Seòmar agus comataidhean

Under the current constitutional arrangements in the United Kingdom the application process for all immigration routes is fully reserved to the UK Government and is dealt with by the Home Office.

The following link contains visa data and arrivals for the four nations of the UK, and includes a breakdown of data relating to visas sponsored by the Scottish Government: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ukraine-sponsorship-scheme-visa-data-by-country-upper-and-lower-tier-local-authority. The webpage includes the Devolved Administrations and Local Authorities datasets.

Scottish Government will be publishing a further breakdown of those placed in accommodation in due course.

Year Six of the Flexible Workforce Development Fund is ready to commence in line with the new 2022-23 academic year.

An evaluation of FWDF is near completion and we expect to publish the report in the coming weeks. In advance of this, minor changes are being made to standardise the offer to organisations this year, with further changes to be considered on completion of the evaluation process. We will consult stakeholders and align any further changes with the strategic lifetime skills commitments outlined in the National Strategy for Economic Transformation.

In Year Four changes were made to FWDF which made support available to non-UK Apprenticeship Levy paying small and medium enterprises via colleges or the Open University in Scotland (OUiS). At the same time, Levy paying organisations only were able for the first time to access non-college based skills support from other training providers via a Skills Development Scotland grant scheme, but they did not have access to the OUiS option.

In Year Six, all companies will, for the first time, be able to access upskilling support via Scotland’s colleges, OUiS, and the Skills Development Scotland grant offer on a first come, first served basis.

Levy payers will continue to be able to access support up to a value of £15,000 and non-Levy paying SMEs up to £5,000.

Scottish Government has continued to support the Clyde 2020 with funding to the Clyde Marine Planning Partnership (CMPP) to develop and deliver a regional marine plan which will support achieving good environmental status for the Clyde. In addition, Marine Scotland Directorate provides support to the Clyde 2020 initiative via participation in meetings and the sharing of relevant information, including, for example survey data. Marine Scotland Directorate has supported work relevant to Clyde 2020 Action Plan including the Clyde demersal fish survey (conducted annually 2016-2021) and a number of PhD studentships, also providing supervisory time and relevant fishery and survey data for the latter.

There are a range of publicly available grant programmes that the Clyde 2020 can apply for, depending on the type of research or piece of work for which they are seeking support and the relevant eligibility criteria for each fund. Examples of these programmes in the marine space are the Marine Fund Scotland, the Scottish Marine Environmental Enhancement Fund (SMEEF), the UK Seafood Fund and the Nature Restoration Fund.

Data on outcomes is currently published at national level. From our latest publication ( May 2022 ), 5,224 (31%) of the 16,859 people that started receiving support under No One Left Behind between April 2019 and December 2021 entered employment. Of those entering employment, 2,722 (52%) were supported by a subsidy to do so (this includes ERIs) and 832 (16%) started a Modern Apprenticeship.

Data on people receiving employability support delivered under the No One Left Behind strategic approach are currently published as experimental statistics which means they are still going through a process of development. Scottish Government analysts are working closely with Local Government partners to further develop these data, ensuring alignment with the Shared Measurement Framework, and will continue to review the content of what data and breakdowns are released in the future as part of the process to move towards official statistics status.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with COSLA to find a way forward on the introduction of a Scottish Recommended Allowance for foster and kinship carers.

The Scottish Government fully supports the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) in its efforts to meet the needs of children and young people with additional support needs. Every child’s individual needs are considered by SCRA, based on information provided by other agencies and professionals. SCRA has, for a number of years, worked on support and assistance for neurodiverse children and families. They are creating sensory spaces in their hearings centres, the first of which opened in March this year, and have updated information material and internal guidance to staff in conjunction with the charity Reach for Autism. They are currently working on plans to develop a network of local neurodiversity champions to further promote and address the specific needs of children and families in Children’s Hearings.

The new SCRA digital case management system, now in its second full year of operation, is capable of recording specific data relating to protected characteristics and SCRA are considering how this can be used to the greatest effect.

The Complex Pelvic Mesh Removal Service in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde receives referrals from Health Boards across Scotland and a number of patients are seen on a weekly basis.

Public Health Scotland confirm that between July 2020 (when the Service was established) and December of that year, seven removal procedures were undertaken, whilst 24 procedures were carried out in 2021. In order to protect patient confidentiality a precise figure cannot yet be provided for 2022, as fewer than five procedures have been performed so far this year. For similar reasons, precise numbers of full and partial removals cannot be quoted here, though the majority of surgeries undertaken have been full removals.

The Covid 19 pandemic has undoubtedly had a significant impact on both waiting times and the numbers of procedures carried out, as indeed is the case in many speciality areas across the NHS as a whole. However, the Scottish Government expects the Health Board to improve this situation, and will work with it in the coming months to that end.

All occurrences of mesh complications are treated individually depending on the circumstances of the patient in question, and decisions on the most appropriate treatment are a private matter between the patient and her clinicians. Many patients will undergo full removal of their mesh implant whilst, in other cases, partial removal may be more appropriate and therefore be the preferred option. There may also be circumstances where other, more conservative treatments are considered. What is fundamental in all cases, however, is that patients are aware of and understand the benefits of the treatments open to them, the risks, the alternative treatments, and the potential consequences of doing nothing. Therefore, in each individual case, and in consistence with GMC guidance on consent, it is expected all appropriate and available treatments are discussed with the patient in question, allowing them to make a fully informed decision on their care.

The Scottish Government is providing support to encourage investment in renewables in the north east through a number of funds and programmes. These include, but are not limited to:

The £75m Energy Transition Fund is investing in projects that aim to accelerate and support the move to renewable energy, protecting existing jobs and create new jobs in the North East, and across Scotland by opening up opportunities through energy transition and harnessing private sector funding. It is currently in delivery with an intended end date of 2025.

The £125m City Region Deal investment runs until 2026 and includes £90m for the Net Zero Technology Centre. The City Region Deal is delivering a number of projects aimed at utilising the resources of the North East to lead the world on the shift to a net zero future in areas such as:

• offshore renewable (wind) energy generation,
• energy storage,
• electricity interconnection,
• hydrogen production and fuel cell deployment,
• gas and hydrogen distribution, and
• carbon capture, utilisation and storage.

The £500 million Just Transition Fund for North East and Moray will deliver over the next 10 years. The fund opened for applications on 31 May 2022. Bids to the first year’s allocation of £20 million are currently being assessed. The Just Transition Fund complements other Scottish Government commitments to the sector in the North East and was announced in recognition of the particular need to diversify the regional economy away from carbon-intensive industries and to capitalise on the opportunities, including jobs and prosperity, that the transition to net zero will bring.

The draft Hydrogen Action Plan committed £100 million hydrogen funding for 2022-2026 through the Emerging Energy Technologies Fund (EETF). This is a Scotland-wide fund to support Hydrogen, CCUS and the development of negative emissions technologies. In June 2022, we launched the first tranche of the EETF via the £10 million Hydrogen Innovation Scheme. The remaining £90 million hydrogen investment programme is expected to launch in Autumn 2022 and will focus on supporting rapid renewable hydrogen production from Scotland’s abundant renewable energy resources.

Our Emerging Energy Technologies Fund allocates £80m over the next five years to support the development of CCUS and negative-emissions technologies. We have offered this funding to help the Scottish Cluster carbon capture project accelerate its effort to help Scotland’s just transition to net zero.

All NHS Scotland Boards are providing assessment and support for people with long COVID. This is being delivered across the full range of services delivered by our NHS and includes local primary care teams, community based rehabilitation services and referrals for further investigation delivered in secondary care settings where clinically appropriate.

It is for each NHS Board to develop and deliver the best models of care for assessment, diagnostic tests, and support for the treatment or management of symptoms, tailored to the needs of their local population. This will involve strengthening the co-ordination of existing services, or establishing dedicated services where appropriate.

To support this, we are investing an initial £3 million from our long COVID Support Fund over this financial year to provide NHS Boards and partners with additional resource to respond to the needs of people with long COVID in their areas. While none of the services being delivered by NHS Scotland Boards are termed ‘long COVID clinics’, initiatives being supported by the funding include key elements of care that is also offered by post COVID assessment clinics elsewhere in the UK; such as the introduction of care co-ordinator roles to provide a single point of contact for people with long COVID and their families and the introduction of a multi-disciplinary assessment service to provide a person-centred assessment of people’s needs.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-09934 on 23 August 2022. 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 .