Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to S6W-10989 on 3 October 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 .

The Scottish Government allocates annual Capital Resource Limit funding of over £140 million across all NHS Boards for essential backlog maintenance, statutory works and equipment purchases. Decisions on the allocation of this funding to specific items of equipment are made by each Board based on an assessment, taking account of clinical requirements, lifecycle replacement and risk.

This is a matter for individual Health Boards. The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government at present. An NHS Scotland medical equipment management system is however planned to be in place during 2023, and it is intended that information of the type requested will available through the system.

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 Scottish Government is acutely aware of the impact rising energy costs is having on the seafood sector in Scotland. With energy being a reserved matter, the powers to offer financial support to the fish processing industry — and indeed all industries across Scotland — lies in Westminster.

We have continually urged the UK Government to use all the levers at its disposal to tackle the cost crisis for businesses and to provide immediate support. We welcome the UK Government’s belated announcement which may limit the impact of the energy price crisis on some businesses, but unfortunately the announcement may have come too late.

Although we will continue to actively engage the UK Government, and press for further support for all industries — including the fish processing sector — cases like this reinforces the need for Scotland to have the powers of a fully independent country to accelerate the decarbonisation of our energy system and diversify our energy mix to deliver secure, sustainable and affordable energy for communities, households, and businesses in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is actively in discussion with seafood processing businesses to establish where we can support investments through the Marine Fund Scotland to support the sustainable development of Scotland’s Blue Economy, including to assist energy saving or reduce energy usage. However given the limited funding made available by the UK Government after Brexit, we must balance any support from this limited pot against bids for investments that deliver other blue economy outcomes.

An action the government is taking, that will support processers, is amending the economic link licence condition contained in Scottish sea fishing licences to help ensure those allocated fishing opportunities for Scotland’s key species provide a significant return to our nation.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11069 on 30 September 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

It is a requirement for all UK and EU fishing vessels with an overall length of 12 metres and over to be fitted with a Vessel Monitoring System and an electronic logbook, regardless of whether the vessel is involved in pelagic, scallop or demersal fishing operations.

Fishing vessels with an overall length less than 12 metres are not currently required carry a vessel monitoring system and electronic logbook.

The Scottish Government’s consultation on the introduction of Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) to key fishing fleet segments closed on 7 June 2022. The responses submitted are currently being analysed. The consultation prioritised the mandatory rollout of REM to scallop dredge vessels and large pelagic vessels, along with consideration of further rollout to large demersal vessels. These proposals will place Scotland in a leadership position amongst other fishing nations operating in the North Sea and Europe, going further and faster than others including the European Union.

As set out in the consultation, REM is considered to be the use of imagery, sensors, and Global Positioning System (GPS) to independently monitor fishing operations, effort, and/or catch. The technology offers a range of benefits, which differ between different fishing fleets and therefore the Scottish Government is tailoring its use to match the nature and profile of our fishing fleets. As explained, this will likely result in simplified REM systems for some fleets (or fleet segments) that do not necessarily feature all the components (imagery, sensors and GPS). In line with these definitions, the following table shows the proportion of Scottish vessels installed with REM (minimum of GPS and sensor/s).

The Scottish Government is committed to building resilience to the locked-in impacts of climate change, as part of a just transition.

The approach to planning for climate change adaptation and resilience in Scotland follows the statutory requirements of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.

Alongside continuing to deliver the wide range of actions set out under the current statutory Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme 2019 – 2024, the Scottish Government is also now developing the next such Programme for publication in 2024. This Programme will respond to the full range of current and future climate risks for Scotland, as independently identified by the Climate Change Committee in its evidence base for the January 2022 update to the statutory UK Climate Change Risk Assessment.

Over the remainder of 2022 and across 2023, the Scottish Government will be working with local authorities, public bodies, communities, the private sector and other stakeholders to develop enhanced approaches to building Scotland’s resilience to climate change. We also continue to fund the Adaptation Scotland Programme which works with local authorities and others to support adaptation capacity building, for example via the Adaptation Capability Framework, and support for place-based climate adaptation partnerships.

The Scottish Government is committed to building resilience to the locked-in impacts of climate change, as part of a just transition.

The approach to planning for adaptation in Scotland follows the statutory requirements of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.

Alongside continuing to deliver the wide range of actions set out under the current statutory Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme (2019 – 2024), the Scottish Government is also now developing the next such Programme for publication in 2024. This Programme will respond to the full range of current and future climate risks for Scotland, as independently identified by the Climate Change Committee in its evidence base for the January 2022 update to the statutory UK Climate Change Risk Assessment.

As part of preparing the next Adaptation Programme, the Scottish Government is currently looking at options for early actions to enhance responses in the highest priority risk areas identified by the Climate Change Committee. These priority risk areas include both the impacts on food supply chains and distribution networks from climate-related disruption and those on human health, wellbeing and productivity from increased exposure to heat in homes and other buildings.

We provided an additional £9m to NHS Boards in 2021-22 to address waiting lists for Psychological Therapies. It is encouraging to see this reflected in a consistent and sustained reduction in waits of over 52 weeks over the past year and a more recent reduction in over 18 weeks waits in the most recent quarter.

In addition, we have commissioned the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) to carry out a feasibility study to investigate a National Clinical Pathway to benefit adults diagnosed with ADHD. Adult Neurodevelopmental Pathways are being piloted in four Health Boards to support a single diagnostic pathway for ADHD and Autism. The pilot started in January 2022 and will run for 12 months.