Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14876 on 28 February 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

Support for heather restoration through the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) has been suspended since 2020 following advice from NatureScot that the commonly used chemical treatment was not tested for use in rough grazing and upland areas. This treatment had negative implications for biodiversity and carbon sequestration.

As there is no suitable alternative, this option was suspended. If in future, a chemical treatment is approved by the Chemicals Regulation Division (CRD) for use in upland areas this decision will be reviewed. Existing commitments at the time of suspension were removed without penalty.

The Scottish Government committed up to £20M in funding to the Social Security Independent Advocacy Service over four years from September 2021.

After extensive engagement with advocacy stakeholders, it was concluded that this service should be delivered under contract by a single national provider or consortium of providers. The Invitation to Tender was open to all third sector bodies that deliver advocacy services – and a Contract Notice was published on 12 May 2021 in the usual way via Public Contracts Scotland. Following the conclusion of the regulated procurement exercise VoiceAbility were appointed the first national provider of the service in September 2021. This initial contract runs until August 2023 with the opportunity to extend by a further two one-year periods.

The Scottish Government has always worked in partnership with Local Government to enable local authorities to provide services which deliver positive outcomes for the people and communities we jointly serve.

There have been a range of laws passed since 1999 which have provided more powers and responsibilities for local authorities and have impacted on the services they deliver. For example, the Islands Act 2018 handed more powers to our island communities and introduced measures to support and help meet the unique needs of our islands. We will also shortly be devolving Empty Property Relief to local authorities from 1 April 2023 with a concurrent transfer of £105m to local government, which is significantly more than the estimated cost of maintaining the national relief in light of the decision to freeze the poundage. However, it is not possible to provide a comprehensive list of all those policy and legislative changes within the timeframe being asked.

It is important to note that any new legislative change that results in additional expenditure by local authorities is expected to be fully funded by the relevant policy area.

The Business Principles Agreement, jointly developed with business, was published in December 2021 to cover the current five year Parliamentary term. The Agreement applies across all Scottish Government policy areas and provides a framework to enable more effective joint working between the Scottish Government and business though greater co-development, collaborative delivery and collective assessment of policies impacting business.

During 2022 Ministers had almost 1,250 engagements with business, an average monthly increase of 5% on the COP26 boosted average from May to December 2021. In addition business experience informed development of our National Strategy for Economic Transformation Delivery Plans, while a number of Industry Leadership Groups (ILGs) were set-up or refreshed during 2022 to deepen our sectoral connections, and I established an ILG Chairs group to foster cross-sectoral collaboration and sharing of experience.

The establishment of the Joint Taskforce on Business Regulation provides a further best practice application of the Principles approach with the majority of Agreement signatories being Taskforce members. The Joint Taskforce is co-chaired by myself and CoSLA Spokesperson for Environment and Economy Cllr Gail Macgregor and has so far met in December 2022 and February 2023.

Business organisations and regulatory stakeholders have set out what they would like the group to look at and this will be reflected in the Terms of Reference, with members acknowledging that there is ongoing work in many areas to address the concerns they have raised around specific regulations. The Joint Taskforce will look to identify the existing mechanisms for discussing these regulations before considering and suggesting what interventions might be most appropriate. We will publish minutes and papers on the Scottish Government Website.

The Taskforce has also agreed to look at ways of identifying and demonstrating the cumulative burden of regulation on businesses and members have been asked to consider and provide feedback on the Business Regulatory Impact Assessment approach to help improve the process for developing new regulations in future.

Estimates for the employment rate for people 16-64 years who reported a severe or specific learning difficulty (lasting 12 months or more) are shown in the following table for each of the last 4 financial years.

The Scottish Government has considered the impact of the actions of the Employment Action Plan on all disabled people, including people with learning disabilities, and noted these in the 2020 and 2021 annual Progress Reports which are published on the Scottish Government website.

On 22 February 2023 the Scottish Government published a statistical summary of the devolved employment services, which includes employability figures for learning disabilities within Fair Start Scotland. There is currently no data published for employment for learning disabilities within No One Left Behind.

We have undertaken a review of Individual Placement and Support (IPS) and of Supported Employment to identify areas of improvement and make recommendations on future delivery of these two forms of specialist employability support in Scotland. Findings of the Supported Employment review and Scottish Government’s response were published in September 2022. The Individual Placement and Support review report was published January 2023, alongside the Scottish Government’s response statement.

Recognising that there is still work to do to improve outcomes for disabled people, in December 2022 the Scottish Government published the refreshed Fair Work Action Plan: becoming a leading Fair Work nation by 2025 , setting out actions to promote fair and inclusive workplaces across Scotland. The plan takes forward the current work on the disability employment gap, to support more disabled people, including those with Learning Disabilities, into employment and to sustain fair work.

The Action Plan will be supported by an evidence plan to be published late 2023, along with an accompanying measurement framework. It will monitor the fair work context and progress we are making over time to ensure our actions respond to change and measure the impact of our current actions, including drawing lessons from actions we will deliver as part of this plan.

The Scottish Government has published analysis relating to the overall Disability Employment Gap in Scotland in Fairer Scotland for disabled people - employment action plan: progress report - year 2 . The most recent data on the Disability Employment Gap for Scotland were published in Scotland's Labour Market: People, Places and Regions – Protected Characteristics . In 2021, the disability employment gap was 31.2 percentages points, down from 37.4 percentage points in 2016.

In 2021, the Scottish Government published key statistics relating to the economic status of disabled people in the labour market in Scotland . This publication contains information from the Annual Population Survey (APS) January to December 2019 on employment rates for disabled people by main condition including those whose main condition was a mental health condition (Table 16).

A similar analysis will be updated and published by the Scottish Government in 2023 showing employment rate gaps by health problem or disability for January to December 2022.

Scottish Government’s recently published Fair Work Action Plan takes forward the next phase of actions to drive forward Fair Work. The plan includes actions aimed at reducing the Disability Employment Gap.

The Fair Work Action Plan will be supported by an evidence plan to be published in late 2023, along with an accompanying measurement framework. It will monitor the fair work context and progress we are making over time to ensure our actions respond to change and measure the impact of our current actions, including drawing lessons from actions we will deliver as part of this plan.

The Scottish Government does not plan to develop a strategy to tackle pensioner poverty. We already work closely with partners, including through the Older People’s Strategic Forum on a range of issues related to age equality. This includes the Strategic Action Framework ‘A Fairer Scotland for Older People, in which Ensuring Financial Security is a priority area. In addition, the forthcoming Human Rights Bill will include provision for older people.

Our Cost of Living website contains dedicated information on the support available for older people, including benefits and travel.

There has been no delay to making Winter Heating Payments. Payments started in February and will continue to be made automatically during March to support 400,000 eligible people.

While it was not possible to make payments earlier this year since the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) were unable to provide the data required prior to 31 January, the Scottish Government is working with the DWP to review the feasibility of bringing forward payments in future years.