are moved through the pathway as quickly as possible based on clinical priority and plans are underway to review the boards implementation of the Scottish Government Effective Cancer Management Framework.

Following agreement with the Improvement Service, the National Entitlement Card Programme Office and Young Scot, who are responsible for handling applications for and issuing the National Entitlement Cards on which the national concessionary travel schemes depend, we plan that young people should be able to travel under the new Young Persons Free Bus Scheme from 31 January 2022.

We have previously announced our intention to extend the scope of the scheme to include 19-21 year olds and committed to making as much progress on this as possible this financial year. Subject to Parliamentary approval of the legislation required to amend the age eligibility for the scheme, when the new scheme goes live it will do so for young people up to and including the age of 21.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, the Scottish Government does not collect information on the number of people sleeping rough in each local authority area.

The Scottish Government does collect data from local authorities on the number of homeless applications where at least one member of the household reported sleeping rough the night before making an application, and within the three months preceding an application. These statistics are published annually and the information can be found in Tables 2a & b and Tables 3a & b of the Main Tables (June 2021) spreadsheet on the Scottish Government’s Homelessness in Scotland: 2020 to 2021 statistics publication page: Homelessness in Scotland: 2020 to 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government aims to develop a national case management system to enable relevant information to be made available to organisations supporting people experiencing homelessness. We aim to begin a pilot of this system in 2021.

The Scottish Government regularly engages with the business community. The main six business organisations – Scottish Chambers, Scottish Council for Development and Industry, CBI Scotland, Federation of Small Business, Institute of Directors and Scottish Financial Enterprise, and others have been meeting with Ministers and with the Director General Economy and other senior officials regularly around business issues arising from the development and implementation of the COVID-19 Strategic Framework. For example, we have committed to engaging with businesses on how we work together to determine the appropriate baseline measures as we move beyond level 0. We are currently undertaking a series of meetings with key stakeholders to ensure their views are considered.

In addition to the regular Ministerial and policy official dialogue with business, a roundtable meeting bringing together Chairs of each Industry Leadership Group in Scotland to explore cross-sectoral and public sector private sector opportunities has been established. Co-Chaired by the Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism & Enterprise and Nora Senior (Chair of the Enterprise and Skills Strategic Board) the group is focused on identifying the key areas where industry and public sector collaboration can best drive action to address common strategic economic challenges and opportunities. It last met in March and the next meeting is being arranged.

A meeting of the National Economic Forum (NEF) on 16 June also provided an opportunity for a broad range of ministers to engaged directly with and hear from businesses. Around 165 delegates, mainly from business, attended with over 100 being first or second time attendees while 11 ministers participated (including the FM and DFM). The forum generated a range of fresh ideas and potential opportunities which will now be reviewed to identify which suggestions to progress and how best to do so in a collaborative way with business.

The Scottish Government provides a significant amount of financial support to small and medium-sized enterprises in Scotland, notably through our enterprise agencies.

The following table provides information on funding predominantly aimed at businesses with fewer than 250 employees, which was approved by Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise in each financial year between 2017 and 2021.

Funding approved by the enterprise agencies aimed at businesses with fewer than 250 employees (£m)

Note: Approvals by South of Scotland Enterprise are included only for 2020-21, the agency’s first year of operation. 

Changes to travel restrictions affecting Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council were notified to Parliament by answer to question S6W-00162 on 21 May 2021, and announced to businesses and the public through a media briefing by the First Minister, a news release, and updated guidance on the Scottish Government website. Enforcement of coronavirus travel regulations in Scotland is a matter for Police Scotland. 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 Scottish Government has not had any recent conversations with Ofgem regarding the planning rules for local distribution power networks. The planning process requires network operators to apply to Scottish Ministers under Section 37 of the Electricity Act for consent to install or keep installed an electric line above ground (larger than 2 dwellings and 20 kiloVolts). These applications are made by the distribution network operators (ScottishPower and SSE) with all determinations then shown on the ECU portal .

We work closely with both Ofgem and the network companies to ensure that regulatory decisions and network business plans reflect Scottish energy policy. Our Energy Networks Strategic Leadership Group (SLG), which includes representatives from these organisations as well as others, agreed a set of principles this year for the development of energy networks which set out the need to account for devolved policy and targets.

The Scottish Government engages with local authorities on a range of issues related to climate change on a regular basis, including local authority target setting and reporting requirements, and the Climate Change Plan and Climate Change Plan update. This engagement includes meetings that were held during the formulation of the Climate Change Plan update, and now includes discussions on sectoral issues such as the development of Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies (LHEES), the decarbonisation of transport and the development of a circular economy.

Additionally, the Scottish Government engages with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers (SOLACE), the Sustainable Scotland Network, and the Scottish Cities Alliance. For example, a meeting was held on Wednesday 7th July with COSLA on the Climate Change Plan update commitment to reduce car kilometres by 20% by 2030.

The amount spent by the Scottish Government on woodland creation in the years 2016-2021 is set out in the following table:

Since 2016, the Scottish Government has invested around
£39 million in peatland restoration through the Peatland Action programme (delivered by NatureScot) and the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme under the Scottish Rural Development Programme. The annual figures are shown in the following table: