Seòmar agus comataidhean

Transport Scotland has engaged with Transport for Edinburgh and Strathclyde Passenger Transport to try to understand the potential impacts of the introduction of the national free bus scheme on their operations. This work will help to develop a baseline evaluation of the new Scheme, which will be reviewed after its first full year of operation.

There are separate local concessionary schemes run by local authorities or Regional Transport Partnerships that cover other modes of transport. Any decision to extend concessions to these modes rests with them.

The Scottish Government is also working with CoSLA and the Association of Transport Co-ordinating Officers (ATCO) to quantify the overall effects of the introduction of the scheme on wider Local Authority budgets.

This is an option that the Scottish Government has considered in the past, but it was agreed that hotels were not suitable places to provide health and social care. For a facility to operate as a care home in Scotland, it must be registered with the Care Inspectorate. When registering a service, the Care Inspectorate will consider if the premises in which the proposed service will be provided is fit to be used for the intended purpose. In the case of using hotel rooms as care homes, it is likely the case that such premises would not be suitable to meet people's needs in a person centred way. We recently issued £40m for interim care to make use of spare capacity in settings that are able to provide care in this way

We also aim to create additional capacity in the community by scaling up the provision of Hospital at Home services and £500,000 has been specifically invested to support the creation of a Covid remote monitoring pathway which will support people to stay safe at home through the provision of remote monitoring kits and dedicated support teams.

The Scottish Government currently provides a substantial, free advice and support offering to Scottish SMEs to understand how to become more energy and to take action to implement renewable heating measures, through its Energy Efficiency Business Support Service. Scottish SMEs benefit from a variety of support packages including online tools, onsite visits, bespoke energy audits, webinars, information events and advice on funding.

The Energy Efficiency Business Support (EEBS) service is responsible for signposting businesses to the SME loan and cashback scheme, administered by Energy Saving Trust on behalf of the Scottish Government, and for producing the bespoke assessment reports that are a prerequisite for an application to these schemes. The SME Loan and Cashback scheme provides interest free loans from £1,000 up to £100,000 to small and medium sized Scotland based businesses. Furthermore, SMEs can apply for a 75% cashback grant of up to £10,000 towards the costs of a renewables heating system and a further 30% cashback grant up to £10,000 for energy efficiency measures.

The Scottish Government's Heat in Buildings Strategy has committed to phasing out the need to install new or replacement fossil fuel boilers, in off-gas grid homes from 2025 and in on-gas grid homes 2030, with consideration of additional trigger points and subject to technological developments and decisions by the UK Government in reserved areas.

The Scottish Government will consult further on these proposals during 2022.

The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places the statutory responsibility for local roads improvement, maintenance and repair with local road authorities.

As such, the local authority road network condition is assessed via the Scottish Road Maintenance Condition Survey, which is organised by the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland (SCOTS).

All 14 NHS Boards have hospitals providing acute stroke care. A map showing all hospitals that contribute data on stroke unit admission to the Scottish Stroke Care Audit can be found in the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme report at: https://www.strokeaudit.scot.nhs.uk/index.html . Of those sites shown on the map, Stracathro, Stobhill, Vale of Leven, Queen Margaret, Falkirk Community Hospital and Stirling Community Hospital are shown because they contributed data solely on stroke rehabilitation.

The remaining hospitals provide acute beds for stroke patients, either in a unit which has solely acute beds with offsite stroke rehabilitation units for ongoing care, within an integrated stroke unit (combining acute and rehabilitation beds) or in a hyperacute unit. The seven smallest general hospitals define stroke unit admission as gaining access to the appropriate acute medical ward.

The current Scottish Stroke Care Standards are available at the following link ( https://www.strokeaudit.scot.nhs.uk/index.html)x . At present, they largely relate to acute stroke care.

However, the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme also includes performance targets which reflect access to rehabilitation in inpatient settings, intensity of provision in stroke units and access to stroke specialist Early Supported Discharge and community teams. The Rehabilitation Sub-Group of the Stroke National Advisory Committee is currently considering future updates to measure rehabilitation service delivery, patient outcomes and experiences within the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme report.

Further to the answer given to question S6W-04701 I can confirm that the team of reviewers in NHS Lothian were made up of clinical staff at consultant and senior nurse level who are all suitably qualified in their fields and span across various disciplines including Haematology, Microbiology, Infection Prevention and Control and Critical Care.

Further to the answer given to question S6W-04701, I can confirm that one of the seven clinicians who undertook the peer review was an experienced Haematology consultant who has expertise in the care of haematological malignancies and the associated protocols.

Transport Scotland has committed to an evaluation of the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme following the first full year of operation. The evaluation will assess the short and medium outcomes and the long term impact of the scheme by comparing conditions at different stages.

Baseline data collection of public transport usage is now underway, including an online survey with children, young people and parents. This will assess travel behaviour attitudes and perceptions of travel prior to the scheme starting on 31 January 2022.

We currently have no plans to extend the statutory scheme beyond the existing bus travel provisions.