Seòmar agus comataidhean

As of 23 September 2021, there are nine suppliers registered to the Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) who have indicated that they have delivered a commercial service to properties on Shetland.

In total, there are currently 73 suppliers registered to the SBVS. The whole list - which can be broken down by Scottish Local Authority area - is available on the Scotland Superfast website at https://www.scotlandsuperfast.com/how-can-i-get-it/scottish-broadband-voucher-scheme/ .

The commitment to invest in access to school counselling services across education in Scotland was announced in our 2018/19 Programme for Government.

The Scottish Government provided guidance ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/guidance-education-authorities-establishing-access-counselling-secondary-schools/ ) and agreed a set of aims and principles with local authorities ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/delivery-of-access-to-counsellors-through-schools-aims-and-principles/ ) to support delivery of the commitment.

Our local authority partners have confirmed that access to counselling support services through secondary schools is now in place across Scotland. It was up to local authorities to determine how they would deliver the commitment to best suit the children and young people in their area.

Within schools, Curriculum for Excellence's flexible guidelines allow teachers to decide upon the content of lessons that best meets the local needs and circumstances of all children and young people in attendance. However, we are working with stakeholders to consider the greater opportunities for children and young people to engage in swimming lessons and water safety education within communities.

The National Learn to Swim Framework, which is supported by Scottish Water and delivered by aquatic partners every week, already helps children to become safe, competent, and confident swimmers and these water safety themed lessons are an essential part of the Framework to help educate on water safety.

All legislative and regulatory responsibility for telecommunications rests with the UK Government and Ofcom respectively. As such the Scottish Government has no arrangement with Openreach around access to private land in Scotland. Wayleaves are negotiated directly between operators and landowners. Where it is not possible to reach an agreement operators can seek to have an agreement imposed by the courts using the Electronic Communications Code.

It is anticipated that these will follow a similar staffing model to that present in Scotland’s other Innovation and Investment Hubs. We are reviewing the staffing options for the Copenhagen office and will confirm the number of staff and associated costs in due course. It is too early in the planning process to provide staffing options and costs for the office in Warsaw

The Self-directed Support (Direct Payments) (Scotland) Regulations 2014 set out that people in receipt of a direct payment, Option 1 of Self-directed Support, may employ family members where this is deemed appropriate in certain prescribed circumstances.

The supporting Covid-19: Guidance on Self-directed Support Option 1 and Option 2 does not relax any of the existing safeguarding measures in place when considering a family member as a Personal Assistant (PA). The guidance has been developed to re-inforce the flexibility already in place under existing SDS Regulations.

Local authorities should consider requests to employ family members on a case by case basis, taking into account the family member’s health, their capacity to provide the required care, and other welfare and wellbeing factors.

Year Five of the Flexible Workforce Development Fund, which commenced in August, will be delivered in the same model as Year 4. Levy payers will continue to have access to up to £15,000 worth of training and Small and Medium Enterprises up to £5,000 worth of training.

We have committed to evaluating the Flexible Workforce Development Fund in 2021-22. The purpose of the evaluation will be to assess the impact the Fund has made on meeting employers training needs, addressing skill gaps and supporting workforce development. The evaluation will also provide recommendations to inform both the future of the Fund and the future development of national policy on up-skilling / retraining and in-work learning.

Reviewing the ‘fixed cap’ model for both Levy-paying employers and SMEs accessing the Fund will be part of this evaluation. Any recommendations from it in respect of its future delivery will be considered by Ministers next year.

The R100 North lot contract was signed one year later than planned due to a legal challenge which resulted in a necessary pause in the procurement process. The contract we subsequently signed with BT plc will go far beyond our superfast commitment of 30 Mbps by delivering a significant number of Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) connections, providing future-proofed, gigabit capable connectivity.

The additional engineering work required to deliver these connections will take time, however we remain committed to ensuring that everyone can access superfast broadband services by the end of 2021. Anyone whose home or business broadband speed is less than 30 Megabits per second (Mbps), and where there are no plans under the R100 contracts or commercial build to bring superfast broadband to their address by the end of 2021, will be eligible for a voucher through the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme.

This year we support to hotel facilities, including rural hotels, with £900k by means of our enterprise agencies as part of our highly targeted £14m COVID-19 Hotel Support Programme.

As we look forward beyond immediate business support, we are working closely with the sector and have secured £25m to deliver the recommendations of the Scottish Tourism Recovery Taskforce. These wider actions will stimulate demand for the sector contributing to its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Scottish Government recognises the disparity between men and women in leadership roles in sport. We will continue to work with sportscotland and wider partners to understand how best to identify future leaders and support their development through programmes of educational learning, mentoring and experiential opportunities.

Our National Agency for Sport, sport scotland, run a number of programmes to encourage women into leadership roles. These include the Scottish Sporting Leaders Programme which helps improve the leadership skills or increase the leadership capability of staff within the sporting sector throughout the country. Each cohort will include a mix of delegates from local and national partners. The programme is open to women and men, with women being 54% of the participants across the four cohorts to date.

In addition to these national programmes, the SGBs and local partners in which sport scotland invest operate a range of programmes relevant to their specific context to support women into leadership roles in sport.

The Scottish Government also provide funding to the Scottish Sport Association to ensure there is enhanced governance through increased diversity, skill-base and competence of SGB boards via their On Board for Sport (OBfS) programme.

In order to gain a better understanding on how to support women into leaderships roles, sport scotland are convening a session on 5 October with around a dozen women who have progressed a coaching or leadership career in sport. This will be an open conversation to learn from the challenges and successes these women have faced in their careers, and to discuss what they would like to see to support more women to progress into coaching and leadership positions in sport in Scotland.