Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to reinvigorating the core strengths and principles of general practice.

On 10 March , the Scottish Government announced that in 2017-2018 £71.6 million will be invested in direct support of general practice, helping transform the way services are delivered in the community. As part of this the GP Recruitment and Retention Fund has been increased five-fold - from £1 million to £5 million in 2017-18. This investment is enabling us to expand and continue to explore with key stakeholders the issues surrounding GP recruitment and retention across Scotland through a range of initiatives that will test and develop solutions and recommendations.

Internet safety is a reserved matter. However, Scottish Ministers do have significant scope to develop and implement policy relating to child internet safety as a direct result of devolved responsibility for education, policing and child protection.

The Scottish Government's National Action Plan on Internet Safety for Children and Young People published on 21 April 2017 sets out a number of actions to improve internet safety. Its priorities include equipping children and young people to build their own personal resilience to stay safe online, supporting professionals and parents and carers and continuing to work with digital and social media providers to ensure children are not exposed to harm.

Action 14 of the National Action Plan specifically sets out our commitment to work with digital media providers and industry to ensure parents, carers and families, as well as children and young people, have access to appropriate information and support. We have successfully made links with social media providers including Snapchat to discuss how we can better promote safety for the children and young people who use their platforms. My officials have also spoken to Snapchat who have confirmed that their support and guidance materials for parents and carers has been updated to reflect the concerns around Snapmap.

The Scottish Government will continue to participate in the Executive Board of the UK Council for Child Internet safety (UKCCIS) and explore with social media providers how we can improve child internet safety in Scotland. A meeting to discuss how we progress this important issue is currently being arranged by the co-chair of the UKCCIS on digital resilience and will take place in the Autumn.

My officials are working with Police Scotland to produce a joint children and young people-friendly safety message which will raise awareness of how to stay safe online, including specifically the safe use of App's, amongst children and young people, parents and carers and professionals and ensure that they are equipped with the information and support they need. We will also work with Education Scotland to promote this message in schools. This will complement the existing online safety materials available to children and young people, parents and carers and schools.

As I have previously confirmed, the cost of the recent delay is being determined by Network Rail and the EGIP Alliance contractors.

Once this work is complete I will provide Parliament with an update regarding both the cost of the delay and the estimated final programme cost.

Homelessness Statistics produced by the Scottish Government on homelessness applications and assessments generally define youth homelessness as relating to young people aged between 16 and 24 years, however information on the number of young people aged 16 to 24 in Temporary Accommodation is not currently collected.

Based on information collected on the number of children in Temporary Accommodation, as at 31 March 2017 there were 6,041 children aged 16 and under in Temporary Accommodation.

Temporary accommodation is a key part of the safety net of the homelessness legislation and ensures all people have accommodation if they become homeless.

Scotland’s strong statutory homelessness rights mean that most homeless households are placed in temporary accommodation while they wait for appropriate, sustainable permanent accommodation.

We have strengthened The Homeless Persons (Unsuitable Accommodation) (Scotland) Order to ensure accommodation is wind and watertight. We will strengthen this further by introducing a cap of 7 days (currently 14 days) for families with children and pregnant women living in B&B accommodation unless there are exceptional circumstances. The consultation exercise to strengthen the Order is underway, with Ministerial signature of the Order planned for summer 2017.

Day to day decisions on operational policing are a matter for Police Scotland, with the oversight of the Scottish Police Authority. I understand that Police Scotland is helping to tackle housebreaking in Govanhill through dedicated Community Investigation Units and additional officers based at Cathcart Police Office.

In June this year, Police Scotland established "Operation Mighty" across Glasgow. This is a multi agency approach to tackle all forms of criminality, specifically targeting criminals who present the greatest risk to the community.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to a sustainable NHS and its workforce, which continues to deliver a consistently high quality healthcare service to the people of Scotland.

While the Scottish Government provides the policies, frameworks and resources for high quality healthcare, it is for each NHS Board to decide best how to utilise funding, facilities and staff while taking account of national and local priorities to meet local health needs. We expect NHS Boards to plan their facilities and workforce to deliver these services, ensuring the provision of safe, effective and high quality patient care, delivered by the right professional at the right time.

The Scottish Government have put in place a £54 million comprehensive package of support to improve access to mental health services for adults and children, which will provide funding for additional staff, for workforce development and for in-depth improvement support to local services. In this first year £4.3 million has been awarded to Boards across Scotland to build capacity within mental health services. Further funding has been awarded through NHS Education Scotland to provide each Board an individual, tailored offer of funding and workforce development.

One of the keys to ensuring that the principle of “ask once, get help fast” is met is ensuring the right workforce is in place. Action 15 in the recently published Mental Health Strategy 2017-27 commits the Scottish Government to increase the workforce to give access to dedicated mental health professionals to all A&Es, all GP practices, every police station custody suite, and to our prisons. Over the next five years increasing additional investment to £35 million for 800 additional mental health workers in those key settings.

The Regulator operates independently of the Scottish Government to safeguard and promote the interests of tenants.

The Government was not involved in the statutory intervention, but welcomes the steps that the Regulator took to protect the interests of tenants at Wellhouse. The great majority of social landlords provide a high quality service for their tenants, but this report undoubtedly provides sobering lessons for the sector.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. All relevant queries should be directed to Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership. Further detail on the safer drug consumption proposal can be found at: https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=19044.

Network Rail continue to work with the EGIP Alliance contractors to determine the cost from this latest delay.

Pupil equity funding is allocated by the Scottish Government to schools on the basis of the number of children and young people in P1-S3 known to be eligible for free school meals under the national eligibility criteria.

The Government has issued guidance to schools on the use of Pupil Equity Funding. The guidance, which is available on the Government website at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Education/Schools/Raisingeducationalattainment/pupilequityfund/guidance, sets out clear principles to support schools and local authorities to work in partnership and to plan how to effectively invest the additional £120 million to improve the educational outcomes of children and young people affected by poverty.