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Every Public Body publishes an Annual Report and Accounts which will include details of amounts owed to them. These annual accounts will normally be available online on the website of the individual organisation.

The Scottish Government continues to support struggling households, which is why both last year and this, we have allocated almost £3 billion to support policies which tackle poverty and protect people as far as possible during the ongoing cost of living crisis. We will also allocate at least £11 million in 2023-24 to support free debt, welfare and income maximisation advice.

Public bodies have a duty to manage public finances appropriately and this includes ensuring that procedures for administering relief are suitably robust.

Most reliefs generally require an application to be made to the local authority except for universally available reliefs. This is because applications help local authorities determine whether a property is eligible for a particular relief.

Planning for the review of the Agenda for Change system has commenced. The process will be undertaken in conjunction with NHS Scotland Staff Side and Employers in a confidential space with any amendments to Agenda for Change announced via existing channels.

Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies (LHEES) are at the heart of a place based, locally-led and tailored approach to the heat transition in Scotland. These local strategies will underpin an area-based approach to heat and energy efficiency planning and delivery. LHEES will set out the long-term plan for decarbonising heat in buildings and improving their energy efficiency across an entire local authority area.

LHEES guidance is framed around what can be delivered now given the existing policy and funding landscape, and sets out requirements for the first iteration of LHEES published by the end of 2023. LHEES will evolve as the Scottish Government introduces future standards and regulation, as well as new delivery and funding programmes.

The Scottish Government is providing multi-year funding of £75,000 to each local authority to support the development and delivery of their LHEES. Local authorities are able to decide how they allocate this funding including for related functions beyond the development of the Strategy and Delivery Plan.

The Scottish Government does not hold the requested information.

Any form of human trafficking is completely unacceptable. Through the Victim Centred Approach Fund, we are providing record funding of more than £9 million over the period 1 April 2022 – 31 March 2025 to organisations supporting victims of human trafficking.

We have a strong track record on court investment, and continue to prioritise supporting justice partners to address the backlog.

The 2023-24 budget allocates £42.2 million for justice recovery, which includes over £26 million for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) to maintain enhanced court capacity. We have also increased SCTS’s resource funding by £5 million, and provided record resource funding for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

Support for households is currently accessed via Home Energy Scotland or via local authority-led Area Based Schemes. Funding for these schemes is allocated annually by the Scottish Government.

It is likely that this arrangement will continue in the short term, but we are committed to working with delivery partners, including Local Government to ensure the efficient and delivery of support to households.

As noted in response to S6W-16779 the Scottish Government is working with wider stakeholders to align current and future delivery and funding programmes with Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies to support a strategic approach to the decarbonisation of heat reflecting local contexts and tailoring support to specific needs of communities.

Three agencies have been opened outside of the Lothian region since 2007 with no relocations during this time. There is one Agency located in the West Scotland region.

There have been multiple changes to Scottish Government Directorates over the last 15 years. Available data would not provide accurate assessment of the number of Directorates relocated or opened outside of the Lothians over the period.

Directorates particularly in DG Net Zero and DG Communities continue to be located outside of the Central Belt in locations close to their stakeholders and operations.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17929 on 30 May 2023. 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/questions-and-answers .

Extending digital connectivity is vital to communities, businesses and public services. That is why the Scottish Government strategy, A changing nation: how Scotland will thrive in a digital world , sets out a series of measures to ensure that Scotland will fulfil its potential in a constantly evolving digital world.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/a-changing-nation-how-scotland-will-thrive-in-a-digital-world/pages/foreword/

As part of this there is work to improve and extend Scotland's broadband and mobile networks as enabling citizens, including care home residents, to access and use digital services is a national priority with established principles.

Health and Social Care Standards

The Health and Social Care Standards, which set out what people should expect when using health, social care or social work services in Scotland, includes a range of standards about ensuring that people remain connected. This includes standard 5.10:

“If I experience 24 hour care, I am connected, including access to a telephone, radio, TV and the internet.”

The Standards are taken into account by the Care Inspectorate in relation to inspections, and registration, of social care services.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/health-social-care-standards-support-life

To support good practice, the Care Inspectorate have published quality illustrations statements in this area for adult care homes:

“People have easy access to the internet and a telephone and are routinely and actively supported to make best use of these. This includes space to have private conversations.”

“People are unable to stay connected as providers have not taken steps to minimise the impact of poor access to technology or areas where there is limited Wi-Fi or phone signal.”

“While there may be access to telephone and the internet, people are not routinely or actively supported to use these or cannot do so in private.”

“People benefit from options to keep connected using technology such as radio, phone, TV and the internet.”

Care Home design guide

The Care Inspectorate have published “Care Homes for Adults – The Design Guide” which provides advice on the design, planning and construction considerations for new or converted care homes for adults. This sets out expectations around internet access in care homes:

“Internet access must be sufficient to enable residents to retain contact with friends and relatives, as well as for recreational use such as music and video streaming or watching live events. It is also a necessary area for contact with professionals such as GPs through Near Me consultations, and for staff to maintain digital records”.

https://www.careinspectorate.com/index.php/publications-statistics/30-professionals-registration/professionals-guidance/6583-care-homes-for-adults-the-design-guide

Technology good practice guide

From a technology enabled care perspective, the Care Inspectorate’s recent publication “Using technology and digital devices to make a positive impact on health and wellbeing for people experiencing care” highlights how access to digital connection is becoming essential for everyone’s health and wellbeing. This publication supports improvement through quality illustrations, case studies and a toolkit of resources. The guide can be accessed at:

https://www.careinspectorate.com/index.php/publications-statistics/76-professionals-registration/resources

During the pandemic

As part of the Digital Approaches in Care Homes programme launched during the pandemic, in November 2020, Scottish Government offered all care homes in Scotland digital devices for use by and with residents, as well as MiFi devices (internet connectivity dongles) with free data for up to two years for those homes with no, or partial, Wi-Fi coverage. 1034 (75%) of care homes accepted the offer of devices, and 45% the offer of MiFi devices (9% had no Wi-Fi, 36% partial only). All care homes were contacted by email and telephone to ensure the offer was received. Of the 25% of care homes that rejected the offer, the majority stated that they had both the devices and connectivity required at the time.

A recent survey by SCVO (March 2023) has established that 76 MiFi connections are still in use by 54 care homes, and remains their primary internet connection for residents. The Digital Social Care Portfolio Board has endorsed the extension of the initial offer of free data to December 2023 to allow the care homes the time to migrate to more sustainable internet connection solutions. The MiFi devices offer the fastest possible connection available via mobile telephony (3G/4G/5G) depending on the reception available in the area.

Reaching 100% (R100) programme

Through the Reaching 100% (R100) programme the Scottish Government is ensuring that all homes and businesses can access superfast broadband. This is delivered through three strands of activity – the £600 million R100 contracts, the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) and continued commercial coverage. Property owners and residents can see what the R100 programme will mean for them by visiting www.scotlandsuperfast.com .

The R100 contracts are proceeding at pace and have connected over 22,400 premises with a further 5,700 connected as a consequence of contractual overspill and at no extra cost to the Scottish Government. Over 3,100 premises have also been connected through the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme.

In 2018, a new national evidence-based pathway for coeliac disease was launched across four health boards (NHS Lothian, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Tayside). It was funded by Scottish Government’s Modernising Patient Pathways Programme (MPPP) and co-produced in partnership with key stakeholders including Coeliac UK, and people living with coeliac disease and clinicians.

We recognise that more needs to be done and we expect all Health Boards to fully implement the pathway in order to improve services and ensure that, with dietetic person-centred support, people with coeliac disease take control of their condition and manage its impact on their health and quality of life.

We continue to support NHS Boards on the adoption of the pathway through our representation on the Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Elective Care Group (EUDECG) which includes representation from all key stakeholders to support delivery, including NHS Boards and Endoscopy units across the country, in line with our Once for Scotland approach.