Chamber and committees

For the development of a national specification for alcohol and drug services, initial engagement has begun with representative groups covering service commissioners, service providers and people who use, have used or could use the services.

We plan full public consultation on a draft specification with an aim to be publishing the final version in 2025.

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) prioritises cases based on a number of factors. These include whether the person bringing the complaint, or person affected, is vulnerable; any immediate health issues of the complainant or person affected; whether the subject matter of the complaint is urgent and ongoing or time critical; and the impact. The SPSO encourages people to contact them if their circumstances change or if that they feel their complaint should be prioritised, so the priority level can be reviewed.

The national service specification will play a role in addressing the public health emergency of alcohol harm by providing clarity on the choices and services which must be available in every local area in Scotland. The specification will help ensure services can meet the needs of people impacted by alcohol and drugs to help reduce harms and improve lives.

Scottish Development International has over 100 staff in 30 international offices in 23 countries. SDI regularly reviews its overseas footprint to ensure it aligns with Scotland’s trade and investment priorities. There are currently no plans to reopen SDI’s office in Taiwan. The Taiwanese market continues to be serviced by SDI colleagues based in SDI’s Asia and Pacific offices.

Full budget allocations for 2024-25 are still to be confirmed.

In 2023-24, Alcohol and Drugs Partnerships (ADPs) received funding exceeding £112 million. We anticipate that this funding will be maintained in 2024-25.

Annual ADP funding is published and available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/alcohol-and-drug-partnerships-funding-allocations/

Scotland is making great strides towards becoming a leading Fair Work nation.

The number of accredited Real Living Wage employers is up from 14 in 2014 to over 3,500 in 2023. That’s proportionately 5 times as many than the rest of the UK, and some 65,000 workers in Scotland have had a pay rise as a result of accreditation, making a real impact for people in the lowest paid jobs.

Our support contributes to 89.9% of employees aged 18 and over in Scotland being paid at least the real Living Wage (2023 data), higher than Wales 87.1%, England 87.0%, NI 84.4%, and the UK overall 87.1%.

Building on the work of the Fair Work Convention we’re pressing forward with sectoral agreements in Adult Social Care and Construction, as well as Retail with to help put those sectors and their workforces on a sustainable footing for the long term.

The median gender pay gap has continued on a long-term downward trend and has now reached a record low of 1.7% in 2023 for full time employees in Scotland, lower than the overall UK gap of 7.7%.

The Disability Employment Gap fell further to 30.2 percentage points in 2023 – a decrease from 31.9 p.p. in 2022 and the lowest it has been since our baseline year in 2016 when it was 37.4 p.p. There is still work to do but this suggests that we are on track to achieve our ambition to reach 18.7 p.p by 2038.

Fair Work First principles were applied to some £4bn public funds since 2019, and in 1 July 2023 we took this further by adding the requirement that all grant recipients awarded a public sector grant pay at least the real Living Wage and provide appropriate channels for effective workers’ voice.

Through the Workplace Equality Fund we focused on providing financial support for employers to address longstanding barriers in the labour market that particular priority groups experience, including disabled people, women, racialised minorities and older workers. In 2023-24 the WEF investment was almost £600,000 across 10 projects, bringing the total spent to over £3.2m on 71 projects since 2018 [1] . This year we are evaluating the effectiveness of the WEF to inform future interventions.

In financial years 2020-21 and 2023-24, we invested £1.2 m in the Apt Public Social Partnership (PSP)which worked to improve the recruitment and retention of disabled people by developing and testing different types of support for employers. The PSP engaged with employers in the private and third sectors, with a particular focus on SMEs throughout Scotland. An independent evaluation of the PSP’s impact will be commissioned in 2024-25. Employers involved in the partnership to date have reported benefits such as improved recruitment and retention processes, increased confidence in having conversations about employment with disabled people, and increased awareness about the benefits of a diverse workforce.

We have repeatedly voiced our opposition to legislation at Westminster that undermines workers’ rights, including the Trade Union Act 2016, the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses (Amendment) Regulations 2022, hire and rehire, and the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023.

We have been proud to support pay deals for public sector workers that reflect the vital jobs that they do. Last year pay deals were around £800 million greater than planned and our total expenditure on public sector pay is now around £25 billion – over half of our fiscal resource. On average public sector pay in Scotland is around 6% more than the rest of the UK.

[1] Total investment in WEF projects since 2018 is £3,194,500

The Scottish Government fully supports the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on diagnosing and managing ME/CFS. We wrote to all Scottish health boards following its publication to raise awareness of the guidance and encourage its implementation.

We are committed to improving care for people with ME/CFS and want to facilitate constructive communication between patients and clinicians so that all parties are engaged in finding a way forward.

The Scottish Government is committed to enhancing smart integrated ticketing and has set out its intention to develop a new national integrated ticketing system for public transport in Scotland, across all modes of transport, to enable a system that can used for all elements of a journey.

To support delivery of this, the recently established National Smart Ticketing Advisory Board (NSTAB) which comprises operators, transport authorities, user groups and technical experts, is set to advise Ministers on the future of smart ticketing in Scotland, including on technological standards to enable smart integration between modes. The NSTAB is currently developing their work programme for the next 3 years.

FAIRTIQ has engaged with NSTAB and will present on their smart integrated ticketing solution at an upcoming board meeting. FAIRTIQ is one example of a ticketing platform provider, and it is expected that NSTAB will consider the full range of options available for Scotland and their respective implications on cost and infrastructure. Any resulting public procurement of a new ticketing system will be required to follow public sector procurement processes to ensure best value for money.

The Scottish Government, NSTAB and stakeholders will continue to work closely together on developing these options, in order to best determine the method of delivering a new national integrated ticketing system.

The role of ‘healthcare worker’ does not have a standard definition and the term is used for different roles within the health and social care workforce. An individual may work under the title of ‘healthcare worker’, but hold registration with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) as, for example, a Practitioner in a Care at Home Service for Adults.

There is nothing in current legislation that would prevent an individual in this circumstance working under the title of ‘healthcare worker’ with either disciplinary proceedings outstanding with the SSSC or who have been found unfit to practise by the SSSC from being employed by the NHS. Healthcare Assistants employed by the NHS do not come within the remit of SSSC registration. While pre-employment checks of NHS staff are a matter for NHS Boards to decide, it is possible to check the SSSC register when employing a healthcare worker as a matter of good practice. If Heath Boards were to do so they would see from the register if there was a suspension order or removal order in place due to a fitness to practise issue.

As announced by HM Treasury on 14 November 2016, the Scottish Government's population-based settlement from the UK Government's Apprenticeship Levy was £221 million in 2017/18, £230 million in 2018/19 and £239 million in 2019/20. This funding was allocated as part of the block grant.

Since 2020-21 the Scottish Government has not received a specific allocation of Apprenticeship Levy revenue. Scotland receives a Barnett Formula share of funding via the block grant in the usual way.

Scottish Government exploratory analysis of HMRC data suggests that the amounts contributed by Scottish employers in 2020-21 and 2021-22 were similar to those published by HMRC for earlier years, in the region of £220 million to £240 million.