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The Scottish Government are committed to continuing to improve the promotion, quality, and implementation of Self-directed Support.

Due to changes in SG accounting systems and SG Retention Policies it has not been possible to obtain details of all funding awarded since 1997. Since the Self-Directed Support Scotland Act 2013 came into force in 2014, Scottish Government has provided a total of £46.6m to strategic delivery partners which include Social Work Scotland, Inspiring Scotland, In Control, Self-Directed Support Scotland, The Alliance and Transformation a Funding to all Local Authorities. These Strategic Delivery Partners support the delivery of SDS and direct payments through, in excess of 1000, membership organisations.

It has not been possible to estimate funding spent solely on promotion of direct payments and Self-Directed Support since 1997. This is due to funding recipients not recording actual spend for direct promotional activities, however all funding recipients promote the use of direct payments and self-directed support in all activities funded. Therefore, as all the Self-directed Support Strategic Delivery partners support all people that require social care, the full amount of funding supports disabled people's organisations either directly or indirectly through our strategic delivery partners membership organisations throughout Scotland.

Promotion of direct payments and Self-directed Support has been different for each organisation and has taken many forms such as expenditure on communication, engagement with social work users and working with Local Authorities to raise awareness of available processes therefore making it difficult to define and determine exactly how much budget has been used towards it

The dataset on which these statistics is based does not record details of pay or contractual status.

The definition of employment used in school leaver destination statistics includes: those who consider themselves to be employed and in receipt of payment from their employers.

The Scotland Reserve provides the Scottish Government with a limited facility to manage the smoothing of all types of spending, assist the management of tax volatility and manage the timing of expenditure between financial years. As the cap is not index linked it has remained at £700m since it was implemented in 2017. In real terms it becomes proportionately smaller each year.

Under the terms of the Fiscal Framework the Scottish Government is unable to overspend its budget in a financial year. It must therefore achieve a net underspend each year and these amounts are carried forward within the Scotland Reserve to be utilised in future years.

The balance within the Scotland Reserve following the 2021-22 Provisional Outturn exercise was £650 million . This amount, subject to any adjustments as part of the Final Outturn process, will be drawn down in full to support 2022-23 spending plans as outlined in the Budget. This means the Scotland Reserve balance will be reduced to nil, allowing for an underspend of up to £700m in 2022-23 to be recorded without breaching the Reserve.

Later in the financial year 2022-23 there will be greater certainty around the funding position and spending levels. Financial management will focus on ensuring the Scottish Government achieves a balanced budget without breaching the Scotland Reserve cap. This will take the following into account:

• Ensuring sufficient headroom is included in the Scotland Reserve for a net underspend still to be achieved following post year-end accounting and audit adjustments
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• Including any targeted carry forward balances to support future financial years. In the recently published Medium Term Financial Strategy there is an assumption of £279 million of funding from the Scotland Reserve being used to support 2023-24 which would be factored into the Scotland Reserve workings. This figure is subject to change as part of the 2023-24 budget as well as any in-year revisions as circumstances change.

This process will then be replicated in financial year 2023-24 with a full draw down of any carry forward amounts in the Scotland Reserve.

The Scotland Reserve was established following the 2016 Scotland Act and was effective from 1 April 2017. Amounts allocated annually to the Scotland Reserve since 1 April 2017 are included on the table below as well as details of all other movements within the Scotland Reserve during the relevant financial years.

Over the course of this parliament, we have committed to investing £1.8 billion into zero emissions heating and energy efficiency across Scotland. This includes the Scottish Government’s Home Energy Scotland Loan and Cashback scheme which currently provides households with up to £17,500 of combined loan and cashback funding for the installation of zero emissions heating systems.

The current Home Energy Scotland loan scheme has been operational and supporting households for some time, with the cashback element introduced in 2020. Through the Heat in Buildings Strategy we have also committed to replacing the cashback element of the scheme with a standalone grant during the course of 2022-23.

In developing the new grant scheme and setting grant levels, we are examining a range of evidence. This consideration will include the recent reports published by Nesta. This report and follow up report ‘how to increase the demand for heat pumps’ published in June 2022 by Nesta raises many informative findings, amongst them that a combination of incentives was found to be the most effective in increasing heat pump uptake, in particular a grant combined with lower running costs of the system.

The Scottish Government aims to make the installation of zero emissions heating systems both desirable and achievable for households across Scotland, and the future development of the Home Energy Scotland Loan and Grant scheme will play a large part in this.

Scottish Government has invested £2,959,658.23 in the Support in the Right Direction (SiRD) programme in financial year 2022-23. The SIRD programme is managed by Inspiring Scotland and has a presence in all 32 local authority areas, with each SiRD organisation providing services targeted to the needs of disabled people.

As all Self-directed Support Strategic Delivery partners support all people that require social care, Inspiring Scotland are committed to ensuring that all funding made available to SiRDS organisations either directly or indirectly support the needs of disabled people through accessing services provided by SiRD organisations

Latest HMRC (Regional Trade Statistics) RTS statistics show that in 2021, based on total trade in goods (imports plus exports), Scotland’s largest trading partner was the USA at £5.5 billion. Note this data only includes trade in goods and not services and excludes oil and gas (SITC 3 – Mineral fuels).

We fully understand that women want mesh removal surgery undertaken by surgeons who enjoy their full confidence and a range of measures are now in place to ensure that this happens.

The Complex Pelvic Mesh Removal Service has been established in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GGC). This service assesses needs and where appropriate, and subject to shared decision making and informed consent, performs mesh removal surgery. The Service has undertaken a number of mesh removal surgeries since its designation, despite the impact of the pandemic on activity levels across the Health Service. To complement Scottish services women can also, if they so wish, request to be treated at one of the NHS England Specialist Centres.

In addition, and exceptionally, women now have the option to request to be referred on to one of two independent providers. A contract with Spire Healthcare, where Professor Hashim operates, was agreed earlier this year and arrangements for the first patients to travel to Bristol are underway. Furthermore, I am pleased to be able to announce today that a contract has been agreed with Gynaecologic and Reconstructive Surgery Ltd, Missouri, USA, where Dr Veronikis operates. NHS National Services Scotland will now work closely with NHS GGC and local Health Boards to facilitate the arrangements for those who wish to travel to the USA for mesh removal surgery.

It is expected that anyone seeking mesh removal from either Professor Hashim or Dr Veronikis first discuss this with their local clinicians within their own Health Board. If considered appropriate at that stage, and in line with a process agreed with the independent providers, they would then be referred to the Complex Pelvic Mesh Removal Service in NHS GGC for consideration by a full multi-disciplinary team (MDT). If it is agreed that surgery is appropriate, the patient can choose to be treated by the service already available in NHS Scotland or to be referred to a specialist NHS centre in England or to one of the independent providers. Each of these options will be available free of charge. I would encourage anyone who wishes referral to one of these services to make their wishes known to their clinical team, if they have not already done so.

The independent analysis report of the responses to the not proven verdict and related reforms consultation will be published today, 12 July 2022 and will be available at https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781804356890 .

The consultation received 200 responses, of which 21 were from organisations and 179 from individuals, and these will also be published today, where we have permission to do so, at https://consult.gov.scot/justice/not-proven-verdict/ .

We must now give careful consideration to the full range of views received on these complex issues. The findings from this consultation analysis, along with a range of other information and evidence from engagement and consideration of the issues, will inform the decision making process on any potential recommendations for reform.

Any potential reforms will be considered alongside wider work, including the outcome of the current consultation on improving victims’ experiences of the justice system . That consultation includes consideration of those recommendations of the Lord Justice Clerk’s review on improving the management of sexual offence cases which require legislative change to implement.

The final recruitment figures under Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-27 will be published today, 12 July, at 10:30am, at Mental health workers: quarterly performance reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . A total of 958.9 whole time equivalent mental health staff have been recruited in key settings over 4 years, significantly exceeding the original commitment for 800 additional workers.