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Imprints are a way of stating who is responsible for publishing campaigning or promotional political material and who they are promoting it for.  This point is reflected in the Electoral Commission’s recent statutory guidance on digital imprints under the Elections Act 2022. 

The functions of the SPCB are laid out in the Scotland Act and require the SPCB to provide the property, staff and services required for the Parliament’s purposes.  In principle, the SPCB does not include imprints on its material as it is publishing material for the purpose of these statutory functions and not political campaigning or promoting.   

The SPCB provides support to Members through the Reimbursement of Members Expenses Scheme to produce and distribute parliamentary funded publications to inform constituents of the work of the Member in their electoral area or in Parliament or about the work of the Parliament itself.

As SPCB resources are applied for the Parliament’s purposes, in accordance with the SPCB’s statutory functions, Members must abide by the rules in the SPCB Policy on Members’ Publications where costs are met from the Members’ Expenses Scheme.

The Policy restricts members from including material promoting the political views of any person, political party, the government or other organisation involved in political campaigning in parliamentary funded publications.  The Policy also prohibits the issue of parliamentary funded publications in the immediate run up to elections and referendums. For its purposes, the Policy requires the inclusion of a statement in relation to how the costs were met for such a publication and a header which must include the Parliament’s Corporate Identity, alongside the Member’s name and their area of representation, whether the publication is online or in hard copy.

The Quarantine mailbox provides a holding area for email messages that are automatically identified as potentially harmful (e.g., potential phishing and malware messages). 

The IT Helpdesk initially sent out emails to all users to raise awareness of the Junk and Quarantine storage areas when it was introduced and most recently in 2020.  Since then, the screens at the BIT Engagement desk at Holyrood have been used to remind Members about the existence of the Quarantine area, and staff have been available to offer advice and assistance on accessing the folder.

Staff in the BIT Office are currently investigating a means of more actively alerting Members and other users of the email system to any quarantined email messages.  The alerts will take the form of a weekly roundup email reminding users to release or delete items as appropriate.

The Scottish Government continues to engage with key skills stakeholders and Historic Environment Scotland on this matter to ensure that Scotland has the required traditional skills to meet the demands of the historic environment sector.

We deliver our support for the historic environment through sponsorship of Historic Environment Scotland which continues to champion traditional skills and is working with stakeholders to address heritage skills gaps to help ensure Scotland’s historic buildings can thrive as part of the country’s sustainable future.

The Scottish Government is also working with Skills Development Scotland to promote careers in construction and heritage skills as part of our Youth Employment Strategy, Developing the Young Workforce.

The refreshed Skills Investment Plan for Scotland’s historic environment sector is being led by Historic Environment Scotland in collaboration with key stakeholders within the sector and is expected to be published in Spring 2024.

With regard to the reasons behind the rationale for budget reprofiling, the exceptionally challenging financial conditions as outlined in the letter from DFM and Cabinet Secretary for Finance to the Convenor, regarding “Update on 2023 – 2024 In Year Budget Changes” on the 21 November 2023 advise these.

My officials are continuing work on a detailed review of the policies and operating arrangements that underpin the Home Owners Support Fund (HOSF), including detailed analytical work on property thresholds and allowances that has taken more time to develop than originally anticipated. I now expect this work to be concluded by the end of the current financial year.

The scheme continues to be open, and applications remain steady. We are not seeing additional demand for the programme at this time.

HOSF also continues to sit alongside support for advice services and legal aid for homeowners. We continue to support free welfare, debt and income maximisation advice services with funding of over £12.3 million allocated this year. A further £2.3 million is available, through the Scottish Legal Aid Board, to offer direct assistance and legal representation for people at risk of or facing court action connected to debt related eviction or repossession.

This investment provides households across Scotland with a holistic, multi-channel offering, ensuring they are able to access advice and support in a manner which best suits their needs.

In addition, as part of the UK Government’s Mortgage Charter, announced in June this year, the UK’s largest mortgage lenders and the Financial Conduct Authority agreed a set of standards that they will adopt when helping borrowers worried about higher rates.

Anyone who is concerned about the paying their mortgage should contact their lender as soon as possible.

• Monitoring compliance with Fair Work First principles, including the requirements to pay workers at least the real Living Wage and provide appropriate channels for effective voice, is the responsibility of individual grant managers across government and of relevant funders across the wider public sector, including through our Peatland ACTION programme. It takes place within existing grant assurance and monitoring processes, as with any other condition of grant, such as agreed outcomes.
• Peatland Action partners comply with these principles as part of their own procurement frameworks that govern the respective grant agreements. They do this through a range of measures like mandated self-declaration when applying for grants and the regular liaison with the contractors during the course of ensuing works including site visits.

We have committed to continue consideration of the justification for, and practical operation of, Compulsory Sales Orders in the 2023-24 Programme for Government. Parliament will be informed of the outcome of this work in due course. In the meantime local authorities already have powers to utilise Compulsory Purchase Orders, and we have further committed to reforming and modernising the Compulsory Purchase Order process.

The financial pressures across public services, not just health care, are by far, the most challenging since devolution as a result of rising inflation, and the ongoing impact of Covid and Brexit.

It is therefore necessary to make very challenging decisions, including reprofiling budgets, across Government in order to meet our statutory requirement to deliver a balanced budget.

Our published delivery plan, linked here Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2023-24 – gov.scot (www.gov.scot), reflects our planned deliverables against the current budget which includes the agreed savings of £11.6m.

The CfWT was intended to be a “centre of expertise” to test new ideas around post-pandemic ways of working, providing research and advice to support innovative solutions to improve workplace productivity and wellbeing as well as being the support mechanism for the 4DWW pilot. There are a number of institutions and programmes dedicated to improving workplace productivity and wellbeing and engaging with businesses at scale.

The work of the enterprise and skills agencies is closely aligned to the aims of the CfWT. For example, Scottish Enterprise’s Workplace Innovation service helps businesses to implement fair and innovative people practices that have positive impacts on performance, productivity, engagement and wellbeing. Likewise, Highland and Islands Enterprise Innovation Programme helps organisations to improve productivity by increasing sales through the development of new products or services, or making process improvements through adopting technologies or new working practices. These initiatives play an important role in promoting ‘what works’ in improving workplace productivity and wellbeing, and proactively communicating these messages to businesses.

Just Transition Plans for sectors, sites and regions will be a key vehicle for managing our rapid transformation to a net zero, climate resilient economy. Plans are outcome-focused and our national just transition outcomes explicitly call for climate action that helps businesses thrive, supports fair work and good, green jobs and enhances wellbeing. We began with our draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan (JTP) and will be followed by JTPs for Agriculture and Land Use, the Built Environment and Construction, and Transport, as well as a site-based plan for the Grangemouth industrial cluster.

There are also synergies with the CFWT concept’s focus on the future of work and our commitment to explore ways of promoting and encouraging flexible and inclusive workplaces that benefit all workers. We are currently providing £153,575 in funding to flexible working experts, Flexibility Works, to promote and support employers across Scotland to adopt flexible workplaces.