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In the lead-up to Scottish Canals’ formal recognition as a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) in April 2020 and continuing since then, the Scottish Government has sought to provide as much assistance as possible to assist the Organisation in familiarising itself with the financial reporting processes and accountancy practices that all NDPBs have to follow. In addition to providing advice on a number of related areas, Transport Scotland officials facilitated meetings with the Office for National Statistics, Audit Scotland and Scottish Government finance colleagues to assist in this process.

Support was mainly provided around how NDPB status would impact on Scottish Canals preparing its annual accounts, the authority delegated to its Accountable Officer, the change in the Organisation’s ability to carry across reserves from one year to the next and its investment strategy. Officials also highlighted the need for Scottish Canals to familiarise itself with the requirements of the Scottish Public Finance Manual, the Government Financial Reporting Manual (FReM) and the HM Treasury Consolidated Budgeting guidance.

The National Mission Oversight Group is supported by many areas of expertise including; academics, lived and living experience representatives, international expertise, clinicians and third sector organisations

Three members of the group are specifically appointed as lived and living experience representatives, but we should not presume that other members of the Oversight Group do not have their own lived and living experience alongside their professional expertise and experience they are bringing to the group.

The Group will link in to lived and living experience networks such as the National Collaborative to ensure that the perspective and experiences of living and lived experience are embedded in the work of the Group.

Like all Non-Departmental Public Bodies, Scottish Canals has to comply with the requirements of the HM Treasury Consolidated Budgeting Guidance Framework which does not allow for underspends to be carried over financial years.

Scottish Canals is allocated a Grant in Aid budget for the year based on expenditure forecasted by the Organisation and balanced by the income it expects to generate. Any operating surplus that the Organisation generates should be used to reduce the Grant in Aid requirement.

Scottish Canals has benefitted from significant increases in Grant in Aid awards in recent years. Since 2019, the Organisation’s capital grant from the Scottish Government has increased by 87% and it has received an annual uplift in resource funding. In addition, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Scottish Canals benefitted from additional funding of £1.7m to meet a reduction in its revenues.

The National Mission Oversight Group met for the first time on 30 June 2022. The next meeting is scheduled for 22 September 2022. The Group will meet every three months and dates of meetings will be agreed in advance for the following year. The National Mission Steering Group will advise accordingly.

Scottish Canals, as with all public bodies, is operating in an unprecedented challenging environment for public funds. Despite this, the Organisation has benefitted from significant increases in both its resource and capital Grant in Aid budget allocations in the last few years. Since 2019, the Scottish Government has increased the Organisation’s capital grant allocation by 87%.

In the last 2 years, and as a consequence of the significant increases in its capital budgets, Scottish Canals has managed to reduce its backlog of works by 20%. This has been achieved alongside significant Scottish Government support for unplanned events such as the Union Canal breach at Muiravonside in 2020. This highlights the importance of the Scottish Government’s support for Scottish Canals.

Data on developer led remediated buildings is not held by the Scottish Government.

The following tables 1 to 4 show breast screening uptake from January 2019 to June 2022 for each of the breast screening centres. Uptake is defined as the proportion of eligible patients invited who receive a technically adequate and complete screen. 2019 data is provided as a baseline. Note that table 2 reflects a period when the programme was paused due to COVID-19.

It is important to note that the data provided was collected and used for management purposes for monitoring the recovery of the program and has not been subject to quality checks for official publication. Public Health Scotland publish breast screening programme statistics every year; the last publication was in April 2022 and the next publication is due in April 2023.

Table 1 – Breast screening uptake (% of eligible participants) by screening centre, January to December 2019

The Scottish Government’s funding agreement with CoSLA enables local authorities to pay sustainable rates to providers in the private, third and childminding sectors who meet the National Standard, and enter into a contract with a local authority to provide funded early learning and childcare (ELC).

Last year’s Financial Sustainability Health Check reported that payments for the delivery of funded ELC account for around 33% to 45% of income for private providers. Providers are responsible for setting fees that are not associated with the provision of funded ELC.

The Scottish Government and local government recognise the need to strengthen the process for setting sustainable rates, and are progressing the programme of actions from the Health Check .

This includes publishing jointly with COSLA, on 26 May 2022, updated guidance to support local authorities to set sustainable rates. The guidance emphasises the importance of ongoing consultation and dialogue between local authorities and their local ELC providers.

The Scottish Government is committed to collecting annual data on the sustainable rates set by local authorities, and will publish an update this autumn.

It is not possible to estimate how much households have spent in total on installing these alarms during the six months before the statutory deadline in February 2022 as the number of households installing alarms during that period is not known.

Estimates of the number of households with legislation-compliant alarms will only be available when the results of the 2022 Scottish House Condition Survey are published. This is expected to be in late 2023 / early 2024.

Responsibility for the routine maintenance, upkeep and management of burial grounds in Scotland rests with the relevant burial authority. A burial authority may be a local authority or a private owner. Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (as amended), owners must ensure any premises they are responsible for are maintained to a safe standard for both employees and visitors. The Burial ground memorial safety: local authority guidance was produced to assist local authorities meet their obligations to inspect and make safe memorials and headstones.

At this time the Scottish Government has no plans to provide financial support to local authorities for the maintenance of burial grounds.