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We recognise the importance of improving labour market outcomes for females and we monitor the influence of PACE support through a major survey every two years. The most recent 2022 PACE Client Experience Survey report was published in September 2022,

https://www.gov.scot/collections/partnership-action-for-continuing-employment-pace/

The report shows that female clients were more likely than males to have gone straight to paid work for an employer which may suggest a desire to get a job quickly rather than hold out for a ‘better job’. Female clients were also much more likely to go into part-time work which tends to be lower-paid and require fewer skills; also fewer females than males are actively looking for jobs with greater responsibility or higher skill levels, likely to be due to these jobs not tending to be available part-time or in the sectors within which they typically work.

PACE Advisers assist female clients by helping them to break down barriers to accessing better paid work/sectors. We will seek to ensure as many females as possible access this service and if appropriate are directed to the Women Returners programme. This programme provides one-to-one bespoke support, advice and access to opportunities for women aged 25 and over who have been out of the labour market for six months or more and want to restart their career journey.

A refreshed Fair Work Action Plan, due to be published in the next few months, will refresh and take forward our commitments in our Gender Pay Gap Action Plan making explicit that addressing gender pay gaps is a key element of Fair Work.

Whilst responsibility for recruitment and retention of pharmacists in community pharmacies is a matter for individual community pharmacy contractors, Scottish Government is increasing the number of pharmacist pre-registration training places by 120 over 5 years from December 2019, to create the opportunity for more pharmacists to enter the profession. To date we have increased places by 66, with the remaining places due to be available by 2024-25.

In addition to ensure the competencies required of pharmacists to meet future workforce demands, the pharmacy regulator, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), has introduced new standards for the initial education and training of pharmacists to ensure pharmacists are equipped for their future roles. These changes include: incorporating the skills, knowledge and attributes for prescribing in order to enable pharmacists to independently prescribe from the point of registration; introducing a new set of learning outcomes to assess the full five years of education and training (undergraduate and pre-registration) and which can link into post-registration education; and making the fifth year of initial education and training a pre-registration foundation training year with strengthened supervision and support and collaborative working between higher-education institutions, statutory education bodies and employers.

In order to aid retention of pharmacists in community pharmacy we have developed a Community Pharmacy NHS Post Registration Foundation Programme, which sees up to 130 places made available for a two and a half year programme for early career pharmacists. The programme is an experiential learning programme designed to develop confidence in pharmacy practice specific to Scotland, building on the skills and resilience established during the pre-registration Foundation Training Year. A Scottish NHS community pharmacy contractor will employ post-registration pharmacists qualifying in the summer of each year as pharmacists in a permanent role.

The Scottish Government values the important role of those working in Scotland’s third sector to tackle tough social issues at source. We recognise the challenges faced by the third sector in the current cost crisis and we will ensure the sector is not excluded from any financial support made available to the public or private sectors.

The Scottish Government is doing what it can with its limited powers to ensure people receive the help they need. We are already providing significant support for households to mitigate the impacts of the cost crisis. By the end of March 2023, we will have invested almost £3bn in a range of measures for households, supporting energy bills, childcare, health and travel, as well as social security payments that are either not available anywhere else in the UK or are more generous, such as the Scottish Child Payment.

The Scottish Government has developed a website as a ‘one stop shop’ to help those struggling with the cost of living crisis. The website provides information on the wide range of advice and financial support available to people to meet rising energy, housing and other costs. The new website address is http://gov.scot/costoflivingsupport

Of the 750 additional NHS nurses, midwives and allied health professionals NHS boards collectively have told Scottish Government the number of international recruits they could accommodate, (a) up to 53 were indicated by NHS Ayrshire and Arran and (b) up to 217 by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Yes, as set out in our recent Waste and Circular Economy Route Map consultation, we intend to set new circular economy targets for the period to 2030 which go beyond weight-based criteria.

We must ensure that any future targets correspond to our Environment Strategy and overall vision for a circular economy, alongside the principles we set out in the consultation. One of these key principles is that any future targets should help to ensure that we deliver a sustainable international material footprint.

The feedback from the First Minister’s Environmental Council will be considered along with responses to the Route Map consultation, which are currently being analysed.

The Scottish Government has not set a prescriptive list of “reasonable costs” for welcome arrangements.

Local Authorities are best placed to determine how best to provide support to the Ukrainian people in their areas arriving under the Scottish Super Sponsor Scheme and the Scottish Government is committed to reimbursing them as delivery partners for any reasonable costs incurred in providing that appropriate support.

The First Minister’s Environmental Council’s responses to the question regarding mechanisms to reduce consumption in raw materials can be found in the minutes of the meeting on 13 June 2022: www.gov.scot/publications/first-ministers-environmental-council-minutes-june-2022/

Specifically, the minutes report that:

• members suggested an increase in community and stakeholder engagement to understand how best to incentivise household recycling - noting the lack of standardised recycling across local authorities and the social barriers to recycling.
• members highlighted chemical recycling as a key example to support a fundamental shift: i.e. chemicals in products holding back recycling potential. Members suggested further investigation on targeting the use of critical elements such as Lithium
• support was provided on embedding circular economy practices into construction and product design. Key challenge is addressing the generation of waste, not just managing existing waste.
• need to consider low carbon as well as recycled materials and understand the evidence behind different choices is important here.

The Scottish Mental Health Law Review published its final report at the end of September 2022 and set out over 200 proposals for reform.

Cross-government work is now underway to assess the implications of these proposals. Given the scope and complexity of the review, we will take time to consider the report in detail and will provide a formal response in due course.

Future licensable activities are still under consideration, but may include commercial dog walking and pet grooming, the operation of livery yards, greyhound racing, and canine fertility clinics. We are also considering the case for revoking dated licensing legislation covering riding establishments and animal boarding, with a view to replacing it with new controls under the 2021 licensing framework.

We continue to work with key stakeholders to finalise our proposals on licensing and will consult on these at the earliest opportunity.

The number of school inspectors employed by Education Scotland is as follows: