Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all students with a disability, long term medical condition or additional support needs are able to access higher education and are fully supported throughout their studies. Universities have a duty under the Equality Act 2010 to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to ensure that students with disabilities which affect their studies are not placed at a disadvantage. In addition to this, universities receive funding from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) in the form of the Disabled Students Premium, which enables them to make their institution and course provision more inclusive through reasonable adjustments for students with additional needs. A total of £2.8m was allocated to universities in academic year 2016-17.

We continue to work closely with the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), the sector and through the Disabled Students Advisory Group (DSAG) which comprises a wide range of experts in the field of support for disabled students, to review inclusive practices which Scottish universities have in place to support disabled students and identify where improvements can be made.

ScotRail expect all scheduled trains to run unless there are exceptional circumstances. There are two sorts of cancellations, planned and unplanned. A planned cancellation is one which might be required because of, for example, engineering work. Planned engineering work is advertised in advance, and is not counted against ScotRail’s performance statistics. An unplanned cancellation is defined as follows:

Cancellation means a Passenger Service:

(a) which is included in the Applicable Timetable and which is cancelled;

(b) which is included in the Applicable Timetable and which operates less than 50 per cent. of its scheduled mileage; or

(c) which is omitted from the Applicable Timetable, or included in it in a modified form that does not enable the Franchisee to operate more than 50 per cent. of such Passenger Service’s scheduled mileage, without the Franchisee discharging its obligations under Schedule 1.2 (Operating Obligations) in relation thereto;

An unplanned cancellation can arise for because of a range of exceptional circumstances, including mechanical breakdowns, staff shortages, problems with the track (e.g. broken rails), network operation (e.g. a signals failure), other operators’ performance, or, on occasion, the weather.

Tackling fuel poverty has always been a priority for this Government and we are using all the powers within our control to achieve this.

We have allocated over £650 million since 2009 and we will make available half a billion pounds over the next four years to tackle fuel poverty and make our homes and building warmer and cheaper to heat.

This year we are making available £113 million to improve the energy efficiency of Scotland’s homes building on the 1 million energy efficiency measures delivered through a range of UK and Scottish Government programmes to almost 1 million homes since 2008.

Our spending on domestic energy efficiency has already made hundreds of thousands of homes warmer and cheaper to heat and, as the Scottish House Condition Survey shows, has helped to mitigate the rise in fuel poverty.

The Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016 (the 2016 Act) will enable local authorities to apply to Ministers to designate an area as a rent pressure zone where rents are rising too much, causing undue hardship to tenants and increasing the pressure on authorities to provide housing or subsidise the cost of housing. If Ministers designate a zone, rent increases for sitting tenants in that zone would be capped at a minimum of the Consumer Prices Index plus 1% for a period not exceeding 5 years per application. The 2016 Act does not contain any other rent provisions that can be used by local authorities.

The Scottish Government wishes to ensure that mid-market rent levels remain affordable to households on low to modest incomes. Landlords which have received Scottish Government support in recent years – whether in the form of grant funding, loan finance or financial guarantees – are not permitted to set rents above the mid-point of local private sector rent levels, which are generally based on Broad Rental Market Area data collected and published by the Scottish Government. These landlords will therefore be obliged to take account of any recent fluctuations in private rental prices when setting rents for the next year.

We have provided £200,000 (2016-17) to support a pilot access to elected office fund in Scotland. This includes £40,000 for administration (including assessment and support). The Fund is available to pay for practical support, covering reasonable adjustments, to support disabled people who wish to stand for selection or election in the 2017 local government elections.

We will review uptake of the fund later in the financial year to see whether this needs to be increased, and we will ensure that funds are available for the first quarter of next financial year to cover the 2017 election.

We do not hold information on individuals employment terms and conditions. However, our commitment will enable all care workers supporting vulnerable adults to be paid at least the Living Wage.

In this year alone we estimate that up to 40,000 workers, mainly women, will benefit from a well deserved pay rise directly because of this policy.

Neuro-rehabilitation for patients who have suffered a stroke is predominantly provided by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's community based stroke team which include physiotherapists who have specialised in stroke rehabilitation. This allows rehabilitation to be undertaken in a home environment negating the need for individuals and carers to travel to an out-patient clinic. The majority of patients are seen within 24 hours of hospital discharge with a maximum waiting time of 4 days.

For patients for whom an out–patient clinic appointment would be more appropriate NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have a stroke specific physiotherapy service at both Stobhill and Victoria Acute Care Hospitals which operate 4 sessions a week between the two sites. Average waiting time for this service is 5 weeks. There is also an option to be seen by a physiotherapist in one of the day hospitals across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Information about the number of families who have received free school meals is not held centrally. Information about the number of children and young people in primary, secondary and special schools, who were registered for and taking a free school meal is collected by the Scottish Government. Table 2 in the accompanying supplementary data of the Scottish Government publication Summary statistics for attainment, leaver destinations and healthy living, No. 6: 2016 Edition provides details of the number of children and young people in primary, secondary and special school who were registered and taking free school meal on the day of the survey each year from 2006. This can be accessed at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/MealsSD/mealspesd/mealspesd2016.

The number of children and young people in primary, secondary and special schools who were registered for and took a free school meals in 2005 can be accessed from table 2 of the Scottish Government publication School Meals in Scotland 2009. This can be accessed at http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2009/06/22104701/0.