Chamber and committees

£1.4m has been provided since July 2019 to meet emergency repair work at fishing harbours in Scotland.

NHS 24 does not hold information on the number of its call handlers who can speak more than one language.

To ensure clinical safety, NHS 24 uses professional interpreters with advanced language skills who can support callers through the clinical process.

The Scottish Government’s aim is to support high quality, relevant, appropriate and accessible ESOL provision that meets learner need.

The Scottish Government’s ESOL funding is currently provided through colleges. Colleges are instructed to work with Community Planning Partnerships to determine the level of need for provision and agree with partners how this need can be met.

The Local Government Settlement provides a block grant to local authorities which they can then use to meet the learning needs of refugees and asylum seekers in their areas.

Grant funding awarded to third sector organisations has enabled ESOL providers to use asset based approaches to work with adult learners to plan and co-design their learning.

In 2020-21 colleges received £2,323,504 funding for digital inclusion. Community Learning and Development organisations received £250,000. Devices were distributed to best meet the needs of all learners, regardless of the type of learning or their legal status.

Our Adult Learning Strategy commits to continuing to increase access to digital devices and connectivity for adult learning. In 2022-3, £500,000 of Digital Inclusion funding has been made available to community learning providers through the Community Learning and Development Device Fund. The Fund is supporting over forty community-based projects throughout Scotland to acquire digital devices for learning. These projects support a range of learner groups including refugees and asylum seekers, with several specifically focusing on providing access to ESOL courses.

To tackle student digital poverty an allocation of £2.9 million has been distributed among the college sector by the Scottish Funding Council. Institutions manage these funds and applications for support at their own discretion to best support their learners. ESOL students can apply directly to their college for support with a digital device.

ESOL qualifications are delivered in a number of settings, including schools, colleges and community settings.

The Scottish Government approach to monitoring the uptake of ESOL qualifications across education providers is not sub-categorised into the individuals’ legal status such as refugees and asylum seekers. There are a variety of approaches to delivering ESOL as learning is shaped around learners’ specific requirements. This flexibility enables providers to tailor their provision to best suit learners’ personal circumstances.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) publish data on numbers of people entering SQA ESOL qualifications at schools, colleges and other approved SQA centres including training providers and voluntary sector organisations. The Scottish Funding Council collect data for colleges on enrolments to ESOL qualifications.

Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) data on the number of people entering and passing SQA ESOL qualifications can be found at the following link: Statistics and information - SQA As I have noted, this data is not sub-categorised into individuals’ legal status.

The Scottish Funding Council publish college student data each year and this information can be found at the following link: College Performance Indicators (sfc.ac.uk) . Further detail and information can be made available from The Scottish Funding Council on request.

This information is not held by The Scottish Government.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13597 on 19 January 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Scottish Water does not maintain information by parliamentary region, however it is able to provide information for the closest equivalent area. For this large geographical area ( Argyll Islands, Argyll Mainland, Caithness, Fort William, Orkney, Ness, Shetland, Skye, West Coast & Western Isles ), it is estimated that total leakage levels were 47.2 Mega litres per day for December 2022.

Scottish Water does not maintain information by parliamentary region, however it is able to provide information for the closest equivalent area. There were 151 reports in December 2022 in this large geographical region ( Argyll Islands, Argyll Mainland, Caithness, Fort William, Orkney, Ness, Shetland, Skye, West Coast & Western Isles ), compared to 185 reports in December 2021. This would include both leaks reported by customers as well as those identified separately by Scottish Water as part of its active leakage management.

Scottish Water is investing over £87 million during the current regulatory period (2021-27) to improve its network of water mains and reduce the risk of interruptions to supply for customers. It is also continually working throughout the year to actively find and repair water leaks on the network and to manage water resources. Unfortunately, there can be an increased risk to water pipes as a result of a freeze and rapid thaw, as was experienced recently in December 2022, and Scottish Water operatives worked tirelessly in freezing conditions during this time to respond to the issues which occurred on the water network. During this period, Scottish Water also saw an increase in bursts on customer private supply pipes and internal plumbing, which had a significant impact. Scottish Water has an annual campaign to raise awareness about how important it is for customers to protect their pipes by taking appropriate measures. More information about this is available on their website at "Winter Wrapped Up" and "Protect your Pipes".

The New Scots refugee integration strategy is built on partnership and collaboration, led by the Scottish Government, COSLA and the Scottish Refugee Council, and involves a wide range of partners across different sectors.

From 2017-22, the Scottish Government had one civil servant working on the New Scots refugee integration strategy, although the post was redeployed to support the Covid-19 response in 2020-2021. An additional civil servant has supported work on the strategy since May 2022. Other civil servants have worked in support of the New Scots strategy across a range of policy areas.

In addition to the permanent civil servants working on the strategy, from January 2021, up to three additional temporary staff have worked to manage the delivery of the New Scots Refugee Integration Delivery Project.