Seòmar agus comataidhean

This independent Review was tasked with reviewing our mental health and incapacity legislation in light of developments in international human rights, including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and to consider where improvements could be made.

The final report will be published on the Review’s website on 30 September; https://mentalhealthlawreview.scot/

The Scottish Government will then carefully consider the recommendations within the report to ascertain how to better fulfil our obligation to promote and protect human rights within mental health settings and to ensure that rights and protections for those that need it most are upheld.

The UK immigration system is not working for Scotland’s economy, our public services or our communities. While responsibility for immigration rests with the UK Government, the Scottish Government will do all we can to attract and retain people in Scotland. That is why we have committed to launching a Talent Attraction and Migration Service that will attract people to come and live in Scotland, help those moving to Scotland settle into their communities and support employers to navigate the immigration system.

We are currently designing the service to ensure it achieves these outcomes and once we have completed this phase, will launch the service during 2023.

The Talent Attraction and Migration Service will play a key role in attracting and retaining people who chose to move to Scotland. The investment in the service will match our commitment to ensuring people are attracted to, and want to stay in, Scotland. The budget for the service is still being finalised but the service will be appropriately resourced, including ensuring the staffing levels meet the needs of those using the service.

Responsibility for maintenance of telecoms infrastructure in Scotland falls upon the operator responsible for delivering that infrastructure.

We are working closely with local authorities and COSLA to speed up the matching process and increase the numbers of displaced people moving into host accommodation. We are asking councils to ensure all private offers in their area have been subject to disclosure checks before being paired with a displaced person. We are also ensuring accommodation checks are carried out so that properties being offered are appropriate for the matched guests. And of course, new hosts continually come into the process.

The Scottish Government has committed £11.2 million in funding to increase capacity of resettlement teams, support refurbishment of properties, and enhance the pace of host checks.

The Scottish Government has published statistics on the number of displaced people being supported in welcome accommodation, progress in conducting checks on volunteer hosts, and the performance of the national matching service: Key points - Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme in Scotland: statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . This information will be published on a regular basis.

The National Collections are an important part of Scotland’s culture. As part of setting and reviewing annual budgets for grant in aid, the Scottish Government maintains close contact with National Museums Scotland and the National Galleries of Scotland about their cost and revenue, in order to continue to ensure that their permanent collections remain open to the public free of charge.

The Scottish Government is supportive of a circular economy and the exploration of waste capture systems. Innovation plays a significant role in addressing a range of challenges faced by the aquaculture sector including reducing environmental impacts, and it will play a major role in the future sustainability of the aquaculture sector.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is responsible for regulating organic waste and chemical discharges from Scottish fish farms under the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011. SEPA carries out regular inspections of fish farm premises and can check the means by which controlled waste from these is being kept, transported and disposed of by the operators of these farms and that the duty of care is being followed.

SEPA launched its new regulatory framework and sector plan for finfish aquaculture in 2019. All fish farms in Scotland have to meet strict environmental guidelines, monitored by SEPA with the aim of ensuring that the environmental impacts from the industry are assessed and managed safely.

SEPA continues to work with, and provide advice to, developers and innovators wishing to introduce techniques for reducing or capturing farm waste.

Whilst we continue to face economic challenges and a cost of living crisis the Scottish Government remains committed to investing in employability and training to help the economy recover. We are committed to transforming employment support to simplify the landscape and deliver better outcomes for people who are further removed from Scotland’s labour market to achieve their full potential.

Through our No One Left Behind partnership approach we are delivering employability services that are flexible, person-centred, integrated and aligned with other key services including health, justice, housing and advice services. As support is tailored to meet individual need, the offer will vary from person to person, However, examples of employability support offered through No One Left Behind and Fair Start Scotland, our first iteration of devolved employment provision nationally includes, but is not limited to; debt and money advice, CV writing and interview preparation including mock interviews and sector-specific training, advice and guidance on childcare options and financial assistance towards immediate costs, financial support towards clothing and travel costs for interviews. In-work support is also offered, ensuring support and guidance is available to both individuals and employers as appropriate to help the individual sustain employment.

The power to implement Workplace Parking Licencing schemes was provided in The Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 (Part 7), and The Workplace Parking Licensing (Scotland) Regulations 2022 were laid before parliament in January this year. The regulations, which provide technical framework for local authorities, came in to effect on 4 March 2022. Decisions on whether to implement a Workplace Parking Licencing scheme will be made by local authorities. To date, no local authority has formally proposed a scheme under the regulations.

The crew of the MS Ambition and MS Victoria are paid by the charter company that CTM chartered on the Scottish Government’s behalf. CTM have confirmed that all crew operating on both vessels are at a minimum being paid in line with the National Minimum Wage and are fully compliant with Maritime Labour Convention requirements for seafarer contracts of employment. In addition to wages, as part of the seafarers contract of employment the crew receive accommodation, food and beverage at no charge, flights and other travel related costs to both join and leave the vessel (at end of contract), uniform and medical expenses during service onboard.