Chamber and committees

As Transport for Edinburgh owns and operates the tram system, any decisions on concessionary travel on Edinburgh trams are for the City of Edinburgh Council to make. We are, however, undertaking a Fair Fares Review that will look at the range of discounts and concessionary schemes which are available on all modes.

The Bill does not propose that 75,000 local authority employees would transfer. As the policy memorandum to the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill makes clear the under the National Care Service, services will continue to be planned, designed and delivered locally because the care boards will plan and commission services for their local area. For social care services currently provided in-house by local authorities, that may continue under a commissioning arrangement with the care board, or the care board may take over direct delivery, with staff transferring to the care board. These will be decisions to be taken locally as the care boards are established. Once the structure and governance of care boards and their localities have been decided, decisions about the employment of staff will be made.

Thorough consideration will be given to all options regarding pensions and stakeholders will be consulted before any decisions are taken.

The Bill does not propose that 75,000 local authority employees would transfer. As the policy memorandum to the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill makes clear that under the National Care Service, services will continue to be planned, designed and delivered locally because the care boards will plan and commission services for their local area. For social care services currently provided in-house by local authorities, that may continue under a commissioning arrangement with the care board, or the care board may take over direct delivery, with staff transferring to the care board. These will be decisions to be taken locally as the care boards are established. Once the structure and governance of care boards and their localities have been decided, decisions about the employment of staff will be made.

The Scottish Government is committed to safely reducing delayed discharge and is actively working with partners. People who no longer require hospital treatment benefit from being at home or in a community setting. Decisions about care and treatment should always be clinically based, in the best interests of the patient and taken in consultation with the patient, their families or representatives.

Information is available from July 2016. Due to a change in data definitions and reporting requirements data prior to this point are not directly comparable.

Figures from July 2016 to September 2022 (inclusive) are shown in Table 1. (Source Public Health Scotland)

Table 1: Number of patients aged 18 & over, categorised as Adults with Incapacity (AWI) under the AWI (Scotland) Act 2000, who were delayed in their discharge from hospital by Financial Year.

The Scottish Government is working closely with developers in the assessment of buildings in the Single Building Assessment pilot to identify and remediate unsafe cladding. The Scottish Government is not providing direct financial support to housing developers. We will work with developers to implement the Scottish Safer Buildings Accord which will set out the expectation that developers will make financial contributions to remediate their buildings.

The Scottish Government regularly reviews its plans for public awareness campaigns. We do not intend to run a public awareness campaign for deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, venous thromboembolism and thrombosis at this time.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on remediation activity outwith the Cladding Remediation Programme. The Single Building Assessment pilot is currently assessing 27 buildings and this will be increased in number in 2023.

We meet with developers every week, particularly in relation to the pilot Single Building Assessment programme and the development of The Accord.

The majority of funding available to local authorities is provided by means of a block grant from the Scottish Government and it is for locally elected representatives to manage the allocation of their resources and the level of services that are delivered to their local communities, including Community Action Teams.

The Scottish Mental Health Law Review (commissioned by Scottish Government) published its final report at the end of September 2022 and set out substantial recommendations for reform. This included the current power of attorney process in Scotland. The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that Scotland’s incapacity laws remain fully fit for purpose and will carefully consider these proposals as part of any wider reform of the mental health and incapacity legislative framework.

The Scottish Government has established a statutory public inquiry under the Inquiries Act (2005) to examine the handling of the coronavirus pandemic in Scotland. The inquiry will provide scrutiny and establish the facts of the strategic response to the pandemic in Scotland. It will identify lessons and recommendations to help Scotland be as prepared as possible for future pandemics.