Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government will undertake further research, consultation and engagement with the potentially affected demographics and relevant interest groups prior to a decision being made. The Government will take the comments received during the consultation process into careful consideration in deciding the way forward.

Agendas, minutes and papers are available to customer representatives and industry stakeholders but are not publicly available. Preparatory material will be released after the conclusion of the price review. However, the proposals arising from these deliberations are set out in the Decision Papers and other Strategic Review related documentation published by the Water Industry Commission on its website as referred to in the answer to question S5W-20806 on 16 January 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 .

The ‘Shaping the future of your water services’ consultation report which was referred to by the member in question S5W-19740 was presented by Scottish Water on 25 October 2018. The results of this consultation are available on Scottish Water’s website at https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/about-us/publications/key-publications/211218-shaping-the-future-consultation-results .

The Scottish Government will continue to work with stakeholders to examine how the structure of water charges can be improved.

The Water Industry Commission for Scotland began a series of multi-stakeholder meetings in October 2017 to discuss key themes for the 2021-27 Strategic Review of Charges. Throughout 2017 and 2018 they provided a forum to explore topics included within the Commission’s 2017 and 2018 Decision Papers. These are available on the Commission’s website at https://www.watercommission.co.uk/view_Decision_Papers.aspx .

The multi-stakeholder group consists of representatives from the Scottish Government, the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS), the Customer Forum, Citizens Advice Scotland, the Drinking Water Quality Regulator (DWQR), the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Scottish Water. The Stakeholder Advisory Group is expected to continue until the Price Review process concludes in 2020.

The Respiratory Action Plan for Scotland is in the early stages of development.

Once finalised we will have a better understanding of the financial challenges and opportunities lying ahead and this will inform funding decisions.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) is the independent expert advisory group which advises Ministers and the NHS in the four UK countries about all aspects of screening policy. The NSC uses the international research evidence base to inform recommendations, and establishes pilot programmes where appropriate to collect additional evidence.

The UK NSC does not currently recommend a national screening programme for lung cancer because there is not yet enough evidence that this is a good approach to reducing the burden of the disease. In particular there are concerns around the potential for significant over-diagnosis and associated invasive investigations in people who are well.

The policy is due to be reviewed again after the results of the NELSON randomised lung cancer screening trial are published. If there is any change in the recommendations of the NSC this will be carefully considered by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government held an evidence and analysis workshop entitled ‘How do we measure/report success indicators for the framework and action plan’ during Scotland’s Race Equality Conference on 11 December 2018. The conference updated partner organisations and key stakeholders on progress on the actions set out in Scotland’s Race Equality Action Plan. At the workshop, Scottish Government analysts presented the new Equality Evidence Finder web resource, which was launched earlier that day, and discussed the evidence base with stakeholders. Organisations in attendance at the workshop included CEMVO Scotland, CRER, ELREC, the African Council, Glasgow Caledonian University and Health Boards.

Further to this event, the Scottish Government intends to engage internally with its analysts and externally with its partner organisations in 2019 to take forward the Equality Evidence Strategy.

Since 2016 the Scottish Government has provided funding to support the delivery of the real living wage commitment for staff working in adult social care, all of which has been baselined annually. This includes £30 million of funding provided to Local Authorities over the last two years to extend the commitment to sleepovers hours during 2018-19.

The Scottish Government draft spending and tax plans for 2019-20 include an increase in the package of investment in social care and integration which exceeds £700 million, underlining our commitment to integration and social care including the real living wage for staff.

The Scottish Government announced the extension of the real living wage commitment to staff undertaking overnight support in October 2017, with the expectation that this should be implemented during 2018-19. Guidance setting out the range of ways the extension could be applied in practice was issued previously.

The Scottish Government wrote again to Local Authority Chief Executives and Integration Authority Chief Officers on 20 December 2018 setting out expectations around implementation of the sleepover commitment during 2018-19.

I have not received specific reports on discussions of the Common Financial Tool Working Group. I have received briefings from officials from Accountant in Bankruptcy regarding the policy development of the Common Financial Tool. These submissions have reflected stakeholder views, including views from members of the Common Financial Tool Working Group.