Chamber and committees

The UK Technical Advisory Group (UKTAG) published their Environmental Quality Standards recommendation for emamectin benzoate on 30 June 2022. The Scottish Government will now respond and consult on the implementation of the recent UKTAG environmental standard recommendation. In the meantime the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) updated its interim regulatory position on emamectin benzoate, to apply the new standard when determining new applications to discharge emamectin benzoate.

SEPA is also progressing work to update its framework for regulating bath treatment medicines. This has included introducing a new computer model of the dispersion of the medicines in the environment and taking account of the latest evidence on the persistence of the medicines in the environment. It is also working to support innovation in the capture and removal of bath treatment medicine residues to reduce discharges to the environment. SEPA is looking at the suite of bath medicines to understand if the latest scientific evidence suggests that the existing environmental standards need to be updated.

Scottish Government has allocated £4.9 million to local authorities for expenditure in 2022-23 and intends to allocate the same sum in 2023-24 in relation to making period products available for free. This includes meeting their duties as set out in the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021, which came into force on 15 August 2022.

Local authorities have not stated at this point that additional funding will be required in 2022-23 or 2023-24 to meet demand. However, through a bid-in process agreed through COSLA, Scottish Government will make provision for additional funding if this is required to meet costs as a result of increased demand or activities required to implement the Act.

Work to progress the medium and long term solutions for the A83 Rest and Be Thankful is currently being overseen by seven civil servants, including four chartered civil engineers. This is a typical client team resource for a project of this size and the civil servants involved are also responsible for the oversight and management of other projects within Transport Scotland. The member will note that technical consultants have now been appointed to progress the long and medium term options for the Rest and Be Thankful.

On 28 April 2022, the UK’s Subsidy Control Bill received Royal Assent, becoming the Subsidy Control Act 2022 (the Act). Although the UK’s domestic subsidy control regime now has statutory footing, most of the Act has not entered into force, meaning the interim regime based on the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) remains applicable. The new regime is expected to be operational later this year. Officials will continue to work through the UK Government’s proposals to understand the impact on subsidies, including on ferry services.

It is for each Health Board to determine locally how best to promote and raise awareness of Whistleblowing and their Whistleblowing Champions. In addition, the Scottish Government includes questions on whistleblowing in the Staff Governance Monitoring Returns which Boards complete annually.

Since 2018-19, as part of our annual Staff Governance Monitoring exercise, the Scottish Government requests information on the number of bullying and harassment cases raised locally each year. This information was not requested in 2019-20 due to the pandemic.

Please note than when numbers of cases are less than 5, we cannot give specific figures for reasons of maintaining anonymity.

The following table contains the figures for each Health Board.

Following the announcement in October 2018, the recruitment process for non-Executive Whistleblowing Champions started in 2019. Given the scale of the recruitment process, most Whistleblowing Champions were appointed in 2020. The dedicated role offers an extra level of scrutiny and assurance, helping NHS Boards to comply with their responsibilities in relation to whistleblowing.

There are currently 2 vacancies within the State Hospital and NHS Shetland, which are currently being recruited through the Public Appointments process.

In the Scottish Government’s response to the Sturrock Review, a Ministerially-led Short-Life Working Group was convened, with representation from NHS boards, staff-side organisations, medical Royal Colleges based in Scotland and the professional and regulatory bodies representing medics, nurses and allied healthcare professionals.

The focus of this group was to examine how to take forward measures that support open and honest workplace cultures, specifically with a view to delivering sustainable behavioural and attitudinal changes to leadership and management across NHS Scotland.

This group met on 31 July 2019, 28 October 2019 and 18 June 2020. As this work has evolved, there are no plans for this group to meet.

The Scottish Government has not permanently closed any trunk road bridges in the Highlands and Islands region. Decisions on the closure or re-opening of Local Authority bridges is a matter for the relevant Local Authority. Following consultation, Local Authority colleagues have indicated the following local bridge closures:

The Scottish Government did not allocate any finance for the Young Islanders Challenge in 2021-22. However, £28,500 was allocated to our delivery partner, Youth Scotland, to support the Young Islanders Challenge in 2020-21.