Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government is committed to continue working closely with local authorities in tackling the global climate emergency. Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities and are entirely separate from the Scottish Government. As long as they act lawfully, it is up to each local authority how it manages its day-to-day business and decision making processes. This includes decision making around which carbon accounting tools to use.

The award of public contracts is regulated by law. Any future awarding of Scottish Government contracts for carbon accounting tools would be subject to open and genuine competition, including adequate publication of the contract opportunity, in line with the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015.

The decision to bring ScotRail under public control avoided the need to run an expensive and inappropriate rail franchising competition. Though widely acknowledged as a failed model, franchise competitions remain the preferred approach in current UK Legislation. Such exercises typically cost in excess of £10m for franchising authorities, as well as the similarly significant costs of each bidder.

As confirmed during my Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee appearance on 15 March 2022, prior to that date, since the decision to proceed with the “Operator of Last Resort” (OLR) option was taken in March 2021, £3.6 million had been spent on the OLR activity.

Final reconciliation figures confirm that £5.5 million has been spent in total on OLR activity, and ScotRail Trains Ltd. was mobilised successfully on 1 April. I am confident you will notice the saving this achieved when compared with a franchising competition.

The Scottish Government is committed to the recruitment of a minimum of 1,500 additional staff to support the operation of Scotland’s National Treatment Centres (NTCs) and is supporting a range of activity to achieve this.

The recruitment data we collate is management information and not suitable for publication. NTC Recruitment is the responsibility of each NHS Board. It is therefore for NHS Golden Jubilee to provide detail regarding their recruitment.

Use of existing stock, whether purchased on the open market or rehabilitated, has and will continue to have a role in delivering affordable homes towards the target in line with strategic local priorities. We do not hold forecasts to 2032. Local authority Strategic Housing Investment Plans set out the funding priorities for affordable housing in their area for the next five years. These may include local authorities’ rationale for supporting use of existing stock and some estimates but will rely on properties becoming available to purchase.

NatureScot are considering a range of studies regarding the muirburn season when reviewing the evidence for a muirburn licensing system.  

Research on this topic is continuing and NatureScot will take account of the evidence as it becomes available.  

Under current constitutional arrangements in the United Kingdom immigration, including the Afghan resettlement schemes, are reserved to the UK Government and handled by the Home Office.

The UK Government has published statistics on the number of people who have arrived in the UK under the Afghan resettlement schemes since 2021, and have committed to providing more detailed data in their quarterly immigration statistics. Afghan Resettlement Programme: operational data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The latest published data (25 August) shows that across the UK 9,667 people are in temporary accommodation and 7,385 people are in settled accommodation. This does not include people who have made their own accommodation arrangements.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6O-01331 on 7 September 2022. The answer to the Oral parliamentary question is available on the Parliaments website, the Official Report can be viewed at:

https://archive2021.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=13875

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.