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While the Taylor Review’s ambition for all work to be fair and decent aligns with the Scottish Government’s Fair Work agenda, the report fails to recognise that Scotland has been ahead of the curve for some time with regards fair work issues, including promoting the Living Wage as the most effective means of tackling in-work poverty, establishing the independent Fair Work Convention, and supporting trade union representation in all workplaces.

The Scottish Government is disappointed that Mr Taylor's report falls short of recommending the repeal of the UK Government's Trade Union Act and abolition of employment tribunal fees, both of which would have a positive impact on the protection of workers' right, job security and tacking exploitation, throughout the UK.

As part of our 2017-18 Budget, NHS Territorial Boards are receiving inflationary uplifts of £136 million (1.5%) and NRAC parity funding of £50 million. This delivers increased funding of 2.1% and takes all Boards, for the first time, to within 1% of NRAC parity. For NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde this means additional funding in year of £31.1 million. Every year NHS Boards identify a level of savings which are then retained for local reinvestment and these plans are continually developed throughout the year, to deliver better services, better care and better value.

I have also made £50 million available to NHSScotland with up to £11.2 million being made available to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. This additional funding will build up their capacity to make sure that all patients are treated in a timely fashion including in the specialty of orthopaedics.

In the longer-term the Scottish Government has committed £200 million to expand the Golden Jubilee National Hospital as well as create five new diagnostic and treatment centres to help meet future need. The Golden Jubilee will be significantly expanding its current orthopaedic capacity particularly to help meet future capacity demand for the west of Scotland Boards, including NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

In the year 2016 the median wait for orthopaedic surgery in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde was 61 days with the longest 323 days. I announced on 30 May that £50 million pounds was being made available to NHSScotland to help improvement in performance and reduce waiting times for patients between now and March 2018. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde will receive up to £11.2 million of this funding to improve waits for their patients including in the specialty of orthopaedics.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-10273 on 26 July 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

HL1 Data on Homeless Applications is collected by SG from all Local Authorities. Any additional information collected by Local Authorities for their own use is not collated by SG.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-10273 on 26 July 2017 for more detail on the data collected on rough sleeping at the point that a homeless application is made. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-10273 on 26 July 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Information on rough sleeping is collected by local authorities at the point that a homeless application is made. Homeless applicants are asked whether any member of the household has slept rough at any point in the previous 3 months, and also if they have slept rough on the night preceding the application. The Scottish Government collects this information from local authorities as part of the Homeless Applications HL1 Dataset, and headline figures are published on a bi-annual basis in the Scottish Government statistical publication ‘Homelessness in Scotland’.

Whilst the information collected on this basis will reflect the experiences of rough sleeping of those people approaching local authorities for a homeless application, it will not necessarily capture all instances of rough sleeping, for example people who are rough sleeping but who have not made a homeless application.

The following two tables provide figures on a local authority and Scotland basis for the years 2011-12 to 2016-17 on the number of homeless applications where a household member had reported sleeping rough in the three months prior to the application, and the number of applications where a household member had reported sleeping rough on the night preceding the application.

Number of homeless applications where a household member reported sleeping rough in the three months previous to the application, by local authority area,
2011-12 to 2016-17

Source: Scottish Government HL1 Dataset as at 23 May 2017

Note: All figures in the table have been rounded to 5 for disclosure control purposes

Number of homelessness applications where a household member reported sleeping rough on the night preceding the
application, by local authority area, 2011-12 to 2016-17

Source: Scottish Government HL1 Dataset as at 23 May 2017

Note: All figures in the table have been rounded to 5 for disclosure control purposes

The Scottish Government does not organise nationwide street counts of rough sleepers. The Scottish Government agree with many in the housing sector, including third sector organisations, that street counts are not a reliable or effective way to gather information on rough sleeping.

Information on rough sleeping is collected by local authorities at the point that a homeless application is made. I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-10273 on 26 July 2017 for more detail on this. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Ministers meet regularly with a wide range of businesses, to inform policy development and to take forward the Government’s programme for Scotland.

The work that has been undertaken to date has been carried out by existing members of staff as part of their normal duties. In line with usual practice, no record has been taken of the number staff who have been involved in this work or the number of hours spent on individual tasks, as there is no business need to do this.