Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08845 on14 June 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Open Market Shared Equity thresholds are reviewed annually each December to reflect the overall movement in average house prices across all transactions over the previous financial year in each area, based on house price data from Registers of Scotland on the lower quartile of house prices in urban areas and the median of house prices in rural areas. The price threshold figures used are rounded up to the nearest £5,000.

Every few years we carry out a more comprehensive analysis of house prices by linking house price data with property characteristics data. This provides more detailed figures by property size category for lower quartile and median prices. This was last carried out using data for 2015-16, and has been applied to the thresholds from 2018 onwards, with the price thresholds for each year as noted above being updated to reflect the overall movement in changes in house prices in each area over time.

The Scottish Government are committed to ensuring that all people living in Scotland with long-term conditions such as arthritis are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put the person at the centre of their care.

I have had two meetings with Versus Arthritis at which they outlined their campaign. I also spoke at their webinar/conference, which was held earlier this year.

The Scottish Government will continue to engage with Versus Arthritis regarding how best to jointly support patients living with arthritis. This will be an ongoing process involving essential collaboration with patients, carers and service providers, including the third sector and clinicians.

As outlined in response to question S6W-08944 on 21 June 2022, the Scottish Government is currently seeking to commission research which will provide evidence on the impact protest and vigils outside of abortion clinics have on people accessing healthcare. This research has been commissioned by the working group on buffer zones which is led by myself.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that women can access comprehensive universal healthcare, including abortion services, without fear of intimidation or harassment. The First Minister has convened an emergency summit on abortion rights which take place on 27 June, and will consider what can be done in the short, medium and long term to ensure that women accessing abortion care can do so safely and without fear of harassment.

Additionally, I convened a working group in December 2021 with the sole purpose of finding solutions that would address the issue of protests and vigils outside of abortion clinics. The working group has members including Police Scotland, CoSLA and affected councils and Health Boards. To date, the working group has agreed to explore dialogue between the various parties involved with protests, and commission independent research into the impacts of protest and vigils.

In light of the recent protests, Police Scotland have agreed to a number of measures to reduce the impact of protests at Sandyford clinic. These measures include, but are not limited to, agreeing a designated space for protests to take place, a single point of contact in Police Scotland for staff when protests occur and confiscating voice implication devices used by protestors.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of day services to both those who use them and to their families and carers. Revised guidance for buildings-based day services was published on 26 May 2022 which says that such services should return to pre-pandemic capacity wherever possible, while operating safely in line with COVID-19 guidance.

We are investing now in additional support for breaks. We have allocated an extra £5 million for short breaks in the 2022-23 budget, on top of the annual £3 million voluntary sector Short Breaks Fund. We have already distributed £3.5 million of this funding to the Time to Live delivery partners to expand short break support for carers. This is in addition to a further £20.4 million in the 2022-23 local government settlement for Carers Act implementation. We are also legislating through the National Care Service Bill to establish a right to breaks from caring.

The information on properties purchased through the Scottish Government shared equity schemes (Help to Buy (Scotland), the Open Market Shared Equity (OMSE) scheme, New Supply Shared Equity (NSSE) and the First Home Fund is not recorded by Scottish Parliamentary region. It is recorded by Local Authority area and information on the numbers of properties purchased in each year of each scheme can be found in the published figures at the following links.

Help to Buy (Scotland) under Monitoring Information Report

https://www.gov.scot/policies/homeowners/help-to-buy/

Open Market Shared Equity and New Supply Shared Equity under Affordable Housing Supply Programme annual out-turn reports and related data

https://www.gov.scot/policies/more-homes/affordable-housing-supply/

First Home Fund

https://www.gov.scot/publications/first-home-fund-spend-and-units-monitoring-information-report-december-2019-to-march-2021/

The Scottish Government is working towards the development of a Scottish Education Exchange Programme fit for Scotland. We will provide more details in due course.

The Resource Spending Review provides the financial parameters for Scottish Government portfolios to collaborate with delivery partners and stakeholders to develop more detailed financial and organisational planning ahead of the next Budget in Winter 2022.

We had on average seven full-time equivalent Scottish Government Officials working on international further and higher education policy within the Advanced Learning and Science Directorate during the 2021-22 financial year.