Chamber and committees

We recognise that local carer support services have been under additional pressure during the pandemic.

Local authorities and integration authorities are responsible for carer support under the Carers Act and commission third sector organisations to provide much of that support on their behalf. The 2021-22 budget contains an additional £28.5 million in the local government settlement for Carers Act implementation. Added to similar (baselined) increases in previous years since the Act came into force in April 2018, this brings the total additional investment for 2021-22 to £68 million per year.

The previous Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport wrote to local authorities in March 2021 to highlight the importance of using this additional funding to expand carer support: www.gov.scot/publications/carers-act-finance-2021-2022-letter .

The Scottish Government also funds the Time to Live scheme, administered by Shared Care Scotland, to enable local carer organisations to provide small grants for carers to spend on short breaks or something that gives them a break from caring. In response to the pandemic, we have put an additional £910,000 into the scheme in 2020-21 and a further £250,000 in 2021-22.

The Scottish Government has committed to undertake a review of the Welfare Fund, including examination of its funding, administration, promotion, take-up and accessibility. The detailed scope, delivery and timescales of the review will be determined in due course. We intend to commence it during the first year of the new parliament.

The Scottish Government is committed to expanding the universal provision of free school lunches to include all primary school children, during school term-time, by August 2022.

Information on how many disabled interns each NHS Board has hired in each of the last three years is not centrally held.

Plans for future legislation are set out in the annual legislative programme announced in the Programme for Government.

We remain fully committed to restricting the promotion and marketing of foods high in fat, sugar or salt where they are sold to the public. Work is continuing to further improve the evidence base to underpin the proposals and we continue to engage with the other administrations in the UK to explore the scope for the possible alignment of policy and legislation.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-01446 on 26 July 2021. 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

Equality impact assessments have been carried out where appropriate in relation to the levels approach in Coronavirus (Covid-19): Scotland’s Strategic Framework, including following its updates in February and June 2021.

Data sharing between the UK Government’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Social Security Scotland is an important element of the current devolution settlement. It allows the Scottish Government to top up reserved benefits in line with the provisions of the Scotland Act 2016. It also ensures that both governments can correctly pay people the “passported” benefits to which they are entitled because they are receiving other reserved and devolved benefits. As we will be required to share data for as long as the current devolution settlement exists, a shared protocol is desirable given the multiple complex interactions between devolved Scottish and reserved UK benefits and entitlements.

We have begun work with the DWP on a joint data strategy to inform our approach to data sharing in future.

The Scottish Government meets with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) routinely on a range of matters.

The last time Scottish Government Ministers met with DWP Ministers was at the last Joint Ministerial Working Group on Welfare on 16 December 2020, where the agenda covered a range of matters relating to the devolution of social security.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00713 on
23 June 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .