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The Hate Crime Strategic Partnership Group was established to ensure a multi-agency, strategic approach towards the development and delivery of Scotland’s Hate Crime Strategy .

Members are drawn from the following organisations:

• Age Scotland
• BEMIS
• CEMVO
• COPFS
• COSLA
• Education Scotland
• Equality Network
• Glasgow Disability Alliance (GDA)
• Interfaith Scotland
• Police Scotland
• Respectme
• YouthLink Scotland
• Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) (observer)

Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) (observer)There is currently no expectation in the Terms of Reference for the Hate Crime Strategic Partnership Group that individual names of members from attending organisations will be published.

We are currently continuing to develop detailed proposals for the Anti-Racism Observatory for Scotland (AROS). We will include financial provision for this of up to £1.5m in the 2024-2025 budget.

Following the establishment of the Anti-Racism Observatory we are committed to ensuring its continued funding. The budget allocation for each financial year will be subject to work with those leading the Anti-Racism Observatory as to what is required and will be subject to confirmation in each annual budget.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that workers whistleblowing rights are protected, as outlined in the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. Employment powers are a matter reserved to the UK Parliament, however, the Scottish Government encourages all employers to provide fair and inclusive work, including an effective voice, to all workers.

All public sector organisations should have their own whistleblowing policy and procedures in place which should be consistent with the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, and with their own nominated officer and process for investigation. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to whistleblowing policy as policies will vary depending on the size and nature of the organisation. It is for each organisation to consider what training is required to support the effective implementation of their whistleblowing arrangements.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21068 on 14 September 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/written-questions-and-answers

In mitigating the impacts of the cost of living crisis, the Scottish Government has taken action to reduce costs, including through our Emergency Budget Review (EBR) in autumn 2022. This responded to the new pressures arising from the crisis, and set out unprecedented reductions in planned spending totalling £1.2 billion, to ensure the Scottish Government was able to manage the annual budget prudently in the face of rising inflation and economic uncertainty.

The significant savings taken in the EBR were applied across government, the full list of which can be found here - Emergency Budget Review published - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Through this reprioritisation in the EBR, we were able to provide further help to those most impacted by the cost of living crisis. The Scottish Government recognises the pressure on household budgets which is why, both last year and this, we have allocated almost £3bn to support policies which tackle poverty and to protect people as far as possible during the ongoing cost of living crisis. This includes increasing the Scottish Child Payment to £25, emergency legislation to put in place a rent freeze, and a range of support for energy bills such as delivering energy efficiency and heating improvements.

The 2023-24 Budget built upon work in the EBR and involved taking difficult savings decisions to allocate around £700 million extra to fund enhanced pay deals.

The on-going cost of living crisis continues to present financial challenges to the Scottish Government. We are reviewing opportunities for more effective targeting of spend through the 2024-25 Budget, whilst prioritising programmes of work which have the greatest impact on the delivery of our core missions.

Public Health Scotland Publish information on the number of GPs and patients nationally and by Health Board and this is available at:

General Practice - GP Workforce and practice list sizes 2012 - 2022 - General Practice - GP workforce and practice list sizes - Publications - Public Health Scotland

Table 2 sets out the number of GPs nationally and in each board area and Table 4 shows the registered number of patients nationally and in each Health Board, over the past 10 years.

The Scottish Government have purchased the following laptops since 1st March 2020 for use on the SCOTS network.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21068 on 14 September 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/written-questions-and-answers

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21068 on‎ 14 September 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/written-questions-and-answers

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21068 on 14 September 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/written-questions-and-answers