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Scottish Government officials have engaged with UK Government counterparts regarding the provision of support to consumers such as park home owners who are ineligible for the £400 Energy Bills Discount Scheme. Officials have provided details on the number and location of mobile home sites in Scotland to assist with identifying how best to distribute the funding.

On 8 September, the Prime Minister announced a package of measures to help mitigate the impact of rising energy prices on consumers. This stated that those households who are not part of the regulated market, such as those living in park homes, are set to receive support through a new fund. The Scottish Government has asked for further detail and clarification, and have been advised that this will form part of the Chancellor’s fiscal statement later this month.

The £400 Energy Bills Discount Scheme will provide important relief for consumers. However, the Scottish Government believes that much more action is required at UK Government level to help mitigate the impact of the energy price crisis, especially for those most vulnerable. The First Minister wrote to the Prime Minister ahead of her statement in the House of Commons on 8 September, making it clear that the UK Government must target additional financial support to those most in need, over and above measures already announced. We will continue to argue this case.

Health boards can take a range of actions in response to any breach of terms by a pharmacy contractor as set out in the National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services) (Scotland) Regulations 2009 and the National Health Service (Discipline Committees) (Scotland) Regulations 2006. The Health Board may, having any regard to the Disciplinary Committees recommendations, take a number of actions as set out in the Regulations, including recovery of remuneration.

The Scottish Government is not considering the introduction of special measures for community pharmacies that are struggling to meet required standards. Community pharmacies, along with other primary care contractors, are wholly independent private entities providing NHS services on behalf the Health Board. Any challenges faced by community pharmacy contractors in delivering existing pharmaceutical care services should be discussed with the Health Boards who will be able to consider actions to support service provision.

While pharmacy closures can occur, this on the whole represents a small proportion of the network and is often limited to a small proportion of the required model hours. The Scottish Government continue to work with all Health Boards and community pharmacy representatives who are responsible for the provision of local pharmaceutical care services to ensure that any challenges faced by community pharmacies in providing the safe and effective dispensing of treatments are discussed with the local Health Board to minimise impact and risk to patients. Health boards can take a range of actions in response to any breach of terms by a pharmacy contractor.

The Scottish Government does not hold this data.

The recruitment and employment of teachers in local authority schools are matters for individual councils, as they have the statutory duty for education expenditure and to deliver education.

Councils have the responsibility for providing a complement of teachers and other education staff which best meets the needs of their schools and pupils within the resources available. This includes providing a complement of teachers and headteachers which meets the needs of their schools and pupils in light of their local needs and circumstances.

With regard to teacher numbers, whilst the Scottish Government does not hold data on teacher employment, you may wish to note that the Teacher Workforce Planning Advisory Group (TWPAG) undertakes an annual exercise to forecast the likely requirement for new teachers which sets the target intakes for initial teacher education programmes in both primary and secondary by subject. COSLA are represented on the TWPAG which is jointly chaired by the Scottish Government and the Scottish Council of Deans of Education. The modelling outputs from the TWPAG use projections on pupil rolls and teacher census information. Whilst we now have more teachers than at any time since 2008, we are aware some LAs continue to find recruitment challenging in some subjects and in some geographical areas.

During the pandemic the Scottish Government provided £240 million of additional investment to local authorities to support the recruitment of additional education staff to support education recovery. We are also providing additional permanent funding of £145.5 million per year to support the recruitment of these extra teachers.

The National Care Service Bill proposes to enable the National Care Service (NCS) to support Fair Work in the sector, by including Fair Work within the guiding principles of the NCS (section 1 of the Bill) and establishing it as an exemplar of Fair Work. The NCS ethical commissioning strategies will also need to reflect these principles, and will therefore be a key tool for ensuring Fair Work is embedded in the way services are planned and provided. Services commissioned by the NCS, of whatever ownership type, will have to ensure they meet Fair Work and ethical commissioning standards and requirements.

We are taking action to change the way that imprisonment is used in Scotland. The Vision for Justice in Scotland (published 8 February 2022) sets out the ambition that people in Scotland live in a just, safe and resilient society, where they will be supported in rehabilitation by the most effective means. As part of this vision, the Scottish Government recognises that there must be appropriate and consistent alternatives to custody, accessible across Scotland.

The Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Bill (introduced 8 June 2022) supports the aims of the strategy by introducing a number of reforms designed to refocus how imprisonment is used. They are intended to ensure that, as much as possible, the use of remand is a last resort for the court, and to give a greater focus to the rehabilitation and reintegration of individuals leaving custody.

This is supported by investment to strengthen and reform vital services across the justice sector, including an expansion of community justice services supporting diversion from prosecution, alternatives to remand and community sentencing. We have increased investment in community justice services since the new model for community justice was introduced in April 2017 – reaching more than £119m of funding for this year (2022-23).

The pay of Marine Scotland seafarers is determined by the Scottish Government’s Public Sector Pay Policy as these staff are civil servants with civil service terms and conditions. CalMac Ferries Ltd is a private company - their staff are not civil servants, so pay and other terms and conditions are determined outside of Public Sector Pay Policy. We consider the pay and benefits (including the civil service pension) for Marine Scotland seafarers are reasonable and competitive in the external job market which is reflected in the volume of applications received for recent job adverts. We will review the pay structure of Marine Scotland staff as part of the reform option in Pay Policy 2022-23.