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The Scottish Government has reviewed the article Night shift work and risk of aggressive prostate cancer in the Norwegian Offshore Petroleum Workers (NOPW) cohort and notes its findings.

As an employer we adopt Fair Work practices and we take the health, safety and wellbeing of our staff very seriously including ensuring appropriate breaks and periods of rest and annual leave, as well as having a right to disconnect policy.

The typical working arrangements for staff in the Scottish Government is flexible working hours (within the hours of 7am to 7pm) with a full time working day equating to 7 hours 24 minutes.

Of the fifteen gateway review recommendations for the period the question relates to, eleven are complete and four are ongoing.

A table has been placed has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (BIB number 64087). The table details the recommendation and the status against each individually at this present time.

The Scottish Government has reviewed the article Night shift work and risk of aggressive prostate cancer in the Norwegian Offshore Petroleum Workers (NOPW) cohort and notes its findings.

We strongly encourage all employers to adopt Fair Work practices and apply a flexible approach regarding continuous and prolonged night shift working to protect the health and wellbeing of the workforce.

The Scottish Government has no plans to commission such research.

The BuiltPlace article itself refers to the methodology being “limited in multiple ways”.

The Scottish Government set out in response to question on 22 May 2022 how it monitors the size of the private rented sector using data from the Scottish Landlord Register.

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

FOI/202300342482 asked for the interim recommendations of the Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group, and the date these were received.

The response to FOI/202300342482, which included a copy of the interim recommendations, was issued to the requester on 7 March 2023 within the 20 working day timeframe. After completing the necessary pre-publication process, the FOI was published on the Scottish Government website on 16 March 2023 and can be accessed here .

In 2022-23 the Scottish Government has provided £2,259,987 to NHS Boards as set out in the following table.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-16005 on 25 March 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 .

We ask for this information as part of routine monitoring of implementation of the Young Patient’s Family Fund and anticipate having this detail available at the end of the financial year. NHS Boards reported spend in these categories for 2021-22 and we are committed to working with Boards to develop a robust reporting process.

The Warm Home Discount is a rebate upon energy bills that large energy suppliers are obliged to provide, not a social security payment administered by the Scottish Government. Whilst some powers are provided to Scottish Ministers to design a separate Warm Home Discount scheme in Scotland, these require the consent of the UK Government.

All households in receipt of Pension Credit Guarantee Credit are automatically eligible for a WHD rebate in Scotland, England and Wales (Core Group 1). Households in England and Wales in receipt of low income benefits or tax credits (Core Group 2) are not automatically eligible for a WHD rebate. The UK Government further restricts eligibility for this group in England and Wales based upon data matching.

These low income households only receive a rebate if they also live in a property that is assumed to have low energy efficiency. The UK Government uses Council Tax data held by the Valuation Office Agency to estimate energy costs and uses this as a proxy for low energy efficiency. This approach reflects the definition of fuel poverty adopted by the UK Government in England (low income, low energy efficiency).

Scottish Ministers do not agree that energy efficiency is the main driver of fuel poverty. The Scottish Parliament has unanimously agreed a definition of fuel poverty that is not dependent upon the energy efficiency of people’s homes. The valuation roll data held by the Scottish Assessors Association is not relevant in establishing fuel poverty on this basis.

In 2021, Scottish Ministers formally proposed a more flexible, fairer and simpler fuel poverty scheme to replace the WHD scheme in Scotland. This would have provided an automatic rebate to vulnerable households across Scotland. We have also repeatedly pressed UK Ministers to increase funding for the WHD rebate to reflect the higher level of need in Scotland. UK Ministers did not agree to do so and continue to decide the total value and number of rebates provided. Nevertheless we remain willing to work with the UK Government to improve the help available to vulnerable families across Scotland.

Scottish Ministers have limited powers to design and implement a separate scheme in Scotland. These require the consent of the UK Government. Previous proposals by Scottish Ministers to increase the value and number of rebates provided to vulnerable households were not agreed by UK Ministers. The UK Government continue to reserve to themselves the powers to set the value of the rebate and the total value of the obligation in Scotland. However we remain willing to work with the UK Government to improve the help available to vulnerable families across Scotland.