Chamber and committees

Two Special Adviser appointments were made during the period stated: October 2018 and January 2020. Both are full-time appointments. Salary information for Special Advisers is published annually in Government Initiated Questions (GIQ). Although two Special Advisers were appointed, the overall number of Special Advisers remains the same.

The following tables provide an overview of the frontline communications staff/press officers recruited, on a permanent and temporary basis, during the period stated. All appointments have been on a full-time basis. The Scottish Government does not employ any public relations staff.

The Scottish Government recognises the concerns of student paramedics and we will shortly be commencing a review of the education provided to Allied Health Professionals, including paramedics, and the financial support offered to students will be considered as part of this review.

The Additional Support Needs jurisdiction of the Health and Education Chamber of the First-Tier Tribunal for Scotland hears references regarding certain decisions of education authorities regarding the provision of educational support under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004.

The First Tier Tribunal is an independent judicial body. The Scottish Government has been kept updated on the actions taken by the Tribunal to mitigate the delays it has faced as a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-30834 on 12 August 2020. 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 budget for the Edinburgh Integration Joint Board has increased by £23.6 million to £681.1 million in 2020-21.

Along with all Integration Joint Boards, Edinburgh is working to address its savings challenge for the year and to deliver financial balance. All savings delivered by the IJB will be retained by the IJB for reinvestment in local services.

In response to the current pandemic, Edinburgh IJB has already received £4.1 million, its share of the initial £50 million announced to support immediate challenges in the social care sector, supporting initiatives such at the Social Care Staff Support Fund ensuring social care workers do not experience financial hardship if they are ill or self isolating due to coronavirus. To implement the real living wage pay increase from 1 April, the IJB received an additional £1.2 million. The IJB will also receive its share of up to a further £50 million announced on 3 August.

The Scottish Government expects all Integration Authorities to operate within the resources available and continues to provide substantial additional funding across the health and social care sector to address the challenges arising from Covid-19. The Scottish Government expects Edinburgh IJB, along with its funding partners, to follow the clear protocol in place for addressing financial challenges and remains in close contact with the Integration Authority as part of this process.

467 members of staff from Health Boards were placed in temporary accommodation, organised by the Health Boards, between the start of lockdown and 1 July 2020.

The accommodation provided to staff included hotels, self-catering accommodation and residences. Two Health Board used their own, vacant student accommodation on an as-needed basis. One Health Board does not hold data on how many staff have accessed this accommodation due to reasons pertaining to Covid-19.

All Health Boards put in place their own policies and processes for organising accommodation for member of staff who needed to stay away from their main home to protect themselves, their family or the public. We have received assurance that these policies included protecting the emotional and physical wellbeing of staff, and only using accommodation where infection control procedures could be put in place.

The number of home tests carried out was not reported via Scottish Government data until the 8 July. Up until this point the number of home tests was reported in data from the Department of Health and Social Care at the UK level. From the 8 July all testing carried out for residents in Scotland, including the number of home kits ordered (or simply home kits) are now included in the data reported daily in the Scottish Government website.

The data provided by Public Health Scotland is for home tests that have produced a valid laboratory result, not the number of kits sent out.

More information can be found here : https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland. Definitions are available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-data-definitions-and-sources.

The indicative date for the reopening of indoor sport and leisure facilities including swimming pools is 14 September. However the Scottish Government will continue to review the situation to see if earlier reopening is possible, with the intention to provide a further update on 20 August.

In terms of competitive swimming our performance swimmers have already been given permission to start training and careful consideration is being given to indoor competitive sports – including swimming.

We have been working with the sector to develop robust guidance and protocols that will allow necessary preparation for reopening indoor facilities and swimming pools and provide confidence for the public and members and staff to return with physical distancing and enhanced hygiene measures.

Our Learning Estate Strategy sets out a range of outcomes for Scottish educational buildings, including an ambitions energy efficiency target to make learning environments greener and more sustainable, contributing to our commitment to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. We are also developing a benchmark standard for new public sector buildings that will ensure the heating systems of new educational buildings are renewable or zero carbon.

Support for Public and Third Sector organisations to improve the energy efficiency of existing buildings is available through our Non-Domestic Energy Efficiency Framework, which has been designed to support organisations procure Energy Efficiency retrofit work. Funding for these projects is available through Salix Finance interest free loans for up to 50% of eligible costs through the Scottish Energy Efficiency Loan Scheme (SEELS) funded by Scottish Government.

Higher Education Institutions in Scotland have also been able to access support and finance for carbon reduction projects through our Universities for the Future: Decarbonising Scotland Fund and the £20 million University Carbon Reduction Fund, funded by our Scottish Funding Council, with both funds managed by Salix Finance.

We are continuing to work with sport scotland and our sporting governing bodies to enable all sports to return when it is safe to do so. Should the virus continue to be controlled, inter-club matches should be permitted to take place.

sport scotland will continue to liaise with Cricket Scotland, who will continue to provide clubs with updated guidance.