Chamber and committees

Local government revenue funding is 2.6 per cent higher in real terms than it was in 2013-14 - as confirmed by the Accounts Commission. Local authorities also have a range of revenue raising powers that are not available to other public services, including newly devolved powers over empty property rates relief.

Scottish councils have been treated fairly throughout UK imposed austerity but we recognise the challenging environment they face and that is why we are committed to a New Deal with Local Government in order to ensure the sustainability of local services.

Public reporting of the winter flu and COVID-19 vaccination programme launched on 21 September and can be accessed via PHS Vaccination Surveillance (shinyapps.io) .

The only publicly currently available data is the total number of vaccinations administered for both Covid-19 and flu. By the end of October, Public Health Scotland will begin publishing uptake data by eligible JCVI groups, including those at highest risk. It will also publish Health Board-level uptake data, alongside other information such as uptake by ethnicity and SIMD.

The additional data isn’t publicly available because it is management information that cannot be disclosed until the necessary data quality checks are complete to ensure that the data is robust. In the meantime, officials and health boards are using the management information to monitor uptake to ensure that it is what we are expecting.

Since the start of the pandemic we have worked collaboratively with Public Health Scotland and National Services Scotland to continuously update and improve our NHS Inform information , the online booking portal and access to the National Vaccination Helpline.

For the helpline we continuously monitor call wait times and when they rise above expected service level agreement wait times, we increase the numbers of call handlers to bring these down (to note this cannot be done immediately, as we need to bring in more staff which can take over 24 hours). The helpline also work closely with the scheduling team so that when a large number of invites go out to groups that typically use the helpline as opposed to the online portal, such as those of older age, we pre-emptively step up the number of call handlers to meet expected demand. We have automated messages explaining the current queue length and time, so that people can choose to call back at a quieter time. For those who cannot speak for long amounts of time, we have a mechanism whereby a nominated individual can speak on another person’s behalf.

We have continued to make the online portal as user friendly as possible. The latest development in 2023 was to make it easier for users to see the next available appointment is at their clinic of choice. We also include a person’s username in their appointment letter and this contains a QR code that will take them straight to the Winter vaccines | NHS inform landing page. NHS Inform contains helpful step-by-step videos on how to use the portal to book or change an appointment and we constantly monitor feedback from the public in regards to the portal to inform future changes and developments.

The Accounts Commission and Audit Scotland are statutorily responsible for the scrutiny of local authority performance and financial management in Scotland.

As part of the annual accounts audit process, Audit Scotland or its appointed auditors will assess and report their findings with regards to the financial management and sustainability of a local authority.

In addition, Audit Scotland also audit and report their findings on the statutory duty of local authorities to secure Best Value, which includes the requirement to ensure financial sustainability. Best Value audit reports are scrutinised by both the Accounts Commission and the Scottish Ministers.

Scottish councils have been treated fairly throughout UK imposed austerity but we do recognise the challenging environment they face and that is why we are committed to a New Deal with Local Government in order to ensure the sustainability of local services.

East Lothian Council convened an Incident Response Group as the incident required a multi-agency, co-ordinated response. As part of the co-ordinated response, a sub-group consisting of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s (SEPA’s) Airborne Hazard Emergency Response (AHER) Team, Public Health Scotland and the local Health Board, provided scientific advice in relation to air quality and impacts on human health.

No additional assessment by Scottish Government on air quality, local people or wildlife was therefore required.

SEPA is continuing to engage with the operator and investigating the incident.

The Scottish Government places great importance on leisure facilities, particularly swimming pools and believes everyone should have access to these services locally.

We are fully aware that local authorities are facing challenging financial circumstances, particularly in the maintenance and operating of facilities such as swimming pools and ice rinks, largely due to energy costs and other cost of living pressures.

The Scottish Government received consequentials of £5.816m from the UK Government from their swimming pool fund. These consequentials are added to the Scottish Block as a whole and it is ultimately for Ministers to decide how to utilise available funding in the context of a challenging financial backdrop and existing budgetary pressures.

In 2023-24 the Scottish Government provided nearly £13.5bn in the Local Government Settlement and increased the resources available to local government by more than £793 million, including £100 million of additional funding at Stage 3 of the Budget Bill, funded in part by consequentials provided at the UK Budget. This was a real terms increase of £376 million or 3% compared to the 2022-23 Budget figures. In addition, Scottish Ministers allocated a further £55m ahead of the summer. This follows on from the additional £1 billion of funding provided to Local Government in 2022-23.

The funding of local sports and leisure facilities, including swimming pools is the responsibility of our local authorities and, as independent corporate bodies, it is for local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities.

The Scottish Government attaches great importance to winter sports. Scotland’s fantastic outdoors is a huge draw for visitors and sporting enthusiasts, especially over the winter months.

The snowsports sector is a key part of Scotland’s rural economy, worth an estimated £30 million per year and providing over 600 jobs. sport scotland, our national agency for sport, is providing Snowsports Scotland with an investment of £424,350 this year, an increase of 2.6% from the previous year.

We also recognise the value of ice sports in Scotland and understand the important role that ice sporting facilities play in improving people’s lives, whether it is taking part socially, developing, progressing, or achieving success. sport scotland’s annual investment of £742,300 into Scottish Curling for the period 2023-24 represents an 8.3% increase in funding from the previous year.

The Scottish Government provided a £7 million ski centre fund during the pandemic to safeguard Scotland’s commercially run snow sport centres, including four of its five mountain resorts – Nevis Mountain Range, Glencoe Mountain Resort, The Lecht Ski Centre and Glenshee Ski Centre, and four artificial snow sport centres. In addition, thirteen ice rinks across Scotland also received £2 million financial support from the ice rink support fund.

The Scottish Government places great importance on indoor sport facilities, such as ice rinks. They are crucial to the wellbeing of all our country and most importantly, for our children and young people to be healthy and active.

We are aware of the current challenges and difficult financial circumstances facing many operating indoor sports facilities due to the cost of living crisis. We have repeatedly called on the UK Government to use all the powers at its disposal to tackle this cost of living crisis and to provide appropriate energy bill relief to leisure facilities.

Where indoor sports facilities are operated by the local authority or leisure trust, it is for local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities. In 2023-24 the Scottish Government provided nearly £13.5bn in the Local Government Settlement and increased the resources available to local government by more than £793 million, including £100 million of additional funding at Stage 3 of the Budget Bill, funded in part by consequentials provided at the UK Budget. This was a real terms increase of £376 million or 3% compared to the 2022-23 Budget figures. In addition, Scottish Ministers allocated a further £55m ahead of the summer. This follows on from the additional £1 billion of funding provided to Local Government in 2022-23.

The Scottish Government understand that access to facilities is necessary for a range of sporting activities. That’s why our Programme for Government for 2023 to 2024 sets out our intention to convene a working group, including representatives of sports organisations, community organisations and CoSLA, to explore how community access to community facilities, such as the school estate, can be enhanced. This will be a priority action in our refreshed Active Scotland Delivery Plan.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to expand the scope of SSSC registration to bring other groups employed in the self-directed support sector into the regulated workforce. For a further description of expansion of scope of SSSC registration please refer to answer given to S6W-13523 on 20 January 2023.

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