- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how it is monitoring the Softer Landing, Safer Care programme to assess how often it is being used across hospital workforces.
Answer
NHS Education for Scotland (NES) has developed the Softer Landing, Safer Care programme. When it was introduced health boards agreed with NES to implement the programme for International Medical graduates (IMGs) starting their first hospital placement in NHS Scotland. The programme is part of a coordinated offer that sits alongside the training pathway and is devolved for local implementation at local board level. IMGs, like other trainees, feedback their experience through established quality assurance processes such as the Scottish Training Survey. As such, the Scottish Government does not formally monitor the initiative and it has not yet been formally evaluated.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus Robertson on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to ensure that its international offices are not used to promote the case for Scottish independence.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s international network offices do not have a role in developing policy on options for Scotland’s constitutional future. Nevertheless, it is the role of the Civil Service to support the elected government of the day in developing and implementing its policies. That is the case for work on independence as it is for the rest of the government’s work.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to provide financial support to manufacturers to develop decarbonisation technologies for Scotland’s railways.
Answer
The Rail Cluster Builder is a specific example of Scottish Government supporting manufacturers to develop decarbonisation technologies. Funded by Scottish Enterprise, Transport Scotland and Skills Development Scotland, the Rail Cluster Builder Phase 2 is a three-year project building on the momentum of Phase 1, giving opportunities for Scottish SMEs to bring new ideas, new thinking and learning from other industries across Scotland into the railway sector and helping to create innovative, green solutions that will support our net zero targets.
A key element of Phase 2 is ensuring that businesses have access to support to address the skills related challenges faced by organisations in the rail sector. Skills Development Scotland provide support to companies to identify their skills needs and how to develop their existing workforce in order to build capacity, grasp opportunities and increase competitiveness.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how it will address the funding gaps identified in the Flood Resilience Strategy to ensure timely implementation.
Answer
The National Flood Resilience Strategy sets out a long-term vision for a flood resilient Scotland through to 2045, this will continue to require significant public and private investment.
Scottish Government already provides substantial funding to support flood resilience. Since 2008, the Scottish Government has made available £42 million per year to local authorities to invest in flood risk management actions and the 2020 Programme for Government committed an additional £150 million over the course of this Parliament for flood risk management actions. In addition, £15 million has been provided in the draft 2025-2026 Scottish Budget to support the delivery of the Strategy’s actions, wider flooding resilience and coastal adaptation work.
The Strategy will be delivered via an implementation plan which will be developed with partners over the coming months.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus Robertson on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there have been reported above-inflation increases in the budgets for most of its international offices at a time of reductions in the budget of some domestic services.
Answer
The increase in budget for our international network of 2.0% overall is primarily to fulfil the pay agreement applied across the Scottish Government. In most cases, programme budgets to deliver events and undertake outreach work were static or slightly reduced.
In 2025-26 our network of international offices will account for less than 0.02% of the Scottish Government’s overall resource spending plans as set out in the draft Scottish Budget.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus Robertson on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the cost-effectiveness of maintaining its network of international offices.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s international network delivers tangible benefits to our people, businesses and organisations, including higher education institutions and those in the cultural and creative sectors. From attracting overseas investment and growing exports, to facilitating cultural exchanges, our active engagement on the global stage supports the delivery of Scotland’s domestic policy objectives.
The International Network annual report 2023-24 was published on 18 November 2024. Using case studies, as well as trade and investment figures from SDI, it demonstrates how our network delivered impact across the three main pillars of work set out in the International Strategy: economy, trade and investment; climate change, biodiversity and renewable energy; and reputation, influence and relationships.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31906 by Gillian Martin on 16 December 2024, what discussions it has held over the past year with (a) academia and (b) private sector companies regarding any expansion of reuse and recycling of rare earth materials.
Answer
We must keep our precious resources in use as long as possible, in line with our circular economy ambitions and reusing and recycling materials has an important part to play in Scotland’s response to tackling the climate crisis. I have not held discussions with academia or private sector companies regarding rare earth materials but would welcome any discussions to make progress in this area.
Scottish Enterprise (SE) has undertaken research to understand the implications for Scotland on accessing Critical Raw Materials and Technologies (CRM&T), including rare earth materials. This research will allow SE to further understand how Scottish companies can remain competitive. SE will continue to engage with academia, private enterprises, and beyond to fully understand the implications for Scotland.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how it will balance investment in large-scale flood protection schemes with property-level flood resilience measures.
Answer
The National Flood Resilience Strategy commits to review available flooding budgets to assess how a proportion of flood funding can be directed to support a broader range of flood actions - including smaller flood protection schemes and property level flood resilience.
The Strategy recognises that in order to balance flood resilience actions across a range of locations, communities and situations it will be necessary to understand in more depth relative benefits. The Scottish Government is working with COSLA and local authorities to reform flood resilience funding and governance to maximise benefit to communities.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what resources are being developed to help (a) individuals and (b) households improve their flood resilience.
Answer
The Scottish Flooding Forum, funded by Scottish Government, already makes a broad range of resources available to individuals and households. These cover preparation and protection, what to do if flooding occurs, recovery and guidance on actions communities can take together. The SFF also have an online Property Protection Advisor tool.
If someone lives in an area that may flood they can also contact the Scottish Flooding Forum enquiry telephone line for advice, information and support to protect their property.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how ScotRail’s operating costs have changed over the past decade, and what factors have contributed to any changes.
Answer
There is a range of factors which have had an effect on the net cost of running passenger rail services over the last 10 years. These include the number of services delivered, passenger revenue, Network Rail access charges, inflation, energy and fuel costs, and variations introduced during the Covid period.