Chamber and committees

Every Public Body publishes an Annual Report and Accounts which will include details of amounts owed to them. These annual accounts will normally be available online on the website of the individual organisation.

The Scottish Government continues to support struggling households, which is why both last year and this, we have allocated almost £3 billion to support policies which tackle poverty and protect people as far as possible during the ongoing cost of living crisis. We will also allocate at least £11 million in 2023-24 to support free debt, welfare and income maximisation advice.

Scottish Ministers continue to encourage public bodies to share good practice on debt assistance and collection and to show empathy and dignity when working with people struggling with debt. At a recent meeting of the ‘Joint Working Group on Sourcing of Local Government Funding and Council Tax Reform’ ministers raised the issue of Council Tax Debt and Recovery with the COSLA President, Vice President and Resources Spokesperson.

Scottish Government has also taken considerable action to help people struggling with the impacts of the cost of living crisis. This year we will provide funding to local government in excess of £350 million to deliver the Council Tax Reduction Scheme, ensuring over 450,000 households receive some level of Council Tax Reduction and on average recipients save over £750 a year. More widely, in 2023-24 we are tripling the Fuel Insecurity Fund and maintaining our investment in the Scottish Welfare Fund at £41 million to support those most in need.

The Scottish Government condemns all acts of antisocial behaviour, including vandalism, and we believe that our focus should be on preventing these crimes from occurring in the first place.

There are currently a number of provisions contained in the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 and Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004 that specifically deal with the offence of vandalism and these include on the spot fixed penalties that the police can issue to those suspected of low-level statutory vandalism offences. Local agencies, such as Police Scotland and local authorities, are best placed to deal with these offences and it also open to them to undertake early intervention and diversionary work to prevent antisocial behaviour in their areas . We currently have no plans to replicate the UK Government’s proposals, but will monitor the development of this approach.

In 2018, a new national evidence-based pathway for coeliac disease was launched across four health boards (NHS Lothian, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Tayside). It was funded by Scottish Government’s Modernising Patient Pathways Programme (MPPP) and co-produced in partnership with key stakeholders including Coeliac UK, and people living with coeliac disease and clinicians.

Recently, Maree Todd MSP, the then Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health & Sport attended ‘Coeliac Disease: The Challenge of Underdiagnosis’ in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday 9 March 2023. The event was supported by Coeliac UK and included a presentation from a patient representative.

The Modernising Patient Pathway Programme Coeliac Disease Pathway Test of Change Final Report, September 2020 estimates that the incidence of diagnosed Coeliac Disease is 1% of the population in Scotland with 7-8 people remaining undiagnosed for every person diagnosed.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people living in Scotland with long term conditions such as coeliac disease are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put the person at the centre of their care.

We expect all Health Boards to fully implement the Coeliac Disease Pathway in Scotland to improve under diagnosis and improve time to diagnosis for those with coeliac disease. Our £70 million Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan is increasing capacity and supporting workforce training. This also includes a commitment to promote and implement guidelines for non-biopsy diagnosis for coeliac disease, which is expected to reduce waiting times for diagnosis for this condition.

Health Boards have developed plans to increase capacity, workforce and activity. Mobile Endoscopy Units are providing access to an additional six endoscopy rooms to help people get the diagnostic tests they need. Additional activity throughout the week, including weekends, will help reduce diagnostic waits.

Information on the number of lone parents receiving Scottish Government funded employability support in each year since 1999 is not held centrally.

Official statistics for Fair Start Scotland (launched April 2018), and experimental statistics for No One Left Behind, our strategic approach to employability delivery (launched April 2019), are published quarterly by the Scottish Government and include data on lone parents. The publication relates only to Scottish Government funded activity data and not the entirety of employability related activity in each local authority area.

The most recent publication was on 22 February 2023 (Scotland's Devolved Employment Services: statistical summary February 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)). Statistics available for lone parents supported are shown below.

Table 1: Number of lone parents joining Fair Start Scotland from year 1 (April 2018 to March 2019) to year 5 so far (April 2022 to December 2022)

The Scottish Government has no current plans to extend free travel to people on employability schemes.

However, we recognise the important role that public transport plays in our lives. Accordingly, we are progressing the Fair Fares Review to ensure a sustainable and integrated approach to public transport fares that supports the future long term viability of a public transport system that is accessible, available and affordable for people throughout Scotland.

The Fair Fares Review is considering both the cost and availability of services and the range of discounts and concessionary schemes which are available on all modes including bus, rail and ferry to ensure our public transport system is more accessible, available, and affordable, with the costs of transport more fairly shared across government, business, and society.

The Fair Fares Review will report by the end of 2023 and will recommend a package of measures which can be considered for implementation from 2024-25 and onwards. These will provide opportunities to address the wider issues for the cost and availability of public transport services across all modes of public transport.

The Carer’s Allowance Supplement is a temporary measure to increase support for unpaid carers in Scotland in receipt of Carer’s Allowance until the Scottish replacement for Carer’s Allowance is in place. We have reviewed the eligibility criteria for the Carer’s Allowance Supplement as part of the process to develop proposals for the Carer Support Payment. We intend to continue to pay Carer’s Allowance as it is currently paid until we complete the transfer of all Carer’s Allowance awards from the Department for Work and Pensions to Social Security Scotland and onto Carer Support Payment. This will require changes to the eligibility criteria to ensure that carers in receipt of Carer Support Payment can receive the Carer’s Allowance Supplement automatically in the same way as it is paid to those in Scotland in receipt of Carer’s Allowance during the case transfer period.

Social Security Scotland does not keep statistics on the total number of BASRiS [Benefits Assessment under Special Rules in Scotland] forms issued or the number received but does publish statistics regularly on the caseload of clients who were eligible for disability benefits via Special Rules for Terminal Illness: Social Security Scotland - Social Security Scotland statistics: publications

The DS1500 is a form produced and issued by the UK Department for Work and Pensions and serves the same purpose as BASRIS. Though it is never issued by Social Security Scotland it is accepted without the need to additionally complete a BASRIS form.