Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people who have had a stroke receive the best possible care as quickly as possible to enable them to live longer, healthier independent lives. As we progress with our NHS Recovery Plan, evidence-based caution is at the forefront of our decision-making. We will continue to work with Health Boards to remobilise the NHS in the safest possible way, including for those in need of rehabilitation following a stroke.

Our overall vision is for everyone with rehabilitation needs to be able to access the care and support they need to live well, on their own terms. Work is underway to deliver the Framework for supporting people through Recovery and Rehabilitation during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic. This puts in place clear principles, priorities and objectives to support planning to meet increasing demand and to provide high quality person-centred rehabilitation in different settings.

Work is also ongoing to deliver our Programme for Government commitments to improve stroke pathways and services. This will include recommendations for a progressive stroke rehabilitation service, both in hospital and in the community.

One of the headline targets in Scotland's Energy Strategy is for the equivalent of 50% of the energy for Scotland's heat, transport and electricity use to come from renewable sources. This is one of Scotland's 81 indicators in the National Performance Framework and the latest data is published on the National Performance Framework website ( https://nationalperformance.gov.scot/measuring-progress/national-indicator-performance ) as well as the Scottish Energy Statistics Hub ( https://scotland.shinyapps.io/Energy/?Section=WholeSystem&Chart=RenEnTgt ). Provisional figures for 2019 indicate that the equivalent of 24.0% of total Scottish energy consumption came from renewable sources

The Scottish Government intends to publish a draft refresh of the 2017 Scottish Energy Strategy in Spring 2022, and we will be reviewing this target as part of this wider piece of work.

This information is not held by the Scottish Government. Information on positive COVID-19 cases is published daily by Public Health Scotland, however, this is not currently broken down by pre-existing health condition.

This information is not held by the Scottish Government. Information on the prevalence of ongoing symptoms following coronavirus (COVID-19) infection is collected and reported by the Office for National Statistics, but is not broken down for these specific conditions.

Our overall vision is for everyone with rehabilitation needs to be able to access the care and support they need to live well, on their own terms. Work is underway to deliver the Framework for supporting people through Recovery and Rehabilitation during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic. This puts in place clear principles, priorities and objectives to support planning to meet increasing demand and to provide high quality person-centred rehabilitation in different settings.

In addition, as part of our Programme for Government stroke commitments to develop a programme to improve stroke pathways and services, recommendations are being developed to ensure that all those who experience communication disorders following a stroke are assessed by a speech and language therapist and; are provided with an individualised rehabilitation programme using a range of evidence based interventions.

This will be evaluated as part of the national stroke care audit and services within NHS Health and Social Care Partnerships will be reviewed on an annual basis by the Scottish Government Stroke Improvement Team.

Students who will be graduating as nurses in the 2021-22 academic year are still completing their education programmes and most are not due to graduate until September. While it is still therefore early in the recruitment process, the following table shows the number of graduates expected from Scottish universities by September and the estimated number of posts to be offered by NHS Boards for newly qualified nurses. At present the number of posts available equates to 87.1% of the total graduate workforce. These numbers are subject to revision as the recruitment process continues and more graduates are offered posts.

Standard operating procedures at the hotel include recording of traveller’s dietary requirements which will be met, where practical.

The Scottish Government has close working relationships with all services providers, including the hotel teams directly in Scotland. This enables issues to be raised locally, solutions agreed quickly and, where practical, special measures for guests to be put in place at short notice.

The hotel teams in Scotland encourage travellers to get in touch with the Scottish Government where they feel their needs are not being adequately met by the hotel. This can include dietary requirements. We will do all that we can in liaising with the hotel to ensure that the traveller’s needs can be met and that their stay is as comfortable as possible.

This information is not centrally held.

Since September 2006, the number of Qualified Nurses & Midwives (including interns) employed by NHS Scotland has increased by 12.8%, to its current record high total of 46,259.8 WTE. Qualified Nurses and Midwives within NHS Lothian are up 16.0% or 1,014.8 WTE, during this period.

Source: NHS Education for Scotland, NHS Workforce Statistics, 1 June 2021:  https://turasdata.nes.nhs.scot/workforce-official-statistics/nhsscotland-workforce/publications/01-june-2021/

I am pleased to confirm the publication today of the Scottish Government’s first thematic report on implementation progress following Dame Elish Angiolini’s Final Report.

The thematic progress report showcases the significant steps partners have taken to implement Dame Elish Angiolini’s recommendations, as well as highlighting our commitment to consult on legislative proposals in advance of bringing forward primary legislation.

I commend Police Scotland, the Scottish Police Authority, the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland for the collaborative working and progress to date. The report features updates from all partners, with tables to record progress against every recommendation grouped under the following themes:

• Rights & ethics
• Jurisdiction & powers
• Governance & accountability
• Transparency & accessibility
• Equality, diversity & inclusion
• Conduct & standards
• Training & HR
• Efficiency & effectiveness
• Audit & review

The report can be accessed here: https://www.gov.scot/ISBN/978-1-80201-073-2

On 25 March 2021 the UK Government committed to ruling out COVID-19 appeals on non-domestic properties in England. It concurrently announced a new Business Rates relief fund of £1.5 billion for businesses affected by COVID-19 outside the retail, hospitality, and leisure sectors.

We anticipate that this will result in consequential funding for the Scottish Government, but at this point we are still waiting for confirmation of when this will be received. Once that confirmation is provided, we remain committed to passing on all business support consequentials through a tailored package of measures for Scottish business during the recovery period.

In the interim, we agree in principle with the UK Government that market-wide economic changes to rateable values, such as from COVID-19, should be only considered at revaluation to ensure fairness to all ratepayers; and that it is not appropriate to use the material change of circumstances provisions in the non-domestic rates legislation in relation to COVID-19, or COVID-19 restrictions.

The Scottish Government can therefore confirm its intention to also take measures to rule out COVID-19 appeals, whilst continuing to ensure that we best support the most affected businesses and sectors in the recovery period. We will set out our legislative plans after the summer.