Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government does not intend to consider the introduction of the full registration of all non-native gamebird releases for monitoring purposes.

The release of red-leg partridges and pheasants is a legal activity and is permitted under s14 2A of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981.

A moratorium on the release of non-native gamebirds could be applied where it would be in the public interest to suspend this activity. To date, there has been no evidence to support a moratorium on non-native gamebird releases.

Detailed cost analysis for all of the routes included in the Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan are undertaken on a phased basis as initial plans for each route are progressively prepared.

The Social Work Strategic Forum commissioned a research project in 2016 into the public perception of social services in Scotland. Overall, the research findings suggested a good level of support for social services in Scotland and a reasonable level of literacy among respondents about what social services do. The findings also suggested that the public has a much more positive view of social services than social service workers and institutions perceive. Overall, people in Scotland are positive about social services’ impact on society and believe these services perform an important public role.

The Scottish Social Services Awards have been held annually since 2017 (except in 2020 due to COVID-19) and provide an opportunity to recognise the social work and social care workforce, raise the profile of the sector, demonstrate that it is valued and highlight the commitment and innovative approaches of those who work within it.

Under current arrangements, the Scottish Government sets the overall strategic framework for social work delivery. The majority of social workers are employed by councils with terms and conditions set by individual employers, resulting in local variations in pay and grading. There is no single national body which has oversight and leads social workers’ professional development, education, improvement, data and workforce planning.

The recently published National Care Service (Scotland) Bill will establish a new National Social Work Agency, which will support and invest in the social work profession by providing national leadership, and overseeing and supporting social work in a range of areas, including: workforce planning, improvement and social work terms and conditions. In establishing the National Social Work Agency, the Scottish Government will work with frontline social workers, their representative bodies and the wider social work and social care sector to raise the profile of the sector and promote understanding of the role of social workers.

NatureScot, in conjunction with the Scottish Government, and in their capacity as Scotland’s Nature Agency has recently launched a pilot community deer management scheme at Creag Meagaidh National Nature Reserve. Creag Meagaidh is managed by NatureScot and is a 4000 hectare property at Kinlochlaggan, Newtonmore.

The pilot scheme brings together a number of local people who are involved in the design of a community scheme to deliver sustainable deer management, which will include access to deer stalking opportunities. The scheme was advertised locally in May 2022 and has been offered to those resident in local Community Council areas.

A number of local people who noted interest in the trial are now in the process of assisting NatureScot in final co-design of the scheme and the trial is likely to commence fully in the Autumn. Whilst details are still to be confirmed, the intent of the scheme is to offer those who have appropriate qualifications and are competent the opportunity to undertake deer stalking. This will support the delivery of site management objectives through the sustainable management of deer with the associated biodiversity and climate benefits of doing this.

They are also developing the approach so that those interested but with little or no experience in deer stalking will be supported by a training and experience pathway to allow them to progress to harvesting wild food for their own consumption.

This scheme will be supervised by NatureScot staff and will ensure full compliance with Wild Deer Best Practice Guidance, ensuring animal welfare, firearms safety and public safety.

The Scottish Government is meeting regularly with key stakeholders such as the poultry industry, captive/wild bird association representatives (including those from the gamebird and environmental NGO’s sector) and other UK administrations to discuss the risks posed by avian influenza and the associated impacts, including significant impacts for our seabird populations as a whole including gulls, terns, auks and shearwater, and potentially devastating impacts on some species which were already considered to be at risk, such as great skua and northern gannet, as well as potential impacts on the upcoming shooting season.

NatureScot are leading a Task Force to co-ordinate activity to monitor and minimise the impact of avian flu on wild bird populations in Scotland. The task force will continue to monitor the avian influenza outbreak and develop recommendations for managing and mitigating the impacts.

UCAS published acceptance statistics from 9 August for the 2022 Cycle, UCAS does not publish data broken down by local authority area.

The childcare workforce has grown overall as a result of the ELC expansion, with the latest data showing an increase of 26% between 2016 and 2020. The Scottish Social Services Council’s Stability Index (i.e. the proportion of staff who have been retained from the previous year) shows a Stability Index of 78.9% for the day care of children workforce, broadly similar to the overall Index of 80.8% for social services.

Throughout the ELC expansion the Scottish Government has taken a range of actions with partners to support recruitment and retention across all parts of the childcare sector. Those include: working with skills bodies and training providers to increase enrolments on training courses by 25.6% between 2017 and 2020; delivery of a national recruitment campaign, attracting high quality individuals to all parts of the sector; and enabling payment of the Real Living Wage to staff delivering funded hours.

In the face of the substantial increase in demand placed on the service by the COVID-19 pandemic, NHS 24 continues to provide a highly effective, safe triage system to the people of Scotland.

As a result of this increased demand, and changes to service delivery, the Scottish Government increased funding to NHS 24 by over £20m last year for additional recruitment.

This additional funding has supported the additional recruitment of 575 full time equivalent call handlers and 140 full time equivalent clinicians to date, including through the recently established 24/7 mental health hub.

It has also supported the opening of two new NHS 24 call centres in Dundee and Glasgow, which opened in December 2021 and May 2022 respectively.

We continue to work with NHS 24 to support improvement in the performance of the 111 service, including engaging with partners and stakeholders through the national Redesign of Urgent Care programme.

NatureScot has advised that there is no evidence of spread of avian influenza from poultry or gamebirds to wild birds within the UK. There is no evidence to support further disease control measures on game bird operation activities beyond those already in place, which includes a ban on releasing game birds in all disease control zones. We are closely monitoring the situation and will review disease control measures as appropriate.