Chamber and committees

Since independent hospice representatives met with Ministers in March 2023, SG officials have had a number of meetings with Health and Social Care Partnerships from April through to July to discuss the independent hospice sector’s calls for a national framework for hospice funding, and this engagement is continuing.

Following searches by Scottish Government officials on the corporate system, 5 complaints have been identified which relate to ‘medical’ or ‘medical devices’ and ‘power. However it should be noted that complaints of this nature are more likely to be directed to health boards as providers of such devices.

None.

Local Authorities and Integration Authorities are responsible for adult carer support plans and young carer statements in line with the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 and the associated statutory guidance.

The Care Inspectorate looked at practice and outcomes from adult carer support plans as part of its Inquiry into adult carers’ experiences of social work and social care services, published in December 2022. The annual Carers Census also collects information on support planning. The Scottish Government is using the results of both exercises, together with informal feedback from stakeholders to focus our actions to promote improvement and sharing of good practice, including those commitments set out in the National Carers Strategy.

Key activities include:

• networks for local statutory carer leads and managers of local carer centres and young carer services;
• training resources for front line staff;
•  improvement work with local organisations led by Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

No scrappage scheme for key workers has been considered appropriate, however Transport Scotland provides grant funding to support lower income households and smaller businesses to adapt to Low Emission Zones (LEZs) via the LEZ Support Fund.

In return for scrapping non-LEZ standard cars, a cash grant of £2000 is received, and a further allowance of up to £1000 per household or business towards sustainable travel costs.

This funding does not extend to motorcycles as these are not currently subject to LEZ restrictions.

There is no provision for exemption or compensation for key workers travelling into a Low Emission Zone (LEZ). However, Transport Scotland provides grant funding to support lower income households and smaller businesses to adapt to Low Emission Zones via the LEZ Support Fund. In return for scrapping non-LEZ standard cars, a cash grant of £2000 is received, and a further allowance of up to £1000 per household or business towards sustainable travel costs.

Attacks or assaults on anybody, regardless of whether they are employed at an airport or not, are an offence and should be reported to the Police. There have been no recent discussions. The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many attacks on publicly and privately employed airport staff in the last 10 years have been classified as having taken place in a public place.

Ministers are required by the Community Empowerment Act (2015) to review the National Outcomes within five years of their previous publication, and the next review is currently underway. The Scottish Government intends to lay the statutory document in Parliament in early 2024. This will outline the work undertaken during the review, including any proposed changes to the National Outcomes.

Under the current constitutional arrangements in the United Kingdom the application process for all immigration routes is fully reserved to the UK Government and is dealt with by the Home Office. If a displaced person from Ukraine has been issued a visa, including under the Scottish Super Sponsor Scheme, they are free to travel anywhere within the UK or to leave and re-enter the UK when they wish, as long as they are meeting the conditions within their visa. The cross border geographical movement, within the UK, which includes that between Scotland and England is not monitored and the data requested is therefore not available.

The Scottish Government has allocated £6 million from the City Centre Recovery Fund 2021-22 to the member cities of the Scottish Cities Alliance in support of City Centre recovery, to take forward the priorities identified by the City Centre Recovery Task Force. Funds were divided between the cities based on city centre population and paid directly to each local authority, rather than directly to the Scottish Cities Alliance.

The Scottish Government also contributes £196,000 per annum directly to the Scottish Cities Alliance. This is in addition to the £28,000 contributed by each of the 8 cities. It is from this contribution that any ongoing work undertaken by the Scottish Cities Alliance on City Centre Recovery is funded.