Chamber and committees

SEPA’s draft budget allocation for 2022-23 is £41.406 million. This year’s budget settlement represents the best possible outcome against the backdrop of significant pressures on public finances, including a 10% reduction in cash terms compared with 2021-22, in Scottish Government’s capital budget, and the level of resources required to deliver statutory functions and agreed Ministerial environmental priorities across 2022-23. The Scottish Government are in dialogue with SEPA on the specific priorities to be reflected in their 2022-23 Operational Plan ,which is due to be published April 2022. The Plan will include work such as developing regulation for the Deposit Return Scheme and Single Use Plastics. Delivery of Scotland’s River Basin Management Plan will continue to be a core priority as will their Flood Forecasting and Warning Service.

We know how difficult the pandemic has been for businesses, voluntary organisations and staff in these sectors.

Third sector organisations which operate in hospitality, entertainment, culture and events can apply for support from the £375 million support package to help businesses immediately impacted by measures introduced to control the spread of Omicron, if they meet the eligibility criteria. We have provided details on how £262 million of this funding will be allocated and payments have now started.

Since the start of the pandemic, businesses have benefitted from more than £4.4 billion in support from the Scottish Government. Voluntary organisations could receive support from the Strategic Framework Business Fund which provided £344.8 million to businesses across Scotland, if they met the eligibility criteria.

Following engagement with sector bodies it was clear that many nightclubs would not be viable with distancing and table service restrictions in place. A decision was therefore taken by Ministers, using a four harms approach, that closure of nightclubs with appropriate support was the most effective option for controlling the virus and for the sector. This decision allowed nightclubs the flexibility to adjust operations and remain operating with relevant restrictions or close and receive extra financial support. Due to the pace of decision-making, it was not possible to engage with Local Authorities prior to the announcement however officials engaged with relevant teams after the announcement.

Lived experience will be captured within the short life working group’s membership as many of our third sector organisations work directly or indirectly with women involved in prostitution. The consultation on draft principles will also enable further voices to feed into this process.

In addition, recognising that prostitution may be experienced alongside other forms of gendered violence, we have agreed that a Reference Group is convened with opportunities to input into the development of the draft principles work. This membership spans across a number of Scottish Government portfolio areas, the wider public sector, third sector and those with direct lived experience.

We have also commissioned a central piece of national lived experience research which aims to understand current support service provision and the needs of service users better. This is being taken forward by an independent research team and is crucial in the forward look towards re-design of support services.

We know this is a difficult time for the independent travel agents and we have had to make tough decisions to target funding to sectors immediately impacted by the updated public health guidance.

Since the start of the pandemic, businesses have benefitted from more than £4.4bn in support from the Scottish Government. This includes support for travel agents who benefited from sectoral grants of up to £25,000 per premises this year in addition to other support including the Strategic Framework Business Fund grants, Restart Grants, Contingency Fund, Non-Domestic Rates relief and furlough payments for staff.

We recently announced £375m of support for businesses impacted by the necessary public health measures introduced to control the spread of Omicron and have provided details on how £266 million of this will be allocated. Decisions on the allocation of the remaining funds will be confirmed following further consultation with affected sectors on how it can best be targeted.

Statistics on the number of schools that have been built or substantially refurbished since 2017 are available in tables 7.1 and 7.2 of the School Estate Statistics Supplementary Data, available here: https://www.gov.scot/collections/school-education-statistics/#schoolestatesstatistics .

Information on schools with confirmed investment plans is included in table 8 of the same publication. In 2021 there was one school in Stirling - Aberfoyle Primary School - with confirmed investment plans. Additionally, Callander Primary School is due to receive funding under phase 2 of the Scottish Government's Learning Estate Investment Programme.

We have been proactive in our approach to minimising carbon emissions associated with the City Region and Growth Deals programme, taking expert advice from industry on the latest national and international best practice. We have now rolled out our innovative carbon management guidance across all 12 Deals. This is an ongoing and proactive carbon management process, facilitated by our dedicated Deals Sustainable Development Manager. Support and training is being provided to all regional partners to ensure the guidance is correctly applied, and that carbon emissions are minimised in accordance with best practice.

Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) is reserved to the UK Government. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) publishes an estimate of ESA and other income-related benefits every six months, at a UK-wide level only. The latest figures published (covering 2018-2019) show that 94% of the total amount of Income Support or Income-related ESA that could have been claimed was claimed. On 8 July 2021 the DWP published their final update on cases that were potentially affected by underpayments of Employment and Support Allowance on transition from Incapacity Benefit. This information is also at UK-wide level, and shows that the UK Government has paid £613 million to those affected by the move from Incapacity Benefit to ESA.

The safety of all vaccines and medicines is monitored by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) on a UK-wide basis. This includes reports from the Yellow Card Scheme which allows health professionals and patients across the UK to flag up suspected adverse reactions to any vaccine or medicine, as well as reports from worldwide use and on-going scientific evidence.

The MHRA has a range of resources and technology to support the safety monitoring of the COVID-19 vaccination programme. The use of artificial intelligence is one element of that and helps to reduce the amount of manual coding for each report to the Yellow Card Scheme on COVID-19 vaccines, thereby saving resource in processing cases and ensuring they are more rapidly available for scientific analysis. The tool is not used for assessment of data, but to help ensure that all information from reports is well structured to support analysis and is subject to robust quality assessment.

Concerns over the safety of vaccines are not taken lightly. Please be assured that the MHRA keep the safety of all vaccines under close and continual review, and would take appropriate regulatory action if new evidence emerged which called into question the safety of any vaccines currently in use in Scotland.

The Scottish Government will bring forward a prospectus for an independent Scotland, including the arrangements for a central bank, in good time before the independence referendum to allow people to make an informed choice over their future.