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The Scottish Ministers met with representatives from the Kennel Club and The Scottish Kennel Club in January 2016 during the period of the public consultation on 'Potential controls or prohibition of electronic training aids in Scotland'.

The Scottish Government is in discussion with a wide range of stakeholders from the veterinary profession, pet industry, animal training and animal welfare sectors with a view to bringing in tough new regulations on the use of electronic training collars for animals in this parliamentary term.

The Scottish Government does not foresee the need to regulate the sale of electronic training collars as their use will be controlled under the new regulations.

Contracts are in place for delivery of Work First Scotland and Work Able Scotland. You can find details of the successful bidders (including several third and voluntary sector providers) in the following news release - http://news.gov.scot/news/employment-support.

Contracts worth up to £96 million will be put out to tender to deliver Scotland’s full programme of employment services from 2018, with the procurement process expected to begin in the coming weeks. With 9 contract lots available, based on clusters of Scottish Local Authority Areas, this offers a mix of viable contract sizes intended to be attractive to a diverse range of potential Service Providers, including those in the third and voluntary sector. Additionally, within Creating a Fairer Scotland A new Future for Employability Support, we have committed to providing a sustainable funding model which provides the financial stability and flexibility required by third and voluntary sector and SME providers.

This information is not held centrally. Individual local authorities hold data on recipients of social care packages in their area.

Information on the number of terminally-ill people under 65 who have had social care charges waived is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government and COSLA agreed that from 1st April 2015, no-one in the last 6 months of a progressive illness would be charged for the social care services they receive at home.

The Scottish Government welcomes the Marie Curie Report, Dying to Care. This messages contained in this report will be helpful in informing our work to achieve our vision that by 2021, everyone in Scotland will have access to high quality palliative and end of life care - which is tailored to their individual circumstances.

How we treat people with a terminal illness will be one of the areas under consideration by the Disability and Carers Benefits Expert Advisory Group that we will establish to provide recommendations and guidance on how often assessments should be undertaken, what conditions should warrant people being given an automatic or lifetime award, and eligibility criteria.

Energy efficiency projects are funded, mainly, through each NHS Board’s capital allocation. The significant reduction in energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions between 1990 and 2016 (referenced in PQ S5W-06553 on 3 February 2017) has been achieved through the implementation of a range of energy efficiency projects – all supported by Scottish Government. In 2017, the Scottish Government is making a further £7million available to NHS Boards for energy efficiency projects. These include a large-scale energy infrastructure project at St John’s Hospital in Livingston which should see that site’s greenhouse gas emissions reduce by around 36%.

It should be noted that the backlog maintenance figure reported by Audit Scotland is not exclusive to energy infrastructure. However, the various energy efficiency projects being undertaken across the estate will reduce the backlog maintenance figure significantly.

In terms of monitoring energy performance, in 2015 Scottish Government funded a new energy monitoring and reporting tool for NHSScotland and this is owned and maintained by Health Facilities Scotland (HFS). The tool uploads data from automatic meter readers across the estate to provide energy consumption information on a ‘day+1’ basis, allowing rapid identification of problems so that appropriate remedial action can be taken. Further, the tool uploads energy invoice data on a monthly basis as a further check. In the first week of the tool’s operation, HFS identified energy consumption anomalies at a number of health centres that would have gone unnoticed using standard billing data: resultant remedial actions (adjustment to controls settings) resulted in immediate savings of c£100,000.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Social workers in Scotland must hold a BA (Hons) in Social Work (or equivalent) and register with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) to practice as a social worker. Social care workers in Scotland who are within the scope of registration with the SSSC must achieve the accredited qualification required for the role they undertake.

In accordance with the SSSC Codes of Practice, employers are responsible for ensuring that their staff have the skills and knowledge to carry out their role and continuously update their skills to reflect changes in practice and policy.

Although not a statutory requirement a commitment has been made in the Strategic Framework for Action on Palliative and End of Life Care 2016-2021 to develop an Education Framework for palliative and end of life care to address the needs of the health and social care workforce.

This information is not held centrally. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is currently responsible for Personal Independence Payments (PIP). DWP Personal Independence Payment Statistics can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/personal-independence-payment-statistics

The NHS estate is meeting the energy performance and emissions requirements set out at section 63 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.

Section 63 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 refers to the measurement of energy performance and emissions data. With respect to the public sector estate, individual building emissions are reported via a building’s Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), and all public buildings – including NHSScotland buildings – over a certain size must display a valid EPC (renewable every 10 years); the NHSScotland estate is fully compliant with this requirement.

Until 2014-15, NHS estate energy consumption and emissions (hospitals only) were reported via the NHS HEAT Target E8. This reporting has now been superseded by the Mandatory Public Sector Climate Change Reports, which all NHS Boards must complete by end November each year. Energy performance of the NHSScotland estate is also reported in the annual NHSScotland State of Assets and Facilities Report. Further, Health Facilities Scotland (part of NHS National Services Scotland) maintains an energy monitoring and targeting tool that proactively monitors all NHSScotland sites and produces performance reports on request from Scottish Government or other stakeholders.

Recent analysis shows that between financial years 1989-1990 (the baseline year for the Climate Change (Scotland) Act) and 2015/16, energy consumption on the NHSScotland estate fell by around 23%, and associated greenhouse gas emissions by 40% over the same period. This was achieved mainly through the eradication of coal-fired heating on the estate, a drastic reduction in oil-fired heating, increased use of renewable heat (e.g. biomass) and increased used of combined heat and power systems. Figures for the first half of financial year 2016-17 show a further 3% reduction in emissions. If this reduction is maintained to the end of the financial year, the NHSScotland estate would have met the original Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 targets three years' early.