Seòmar agus comataidhean

I would like to recognise and acknowledge the vital role of spiritual care in supporting individuals throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

The World Health Organisation states that "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” and the Scottish Government affirms this statement. The ethos of spiritual care affirms that people are not merely physical bodies requiring mechanical fixing.

The Scottish Government is committed to the delivery of the highest quality of care which takes into consideration what matters most to an individual (including personal values and deeply held beliefs) – as part of this we recognise and affirm that spiritual care is a core part of person-centred care.

As part of our commitment to these aims, we have today published a national framework which will support both health and social care providers to consider, and build on the many opportunities and excellent practice which currently exist in the provision and delivery of spiritual care across Scotland and enhance Scotland’s reputation as world leaders in the development and delivery of spiritual care. The framework is available on the Scottish Government website: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781805258858

As set out in Annex A of the Medium-Term Financial Strategy, the Scottish Government has already confirmed to COSLA that a total of £343 million of additional funding will be made available to councils to support pay deals in 2023-24 over and above the allocation published in the Scottish Budget 2023-24.

Of this: £188.8 million was made available to fund the multi-year pay deal agreed by teachers; the additional £100 million for the Scottish Joint Council workforce was confirmed at Stage 3 of the Budget Bill; and Ministers have also provided reassurance to COSLA that a further £55 million, for a total of £155 million, will be provided through in-year budget management processes.

This £155 million of additional funding for the SJC workforce has already been factored into the existing COSLA pay offer and Ministers would encourage both sides to conclude negotiations as swiftly as possible.

As in previous years those transfers will be given formal effect during the annual budget revisions.

Our Reaching 100% (R100) commitment is delivered through three strands of activity – the R100 contracts, the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (R100 SBVS) and continued commercial build.

While a property may move between these strands, for example properties can move from being eligible for R100 SBVS to being delivered commercially, no properties are removed from the overall scope of the programme.

A total of £30m of Scottish Government funding is being made available through the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund to support the aim of doubling the public network to 6,000 charge points by 2026; with the expectation of leveraging an additional £30m from private sources.

Transport Scotland is supporting local authorities to develop public electric vehicle charge point strategies and infrastructure expansion plans, to identify and take forward the opportunities to work with the private sector to grow Scotland’s public charging network. These plans are identifying local and regional charge point needs, the investment requirements, as well as the best approaches to delivering collaborative investments with commercial charge point operators.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18442 on 13 June 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

Under Health and Safety legislation, which is reserved, it is the responsibility of the employer to satisfy themselves of the competence of first aiders. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provides relevant guidance on first aid provision and on event safety Events health and safety (hse.gov.uk) . The Events Industry Forum’s ‘ purple guide ’ includes example first-aid and medical assessments for an audience at an event.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18442 on 13 June 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

The R100 contracts are expected to connect over 114,000 premises upon completion. Around 99% of those connections will be fibre to the premises (FTTP) which is capable of delivering gigabit download speeds, over 30 times faster than our original superfast commitment.

For those who live or work in premises that are outwith the reach of commercial and R100 contract build plans, the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) remains available and offers up to £5,000 to secure a superfast broadband connection. As this is a demand-led scheme it is not possible to provide dates by which people might be connected.

There is also on-going delivery of commercial superfast broadband networks and we continue to engage with the industry to understand their future plans.

The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is a privately-owned telecoms network and the decision to upgrade it has been taken by the telecoms industry. The primary focus of PSTN migration is to switch over the telephony signal from analogue to digital services, not the broadband signal. As such, delivery of the R100 programme will not be impacted by PSTN migration.

As set out in the National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET) and the Programme for Government 2022-23, a review will be conducted of how to support Scotland’s social enterprise, co-operative and employee owned business sectors to grow. The review will commence in Autumn 2023, with an initial pre-review stakeholder discussion to be held this month.