Chamber and committees

The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places the statutory responsibility for local roads improvement, maintenance and repair with local road authorities.

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 therefore 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 2022-23 Local Government Settlement of almost £12.7 billion is both fair and affordable, under the most challenging of circumstances.

Following publication of the Audit Scotland report on Maintaining Scotland’s Roads in 2016, the National Roads Maintenance Review undertaken by Transport Scotland, SCOTS (the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland), CoSLA and SoLACE (the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives) considered the recommendation for long term funding settlements for local road maintenance. However, the conclusion was that this would lead to further ring fencing of local authority funding settlements which would impact on local accountability and decision making, and was not taken forward.

As a result of the pandemic, local PPE Hubs were set up all over Scotland to provide free PPE to people providing social care support including to people at highest risk, who need it. The Scottish Government continues to offer free PPE to unpaid carers and provision has been extended to September 2022. Unpaid or family carers who think they require PPE due to their caring role should contact their local carer’s centre and they will advise on how to access supplies locally. If their local carers’ centre is unavailable, they can call the Social Care PPE Support Centre on 0300 303 3020.

With regards to the point on air filters and ventilation I have attached a link to HSE guidance here Overview - Ventilation in the workplace (hse.gov.uk) . You can also find further guidance from Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) CIBSE - Emerging from Lockdown (CIBSE.org) .

Hand-washing and wearing face coverings in indoor public places and on public transport are two of the key things we’re still asking people to do as part of our Covid Sense (gov.scot) campaign.

This information is not held centrally.

Scottish Ministers are absolutely committed to a publicly owned and operated NHS, and for the people of Scotland to have free and timely access to health services. Our NHS in Scotland makes very limited use of the independent sector for targeted services and to supplement NHS capacity, where necessary.

In 2020-21, use of the independent sector in NHS Scotland represented just 0.5% of the frontline health budget. For NHS England, use of the independent sector was 7%, £12.2 billion, of the English health budget for the same period.

Total spend with independent providers is published annually in NHS Board accounts which are available on each Board’s website. Detail not included in the accounts would require to be requested from Health Boards.

The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places statutory responsibility for local roads, including structures, improvements, maintenance and repair with local roads authorities. As such it is the responsibility of the local authority to determine how best to meet its duties on local roads in their respective areas including the format of public reporting and no formal guidance is issued on this matter.

The Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 introduced a discretionary power for local authorities to implement workplace parking licencing (WPL) schemes. It will be for local authorities to decide whether they wish to implement WPL locally and to shape proposals to suit local circumstances.

The Workplace Parking Licensing (Scotland) Regulations 2022 require local authorities to notify Scottish Ministers when publishing notification of a scheme proposal. There is no requirement for local authorities to register their interest in introducing a WPL scheme with Scottish Ministers before they have formally published a scheme proposal (such as during initial scoping or exploration of a scheme).

While no notifications of scheme proposals have yet been received, I am aware that local authorities may be considering how best to use the new powers. For example, the City of Edinburgh Council has included plans to take forward a WPL scheme as part of its published City Mobility Plan 2021-2030 and have recently re-affirmed that they will continue exploration of such a scheme. I am also aware that WPL is under consideration in Glasgow as part of their Local Transport Strategy policy framework.

The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places statutory responsibility for local roads, including structures, improvements, maintenance and repair with local roads authorities. As such it is the responsibility of the local authority to determine how best to meet its duties on local roads in their respective areas and no formal guidance is issued on this matter. Transport Scotland does however share knowledge and best practice through a number of forums. In particular the benefits of Warm Mix Asphalt has been discussed at a number of Transport Scotland Pavement Forums and representatives of SCOTS (Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland) attend these meetings.

We currently have no plans to extend the statutory free bus schemes to include the Glasgow Subway.

We are, however, undertaking a Fair Fares Review that will look at look at the range of discounts and concessionary schemes which are available on all modes including bus, rail and ferry.

The information requested is not held centrally. This is a matter for local authorities who should maintain records of notices.

The information is not held centrally. You may wish to contact Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol & Drugs directly to request additional information. An evaluation of the National Development Project Fund is also available on the Scottish Government website.

The whole family approach framework, launched in December 2021, sets out principles of how we will improve support for families affected by substances. A £3.5 million uplift per year is provided to ADPs to implement this framework by allocating funding to local family support services.

We also fund Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol & Drugs for family support services while the Children and Families Fund, administered by Corra, provides £3 million for family support each year to front-line and third-sector organisations.