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Social Security Scotland routinely releases information on workforce as part of the Workforce Information quarterly publications.

As published in the latest release, Social Security Scotland - Social Security Scotland – workforce information: September 2022 , Social Security Scotland had a headcount of 81 temporary workers who were directly employed in September 2022.

In September 2022, Social Security Scotland had a total of 313 contingent workers, of which 208 were Temporary Agency Workers and 105 were other contingent workers.

Our second Benefit Take-up Strategy, published in October 2022, sets out how we are working to ensure people can access the support they are entitled to, including older people. We are working closely with stakeholders to break down the barriers which limit the take-up of benefits, including digital exclusion, in several ways.

Social Security Scotland’s Local Delivery teams are undertaking extensive engagement across the country – including providing drop in advice in venues where older people may meet. Working on the ground, within communities, and bringing services to people is key to reaching more seldom heard groups, including older people.

Through our Stakeholder Reference Group, we will continue to engage with organisations such as Age Scotland in order to ensure that the experience and needs of older people inform policy decisions going forward.

We do not have the information requested as we are still in the testing and policy development phase of the free bikes programme. In this government’s first 100 days, we established six pilot schemes with a further four running by the end of 2021. The pilot programme will run until the end of March 2023, testing different approaches and delivery models, including eligibility, to help inform a national rollout.

We do not record data on bike numbers at local authority level. However, considering bikes issued and associated training and promotion sessions, free bikes activities have taken place in 20 of 32 local authority areas. The pilots are running across a range of locations including in urban, rural and island communities.

In October 2019, we reached our final policy position of no support for the development of unconventional oil and gas in Scotland. This means no support for development connected to the onshore exploration, appraisal or production of coal bed methane or shale oil or shale gas using unconventional oil and gas extraction techniques, including hydraulic fracturing and dewatering for coal bed methane.

Following the devolution of onshore oil and gas licensing in February 2018, Scottish Ministers are now the licensing authority for onshore oil and gas development in Scotland. These devolved powers extend to the granting, regulation and administration of onshore licensing. It is wholly within the scope of our powers to decide whether or not to invite new applications for licences for the purposes of exploring and developing unconventional oil and gas (which includes fracking and de-watering for coalbed methane extraction). Given our policy of no support, it is not anticipated that we will offer any new licensing rounds for unconventional oil and gas development in Scotland.

There are currently 2 Petroleum Exploration and Development Licences held in Scotland. We do not consider that new legislation is necessary, at this time, to control unconventional oil and gas development under these existing licences in Scotland. We believe a strong policy position enacted through planning and onshore oil and gas licensing is sufficient (however, that option remains open if there is evidence that further action is required). The finalised policy of no support for unconventional oil and gas development enables us to set a framework for the exercise of planning functions and our functions in respect of onshore oil and gas licensing.

We recognise that applications for planning and other necessary consents may be made by those holding these licences. Any such application will require to be determined by the relevant authorities, or decision-makers, according to the law and policy in force at the relevant time. As a matter of law, all planning applications must be determined in accordance with the development plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise. Planning decisions must be determined on their individual merits but our final policy of no support for unconventional oil and gas development will be a material consideration for decision makers in the consideration of planning applications and appeals. Should a planning authority receive a planning application for unconventional oil and gas development, and should the authority subsequently propose to grant planning permission, the authority is required to notify Scottish Ministers, and we can consider whether to call the application in for our own determination.

The final policy of no support for unconventional oil and gas is reinforced in the National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), which was approved by the Scottish Parliament on 11 January 2023. The next steps are set out in a Chief Planner letter issued on 16 January, which confirms our intention of adopting and publishing NPF4 on 13 February. Once adopted, NPF4 will form part of the statutory development plan, meaning its policies will be highly influential in day-to-day planning decision making.

The deposit will be fully returnable and retailers will be required to display information clearly about returns. Under the Deposit Return Scheme it is expected that most people will use returned deposits to cover future deposits on drinks containers.

Further work is currently underway to ensure that the interactions between Minimum Unit Price and the Deposit Return Scheme continue to be understood as the scheme evolves and kept under review, including once DRS launches on 16 August this year.

As pharmacies, medicines homecare providers must demonstrate that they can meet the standards for registered pharmacies set by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). The standards are designed to create and maintain the right environment for the safe and effective practice of pharmacy and to improve the quality and safety of services provided to patients and the public. The GPhC inspect registered pharmacies to seek assurances that the standards are being met. Depending on the range of services provided, medicines homecare providers may also be registered with additional regulators such as the Care Inspectorate and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

To ensure compliance with regulatory standards, providers must have governance arrangements in place to safeguard the health, safety and wellbeing of patients and the public. This will include effective systems for risk management and the management of complaints and incident including root cause analysis of issues arising and implementing corrective and preventative actions.

Health Boards have contractual arrangements in place with Homecare Providers via either Service Level Agreements or Framework Agreements. These agreements detail responsibilities for service provision and define service requirements including governance and reporting.

Before arrangements are made to set-up a new service, Health Boards undertake risk assessments to assess the risks associated with supplying a particular medicine through a home delivery service. In addition, before a patient is on-boarded on to a service, checks are undertaken to help ensure that homecare is suitable for an individual patient.

There were significant capacity constraints across the medicines homecare market in 2022. A key challenge has been recruitment of staff in a challenging labour market, with some providers more adversely affected than others. The situation is improving but continues to be closely monitored.

Certain homecare providers have highlighted issues with nursing capacity in recent months. Where this has been raised as an issue, there has been close working with providers to ensure that available staffing resource is used in a way that helps minimise disruption to service performance.

Homecare providers have not reported any recent issues with staffing within their pharmacy departments.

Several homecare providers have experienced staffing shortages within customer services departments, and this has been a major contributing factor to the capacity constraints experienced.

There have been a small number of instances where there have been delays to the delivery of medicines to patients, which has the potential to impact on patient safety. Medicines homecare providers and Health boards have processes in place to support managing and learning from any patient safety incidents that arise during service delivery.

The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 is a key part of the Scottish Government’s help for tenants facing the impact of the cost crisis. The Act introduced a temporary rent cap and moratorium on the enforcement of evictions, along with increased damages for unlawful evictions – until at least 31 March 2023.

The Scottish Government has made clear it will retain and use the provisions in the Act only where they remain necessary and proportionate in connection with the cost of living crisis. This is demonstrated in the regulations laid before Parliament today, which:

• expire the rent cap provisions for the social sector on 26 February, so that it allows landlords to implement changes from the end of March; and
• also suspend the rent cap provisions for purpose-built student accommodation, recognising that new tenancies in the academic year
  ‎ 2023-24 would not be covered by the Act as it stands in any case.

In light of the differences in how the social and private rented sectors operate and the clear economic evidence demonstrating the continued pressure being placed on private rented households due to the ongoing cost crisis, the Scottish Government will bring forward regulations to extend the remaining provisions in Part 1 of the Act for a further 6 months to 30 September 2023, provided it remains necessary and proportionate. Subject to the approval of Parliament, this will mean that the rent cap for the private rented sector will continue, along with the moratorium on enforcing evictions - which will continue to apply across all sectors.

In order to ensure the provisions are proportionate, the Act gives powers to vary the level of the rent cap. And whilst the focus of the emergency measures continues to be on protecting tenants, the Scottish Government recognises that the ongoing impacts of the cost crisis may also be experienced by some landlords.

The Scottish Government is of the view that it would be proportionate to raise the rent cap in the private rented sector to allow within-tenancy rent increases of up to 3%. Landlords will continue to be able to apply for an additional rent increase based on prescribed property costs and the maximum increase on this basis will be raised to 6% of overall rent in these specific and limited circumstances, in effect preserving the existing landlord safeguard which allows rent rises of 3% above the rent cap if prescribed property costs can be evidenced.

Finally, the 2022 Programme for Government set out the intention to bring forward a new Housing Bill in 2023 and that exact timings would be kept under review, in light of our emergency work to support tenants through the costs crisis.

Having reviewed that work and recognising the extension of our emergency legislation, the Scottish Government can confirm that it intends to introduce that Housing Bill – which will include long-term rent control measures – as soon as possible after the 2023 summer recess.

The published 2023-24 Stage 1 budget showed at level 4, a total investment of over £1.2 billion in Social Care support and NCS delivery. This is made up of a number of areas including an additional £100 million for adult social care pay up to £10.90, on top of the £200 million in 2022-23 for £10.50 and £144 million for the £10.02 before that, £124 million for care at home investment,
‎ £60 million for the Carers Act and inflationary uplifts for Free Personal Nursing Care Rates and others. All of the areas above underpin increasing the sustainability of the social care sector ahead of implementation of the NCS. It is important therefore to look at all areas of spend rather than one in isolation.

The Scottish Government will invest in Changing Places Toilets over this parliamentary term, in order to increase the number of these facilities across the country and to support mobile Changing Places Toilets to allow people easier access to events and outdoor venues.

This investment will be delivered in phases over the course of this parliamentary term. The Scottish Government is progressing the first phase of work to design an investment programme that ensures that the Changing Places Toilets which are built are fit for purpose.

Further details will be available soon.