Chamber and committees

Over half (55.8%) of the people in Scotland who have never worked aged 16 to 64 were in full-time education. Just because someone does not have a job does not mean they are not making a valuable contribution to our economy and society.

In October 2021-September 2022, the latest data, it was estimated that 257,500 people aged 16 to 64 years in Scotland had never worked, 7.5 per cent of the population. The lowest level and rate since October 2010-September 2011.

The proportion of the population aged 16 to 64 who had never worked had been increasing over time, reaching a peak of 8.8 per cent in October 2015-September 2016. Since then, the proportion has typically been decreasing.

The estimated number and proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in Scotland who have never worked is provided in Table 1. Estimates of the number of people who have never worked are available from 2004 onwards.

Table 1: Estimated number and proportion of the people aged 16-64 who have never worked, Oct 2004-Sep 2005 to Oct 2021-Sep 2022, Scotland

The Homes2Fit accessible housing register was set up and is run by Glasgow Centre for Inclusive Living (GCIL). The Scottish Government does not hold the requested information.

Preliminary findings from the EAVE II study, led by Public Health Scotland in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, were published in a preprint article on 7 March 2023. This article presents preliminary analysis of the number of adults aged 18 and over presenting with long COVID in general practice. It uses routinely collected clinical data from almost the entire adult population in Scotland.

Please note that these findings are preliminary and have not yet been peer-reviewed.

This study estimates that, depending on the outcome measure used, between 0.02% to 1.8% of the participant cohort had long COVID at some point over the course of the study (March 2020 to October 2022). The total number of cases identified each year have not been published with the preprint article. However, findings suggest that there was a general increase in new long COVID cases between September 2020 to April 2022, interrupted by a temporary decline between February and May 2021. Findings suggest a general decline in new long COVID cases from April to October 2022. The outcome measures used include, but are not limited to, diagnosis recorded via clinical codes. The article notes that these figures represent a probable under-recording of cases.

For comparison, the estimated prevalence of self-reported (as opposed to clinically diagnosed) long COVID in Scotland from the ONS Covid-19 Infection Survey was 3.53% (95% confidence interval: 3.23% to 3.83%) for the four week period ending 1 October 2022, which is the four-weekly estimate most closely aligned with the end of the study period.

Preliminary findings from this analysis suggest that, across NHS health boards, cases of long COVID were largely proportionate to population shares. However, findings suggest that NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde saw a disproportionately large share of cases, and NHS Lothian saw a disproportionately small share of cases.

Please refer to the preprint article for further details: Identifying Long Covid Using Electronic Health Records: A National Observational Cohort Study in Scotland .

The vast majority of funding to local authorities from the Scottish Government is provided via a block grant and we do not stipulate how local authorities should utilise their individual allocations.

It is the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budget and to allocate the financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities. The Scottish Government has no plans to establish a national pothole fund.

The overall funding package for local authorities of almost £12.7bn for 2022/23 represents a rise of £1.06bn or 9.2% in cash terms, or 6.3% in real terms compared with 2021/22.

Since 2015, 663,670 households have accessed the Home Energy Scotland advice service in the following local authority areas:

Evusheld ® was developed and tested before the emergence of the Omicron variant. The RAPID C-19 group and the COVID-19 UK expert panel have considered a full range of evidence, including clinical trial data, in vitro (in the lab) analysis and observational studies, and have advised that there is insufficient evidence available to support procurement and deployment of Evusheld ®. As a result, there is currently no established NHS supply arrangement for Evusheld ® in the UK.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC, as part of Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS)) have agreed to maintain the collaboration that started through RAPID C-19 by collaborating on a single health technology appraisal (STA) of Evusheld ® for the prevention of COVID-19. NICE and the SMC will produce separate guidance and advice documents, but the recommendations will be aligned. Draft guidance was published on 16 February 2023, and does not recommend its use. Final guidance on the STA is expected to be published in June 2023.

The costs of the NHS Pension Scheme (Scotland) for employers are determined by the quadrennial scheme valuation. The latest valuation, the 2020 valuation, is currently in progress and will determine the new employer contribution rate effective from 1 April 2024. There are many variables which can impact the final result of the valuation, not least the SCAPE discount rate which is still to be confirmed by HM Treasury, therefore it is too early to predict the impact on employer costs at the present time.

Scottish Government published analysis in October 2022 estimating around 73% of people eligible for Young Carer Grant received the payment in 2021-22. These figures are available at:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/take-up-rates-scottish-benefits-october-2022/

In addition, information relating to Young Carer Grant applications is routinely published by Social Security Scotland as part of Official Statistics releases. The statistics currently include a breakdown of received applications, as well as authorised applications, by local authority and financial year. These statistics are available at https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/about/statistics/social-security-scotland-statistics-publications .

As part of work to continuously improve Official Statistics outputs, the forthcoming Young Carer Grant statistics release will include a local authority breakdown expanded to report denied and withdrawn applications. These Official Statistics will be published on 21 March 2023.

The Scottish Government monitors a range of data sources on job vacancies in Scotland, as part of wider analysis of labour market trends. These include official and experimental statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), and data from external partners.

In November to January 2023, Scotland’s employment rate was 76.5 per cent and it was the second highest since the series began in 1992. The unemployment rate was 3.1 per cent, down 0.6 percentage points since December 2019 to February 2020 (pre-pandemic) and the inactivity rate was 21.0 per cent, down 0.6 percentage points since pre-pandemic.

ONS produce experimental job advert indices at Scotland level, using online job postings from Adzuna. This source indicates that online job postings in Scotland in the week to 3rd March 2023 47.1% higher than February 2020. This data source is available at:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/economicoutputandproductivity/output/datasets/onlinejobadvertestimates

ONS also produce experimental estimates of labour demand volumes in Scotland by profession and local authority, based on analysis of Textkernel data on online job adverts. The most recent data suggested that there were 78,925 online job vacancies in Scotland in December 2022. Of these, 13 per cent were classified as Healthcare job postings, while 9.4 per cent were classified as Information & Communication Technology postings. This data source is available at:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourdemandvolumesbyprofessionandlocalauthorityukjanuary2017todecember2022

The Scottish Government also monitors labour demand through the RBS Report on Jobs, which provides an overview of changes in recruitment demand by sector in Scotland as reported by recruitment consultancies. In February 2022, permanent staff demand growth was strongest in the monitored sectors of Nursing/Medical/Care and IT & Computing. For temporary staff demand growth remained strongest in IT & Computing. This data source is available at:

Royal Bank of Scotland Report on Jobs – February 2023 | NatWest Group

The Scottish Government has not carried out an assessment of the impact of NHS staff pay awards on the independent hospice sector, however, Scottish Government Ministers are meeting with representatives from the sector in March 2023 to discuss pressures that hospices are facing.