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The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the vital role of Scottish Hospices. In June 2020, we provided £10.1m in emergency funding to hospices to meet in full their funding requests for loss of income during the first lockdown period.

On the 24 March 2021, we confirmed that an additional £16.9m will be provided to Scottish Hospices to fully meet their requests for support relating to loss of income during the most recent lockdown. As such, the total funding allocated to hospices to support their work during the pandemic in the financial year 2020-2021 is approximately £27m.

The breakdown of payments can be viewed in the following  table.

Information about the size of businesses which are Scottish Business Pledge members was not recorded prior to May 2018 and the total number of Business Pledge members that are a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) is not available. Since May 2018, 175 SMEs have become a member of the Business Pledge and 42 SMEs have transitioned to the relaunched Scottish Business Pledge.

The deadline for members of the original Scottish Business Pledge to transition to the new criteria has been extended to 1 September 2021 due to the continuous economic impact the Coronavirus is having.

The Scottish Government include Fair Work criteria wherever it is relevant and proportionate to do so.

A Scottish Procurement Policy Note 03/2021, was published on 15 March 2021 on the implementation of the Fair Work First criteria within procurement processes commencing from 1 April 2021, where relevant and proportionate to do so.

The Scottish Government has updated its internal procedures and processes to include a stronger focus on the Fair Work First criteria and will implement this approach going forward.

The Scottish Government has a statutory duty under Section 30 of the Railways Act 1993 to ensure that rail services continue to operate. The cost associated with the contingency planning work for the Operator of Last Resort (OLR) for both franchises has cost, to date £4,212,914 from 2019-20 to 2020-2021.

These OLR costs incurred to date can be broken down as follows:

Arup - £3,333,955

Ernst and Young - £437,243

Bramble Hub - £95,608

MacRoberts - £346,108

Information about the size of business for Scottish Business Pledge members was not recorded prior to May 2018 and the total number of Business Pledge members that are a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) is therefore not available. Of the 698 Business Pledge members that require to transition to the relaunched Business Pledge criteria, only one SME has indicated its intention not to transition.

Scottish Enterprise undertook a regulated procurement process for 72 separate contracts in FY 2019/2020, resulting in the appointment of 60 unique suppliers. The application of Fair Work First was considered for all tenders, and was applied and scored on 17. Two of these were judged to be ‘Acceptable’, 13 to be ‘Good’, and 2 judged to be ‘Excellent’ following evaluation. It was not appropriate to score Fair Work for the remaining contracts, as these were either for the supply of goods, or would not have been able to be scored in a fair and equitable manner in line with procurement regulation.

Where Fair Work First is not a scored criteria, all bidders are still asked to address Fair Work practices in their tenders, and provide evidence of fair employment practices. This includes paying the real Living Wage and promoting payment of the real Living Wage throughout their supply chain. In 2019-2020, 36 unique suppliers committed to pay the real Living Wage, and 16 unique suppliers were fully accredited real Living Wage employers.

South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE) promotes Fair Work to the businesses that it works with. Applicants for SOSE funds are required to evidence how they are addressing the Fair Work Agenda. In assessing this evidence, SOSE identifies where improvements can be made, or where examples of good practice are in place.

Fair Work First is the key mechanism for embedding fair work practices in workplaces across Scotland. Fair Work First criteria is being applied to public sector grants, other funding and contracts where it is relevant to do so, and asks employers to commit to adopting the following practice:

• appropriate channels for effective voice, such as trade union recognition.
• Investment in workforce development.
• no inappropriate use of zero hours contracts.
• action to tackle the gender pay gap and create a more diverse and inclusive workplace.
• payment of the real Living Wage.

The Fair Work First guidance, published on 29 January 2021 aims to support applicants, recipients and administrators of public funds and contracts to consider how Fair Work First criteria can be applied in a relevant and proportionate manner to drive high quality and fair work.

The Scottish Government Fair Work agreement covers the following bodies:

• Accountant in Bankruptcy
• Disclosure Scotland
• Education Scotland
• Social Security Scotland
• Scottish Public Pensions Agency
• Student Award Agency for Scotland
• Transport Scotland
• Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service
• Scottish Prison Service
• Food Standards Scotland
• National Records of Scotland
• OSCR
• Revenue Scotland
• Scottish Fiscal Commission
• Scottish Housing Regulator
• Registers of Scotland.

The former Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Economy and Fair Work, wrote to all public bodies in August 2019 encouraging them to adopt Fair Work agreements similar to that entered into by the Scottish Government and the relevant Civil Service Trade Unions. There is no central record of which bodies have entered into such agreements. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture wrote jointly in December 2020 to public bodies reiterating the Scottish Government’s expectation for them, alongside the Scottish Government, to lead the way in mainstreaming Fair Work.

The evaluation of the Workplace Equality Fund for the years 2018-19 and 2019-20 is underway. The outcome of this work will be publicly available early in the next parliament.