Chamber and committees

As a responsible government, we are continuing to plan and prepare for all EU Exit possibilities, including ‘No Deal’. We are absolutely committed to safeguarding, as far as we are able, the interests of businesses, communities and individuals, including EU nationals.

Cabinet is currently overseeing work on preparations for a possible ‘No Deal’ exit on 31 October, prioritising areas that will be heavily impacted such as the economy, transport, food and drink, medicines, agriculture and the rural economy.

Nevertheless, it is clear that it will not be possible to mitigate all of the impacts of a ‘No Deal’ exit – which is why we continue to press the UK Government to rule out this possibility.

While IJBs have the power to hold reserves, these funds are used to support local services. Detail on reserves are publically available on individual IJB websites. The latest consolidated position reports that IJBs have general contingency reserves of £27.5 million, in addition to £130.6 million of specific earmarked reserves.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with partners across health and social care, including Integrated Joint Boards (IJBs), to ensure plans, as far as possible, mitigate against key risks and potential disruption to service delivery should a no-deal Brexit arise. Chief Officers of Health and Social Care Partnerships are appropriately involved in locality resilience planning arrangements.

The UK Government has overall responsibility for EU exit contingency planning and in particular for entry and any customs control at the UK Border. The UK Government continues to fail to rule out a no deal exit from the EU. By necessity, therefore, the Scottish Government has been working with the UK Government to seek to secure supplies of medicines, medical devices and clinical consumables in the event of a no deal exit.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Medical Officer and Chief Pharmaceutical Officer wrote to health professionals across Scotland on 28 March 2019 to offer advice on preparations being made to enable the NHS to respond to and manage potential medicine shortages, as well as outlining the support that will be given to prescribers and pharmacists. A further update letter was issued to NHS Scotland and others on 27 June 2019.

In addition, a NHS Scotland Medicines Shortages Response Group, chaired by the Scottish Government’s Chief Pharmaceutical officer and consisting of a range of health professionals has been established to ensure that UK wide plans to manage shortages that may arise in the context of a no deal exit from the EU are implemented effectively in Scotland, taking account of health and social care needs here.

The Scottish Government carried out a staff travel survey in 2012. The survey results can be viewed online: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2014/01/2595

Survey data for agencies is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government sets out the Principles of Charging but does not direct the Water Industry Commission for Scotland to set a level of charges. The Water Industry Commission for Scotland will publish its Draft Determination for 2021-27 in May 2020 for public consultation. This document will set out the proposed customer charge levels for the period.

The Citizens Advice Scotland report, “Charting a new course: a study in developing affordability policy for water and sewerage charges”, provides an initial understanding of customers facing affordability issues. The Scottish Government will continue to listen to a wide range of views as it develops the policy framework that enables the independent regulator to determine a fair structure of water charges.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-21548 on 26 February 2019. 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 .

In 2018-19, the Scottish Government received £37.3 million (£35.7 million resource, £1.6 million capital) in consequentials as a proportionate share of the £1.5 billion Brexit preparation funding allocated to UK Departments in each of the years 2018-19 and 2019-20.

From this £37 million, £27 million (26.6 million resource and £0.5m capital) was allocated to specific Brexit related activity in the Scottish Government and its agencies, with the remaining £10 million being spent by portfolios as part of the 2018-19 Scottish Budget.

A Portfolio breakdown of the allocation of the £27 million consequential funding was published within the 2018-19 Autumn Budget Revision. A summary has been included below.

Portfolio (£m)

Health and Sport: 2.1

Finance, Economy and Fair Work: 3.6

Education and Skills: 0.4

Justice: 0.7

Environment, Climate Change & Land Reform: 4.0

Rural Economy: 9.2

Transport, Infrastructure & Connectivity: 0.9

Administration: 4.8

Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal: 0.2

Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service: 0.1

Food Standards Scotland: 0.9

Forestry Commission (Scotland): 0.1

Total: 27

Funding from the UK Government is not ring-fenced for a specific purpose and it is for Scottish Ministers to decide on allocation. While we will continue to prepare as best we can for leaving the EU with the limited resources we have, we are not able to mitigate all of the impacts completely.

The Scottish Government will received £54.7 million consequentials (£48.8 million resource and £5.9 million capital) as a result of the UK Government allocating £2 billion of EU Exit preparation funding for 2019-20.

All Portfolios have benefited from the £54.7 million EU Exit funding consequentials being allocated via the 2019-20 Scottish Budget; these are fully absorbed in supporting work already underway, including EU exit preparation. These funds are not separately identifiable.

The Scottish Attainment Challenge is providing £750m over the course of this Parliament to tackle the poverty related attainment gap, providing support through the Challenge Authorities and Schools Programmes, Pupil Equity Funding and funding for Care Experienced Children and Young People. Funding for each of these programmes is committed until the end of the current parliament. This Government is committed to closing the poverty related attainment gap and has no plans to stop further investment in the Attainment Scotland Fund in future years.

The Scottish Government and Education Scotland provide a variety of comprehensive guidance to Local Authorities and schools on the use of this funding, including National Operational Guidance on the use of Pupil Equity Funding and the Care Experienced Children and Young People Grant. Each Local Authority also has a dedicated Attainment Advisor from Education Scotland. Attainment Advisors play a significant role in helping schools to plan and develop sustainable strategies and approaches to close the poverty-related attainment gap, and support them to use data to plan, monitor and evaluate their impact.