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In the last five years NatureScot have taken regulatory action under section 10(2) of the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996 five times. Prior to this, notice of section 10 emergency measures have been issued on at least three occasions.

Excluding staff time, the total cost to Architecture and Design Scotland of producing the Designing for a Changing Climate: Carbon Conscious Places report was £1,300. Costs related to staff time involved in producing the report are not held centrally.

The following table sets out a breakdown of Architecture and Design Scotland budget allocations for 2022-23.

Following the PCS ballot results, Scottish Government officials held regular meetings in the run up to the strike action with Chief Executives of those employers in the Scottish Administration where PCS had a mandate for strike action, including with the Keeper of Registers of Scotland. All employers provided business continuity plans ahead of the strike action, considering the impact of any action on the operation of their services. Registers of Scotland confirmed they had robust contingency plans in place to keep all customer-facing services running, and they would continue to accept applications to the registers they manage and provide a customer support service. Services continued to operate at Registers of Scotland during 1 February 2023.

Architecture and Design Scotland works to help deliver Scottish Ministers’ policies and objectives for the built and natural environment by providing advice, resources and advocacy, and through a programme of projects and initiatives. It does not provide grants or loans to external organisations.

In 2014-15 Architecture and Design Scotland facilitated the Stalled Spaces Scotland project on behalf of Scottish Government which provided funding to local authorities to enable stalled space projects to be delivered with communities. The following table details the local authorities and amounts awarded. Those organisations were required to match fund the award.

An Accelerated National Innovation Pathway has been established to standardise and facilitate the adoption of health and care innovations. The Scottish Health Technology Group also supports standardisation by providing robust governance and advice. Digital technologies are required to meet clinical safety standards such as Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) and compliance with MHRA regulations.

Scotland’s first Data Strategy for health and social care will articulate further national principles and deliverables around the ethical use of data. The strategy is due for publication this year

The next evaluation is planned for the end of the current funding cycle (to March 31 2026) and will include all funding that has been allocated from within the Climate Justice Fund. The evaluation will cover whether or not the funding has achieved it’s strategic objectives, and whether the Fund as a whole is continuing to demonstrate best practice in delivering climate justice against the three pillars of justice that were adopted following the previous evaluation.

The impact of material switching is outlined in Section 7 of the Final Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) which was published on 22 December 2021. You can access the document here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/deposit-return-scheme-scotland-final-business-regulatory-impact-assessment/ .

Despite the UK Government stepping back from COVID funding from 2022-23, there remain COVID related pressures and costs across the system. The 2022-23 health budget provides for test and protect, PPE and the ongoing vaccination programme, including costs relating to delivery of Covid-19 vaccinations and the extended seasonal flu vaccination as well as staff, venues and storage. The £147.471 million represents the net of these costs once partially offset by income related to dental and miscellaneous services which is also included in this budget line.

The 2023-24 budget confirms our ongoing commitment to invest in social care and increasing the sustainability of the sector ahead of implementation of the National Care Service.

The 2023-24 Stage 1 budget presented, at level 4, a total investment of £1.2 billion in Social Care support and National Care Service (NCS) delivery. This total represents a social care spending increase of over £800 million compared to 2021-22, demonstrating that we are well ahead of our trajectory to increase spending by 25% (£840 million) over the life of the Parliament.

The £1.1 billion expenditure line supports a number of areas including an additional £100 million for adult social care pay up to £10.90 per hour, £344 million of existing funding to support pay, £124 million for care at home investment, £60 million for the Carers Act and funding to support inflationary uplifts for Free Personal Nursing Care Rates. We note the Report on the Financial Memorandum published on 1 December by the Finance and Public Administration Committee and are currently revising the NCS Financial Memorandum. This will provide more detail on expected spend in 2023-24 and beyond.