Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government is committed to protecting freshwater habitats from diffuse agricultural pollution.

Responsibility for regulation of agricultural diffuse pollution lies with SEPA. Since 2009, through River Basin Management Planning SEPA has identified 57 priority catchment areas where additional intervention is needed to tackle agricultural pollution.

This priority catchment approach, involving catchment-based farm visits, has been successful in building a strong working relationship between the agricultural sectors and SEPA. To date, SEPA has completed over 6000 initial farm visits and 3500 revisits to non-compliant operators in 38 of these priority catchments with six now regarded by SEPA as reaching full compliance. SEPA will continue to complete ongoing diffuse pollution compliance work in the other 32 catchments by 2027.

Phased work in the remaining 19 priority catchments began in October with initial visits by SEPA in two new catchments – Wick and Thurso - and as of 1 November initial farm visits have commenced in the River Leven catchment.

Until the Land Management Planning process and associated consultation has been completed there is no certainty over the level or nature of new planting at Glenprosen and therefore any costings would be speculative.

The Scottish Government will be applying an uplift of 5.6% to the value of the GP contract later this year. This uplift will be backdated to 1 April 2022 and will include funding to cover a 4.5% increase in non-staff expenses. Scottish Government are also adding an extra 20% to all item of service claims made by NHS general dental practitioners in quarter three of this year (October to December), and 10% in quarter four (January to March). The Welsh Secretary and I have jointly written to the UK Government asking it to provide additional funding given that it is their actions that have caused record high inflation. A copy of the letter has been placed in SPICe, bib number 63796.

Funding of £18 billion is provided for health and social care in 2022-23.

As set out in the Emergency Budget Review (2 November), in common with the overall Scottish Budget, the Health and Social Care budget is facing unpreceded challenges as a result of inflation and the ongoing impacts of Covid and Brexit.

It has therefore been essential to review health and social care spending, with £400 million reprioritised and fully retained within the Portfolio, to ensure that it is directed where it is needed most, including supporting enhanced pay offers.

The Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM) sets out the Scottish’s Government’s approach to appraising investment decisions. The SPFM is available by way of the following link Scottish Public Finance Manual (www.gov.scot) .

The Green Book is a well-established guide for government project and programme appraisal. It sets out a thorough appraisal process and Scottish Government encourages all policy areas to follow Green Book guidance where proportionate and applicable. The Green Book can be found by way of the following link The Green Book (publishing.service.gov.uk)

The Scottish Government has awarded funding of £444,000 in 2022-2023 to support the delivery of the Once for Scotland approach stated in the plan.

We have awarded the Care Inspectorate £194,000 to enable them to build on the learning from the Care About Physical Activity (CAPA) programme. The project will work across care homes, care at home, housing support and day services for adults.

£250,000 has been awarded to Thistle Foundation to deliver a range of organisational development interventions to support rehabilitation teams to reshape their rehabilitation services.

The Scottish Government is in the process of establishing an advisory Board, which will help to identify local rehabilitation leads, ensuring appropriate appointments to take forward the aims identified in Rehabilitation and Recovery.

I would be concerned about reports of this nature. I’m happy to take further representations from the Member and I will ask officials to follow this up with the Board.

The Scottish Government publishes an annual report on marketing spend in each financial year, which can be found at https://www.gov.scot/collections/marketing-spend/ .

The Scottish Government ran a smoking cessation campaign in 2017-2018. The costs for this campaign totalled £370,978.50. The total media spend for this campaign was £253,352.78 across TV, radio, digital and outdoor advertising. The digital advertising included £23,252 on Facebook advertising in support of the campaign. No other social media advertising was used as part of the campaign.

The First Home Fund closed at the end of the 2021-22 financial year. The Scottish Government does not plan to reopen the fund - key findings from the evaluation show that 72% of buyers would have been able to purchase a property which met their needs without financial assistance. However, we continue to support home ownership through various interventions to help first time buyers. These include our Low Cost Initiative for First-Time Buyers (LIFT) scheme which helps people on low to moderate incomes to buy their first home either through the open market (Open Market Shared Equity) or new build (New Supply Shared Equity). Support is also available through the Self Build Loan Fund.

The Islands Impact Assessment became a legal duty in December 2020, one year after the launch of the First Home Fund. Nonetheless, as the fund was available to all eligible applicants in Scotland to utilise, with no upper price cap, it was not likely to have an effect on an island community which was significantly different from its effect on other communities.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who will reply in writing within 20 days.