Chamber and committees

Since October 2016, the Scottish Government has provided funding for adult social care workers to be paid the real Living Wage. This policy is in recognition of the need to improve the working conditions and living standards of front-line staff and improve recruitment and retention within the sector. During 2018-19 this commitment is being extended to sleepover hours.

We consider the real Living Wage to be a minimum requirement and would encourage employers to pay staff at a higher level wherever they are able to do so. We are aware that some care providers pay more than the Living Wage and will continue to work with members of the Living Wage in Care Implementation Group to ensure successful implementation of the policy.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-19158 on 6 November 2018. 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 .

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-19158 on 6 November 2018. 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-19158 on 6 November 2018. 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 .

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-19158 on 6 November 2018. 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 Scotland, specialist breastfeeding support comes from a wide range of professions and includes family nurses, midwives, health visitors and doctors. Information on the number of these breastfeeding specialists trained or in post is not held centrally. It is for each NHS Board to plan services to meet the needs of its population and where it will have the biggest impact, with an overall aim of reducing health inequalities.

Maternity and Community services across NHS Scotland are now fully accredited by Unicef UK as Baby Friendly. All midwives, health visitors, family nurses and support staff have been trained and are competent to provide high quality feeding and relationship building care for mothers and babies in all their infant feeding decisions. We expect this support to be available to mothers regardless of the age of her infant, noting that specialist support is of most benefit in the early days and weeks of the breastfeeding journey. We have seen a continuing increase in breastfeeding rates even in the most deprived areas over the past few years.

Over the past five years, we have invested more than £15.8m directly to NHS Boards for implementation of the Maternal and Infant Nutrition Framework (2011) of which breastfeeding support is a key component. The associated Outcomes Framework outlines the measures that every Health Board should take to ensure that all parents are supported to give their baby the very best nutritional start in life.

Following the announcement of more than £2m additional investment in June this year, we received 50 bids for extra funding support for breastfeeding services quality improvement projects: 43 from NHS Boards and 8 from Third Sector organisations.

The following table provides the number of bids broken down by Health Board and details of the additional funding provided this year to meet the cost of these quality improvement projects, aimed at improving the breastfeeding experience for women across Scotland.

Decisions about releasing the details of crimes are an operational matter for Police Scotland.

The investigation of wildlife crime is a matter for Police Scotland.

The Scottish Government set out a number of measures to tackle wildlife crime in the 2017-18 Programme for Government. These included:

Additional resources for Police Scotland to tackle wildlife crime;
Setting up an independent group to consider how to ensure that the management of grouse moors is environmentally sustainable and compliant with the law;
The commissioning of a research project to examine the impact of large shooting estates on Scotland’s economy and biodiversity;
Implementing increases to penalties for wildlife crime, as recommended by Professor Poustie in his report published in November 2015.

These commitments have been completed or are underway. The increase in wildlife crime penalties will be taken forward during the course of this Parliament.

The Scottish Government has been clear that the use of poison to kill wildlife is cruel and barbaric and dangerous to people and domestic pets and all wildlife, not just the intended target.

The Scottish Government has taken a number of steps to eradicate this form of crime. This has included the introduction of a pesticides disposal scheme in 2015, which safely removed hundreds of kilograms of banned pesticide products from Scotland’s environment, including carbofuran and sodium cyanide. Recorded poisoning incidents have fallen significantly from a high of 32 birds in 2010 down to 6 birds in 2016.

The Scottish Government is taking the recently published papers into account, alongside existing evidence and advice from Scottish Natural Heritage, in assessing any next steps to be taken in relation to the protection and management of mountain hares in Scotland. An announcement will be made in due course.