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Bus Companies must comply with all safety regulations and conditions as required to be able to hold a Public Service Vehicle (PSV) licence. The PSV licensing is reserved and is managed by the Traffic Commissioner, the main purpose of the regime is to ensure safe and proper use of vehicles including regular maintenance. Drivers must also complete driver CPC training which includes Fire Evacuation and Fire Safety Training Courses.

Islamophobia Awareness Month (IAM) shines a light on the continuing presence of Islamophobia in our society, and the impact that anti-Muslim hatred can have.

The Scottish Government is taking action to implement our new Hate Crime Strategy for tackling all forms of hate crime, including Islamophobic hate crime. The strategy was developed in partnership with a range of organisations who have expertise in tackling hatred and prejudice, including Police Scotland who are members of our Hate Crime Strategic Partnership Group.

Our Hate Crime Strategy Delivery Plan, published 20 November, outlines our priorities for tackling hate crime until 2026. The delivery plan sets out our action in relation to the strategy’s commitments, including support for victims and reporting, improving data and evidence on hate crime and developing effective approaches to prevention. It will also support implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021.

Whilst regulation of internet services is reserved to the UK Government, we will consider the impacts of online hate crime, recognising the need to continuously improve and adapt to align with changes online. We want to ensure people – including children and young people – know how to keep safe online, including on social media.

We will continue to engage with the UK Government as they implement the Online Safety Act.

All Personal Independence Payment awards received from the Department for Work and Pensions are tracked throughout the case transfer process, to ensure a safe and secure transition into Adult Disability Payment. We monitor the progress of transferring clients’ awards on a daily basis and have a joint Scottish Government and Department for Work and Pensions forum to discuss progress and to raise and address any issues that may arise. Approximately 90% of all cases transferred from Personal Independence Payment progress through the process automatically and do not require any additional checks by client advisers.

Social Security Scotland ask clients about their experiences of case transfer as part of their regular client survey. The latest published survey covers January to March 2023 and can be found on the Social Security Scotland website. The Scottish Government are also currently undertaking an evaluation of case transfers to Child and Adult Disability Payment as part of the wider programme of evaluation of disability benefits.

In academic year 2021/22, £15.5 million was spent on the delivery of workforce training opportunities through the Flexible Workforce Delivery Fund.

Monitoring of performance against the nationally agreed criteria in the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme, which now includes a requirement to demonstrate adequate provision of psychological support, allows us to identify where challenges are being faced in the delivery of high-quality stroke care and supports the implementation of quality improvements.

Demonstrating provision of post-stroke psychological care is a new requirement for NHS Boards and therefore it will take time for implementation to be successful.

The Scottish Government expects NHS Boards to increase performance against the criteria outlined in the review process, and we will work with them to support this.

The new Stroke Improvement Plan , published in June, includes a commitment to assess the current ability of NHS Boards to implement the National Model of Psychological Care in Stroke (Scotland).

This is being assessed via NHS Board reviews, which now include a requirement to demonstrate adequate provision of psychological support for those who have suffered a stroke.

In September, we published the National Specification for Psychological Therapies to help support improvements in the delivery of psychological care.

Priority six in the Stroke Improvement Plan is focused on psychological care and includes commitments to understand the availability of existing resources and develop strategies for raising awareness of the emotional and psychological impact of stroke on mental wellbeing. Work to appraise the range of resources currently available is scheduled to begin in 2024.

Education and training programmes on post-stroke psychological and emotional impacts are available as part of the Stroke Training and Awareness Resources (STARs) Core Competencies and Advancing Modules, hosted by Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland (CHSS). These resources were developed with the input of clinicians from across Scotland.

The criteria for NHS Board reviews sets out the Scottish Government’s expectation that all staff potentially dealing with hyperacute stroke patients should have undertaken the STARS Advancing Modules.

While the Scottish Government holds information on the number of overall psychology posts and vacancies, we do not hold information on specialty psychology roles. Decisions on such specialty roles are for Health Boards to address.

Psychology staffing has more than doubled (+131.6%, as of 30 June 2023) since 2007 and we are increasing the postgraduate student intake for Psychology Masters and Doctorate programmes by a total of 60 trainees between 2021 and 2023.

We published a new Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Plan on 7 November, which set out the actions we will take to ensure we have a resilient and sustainable workforce, with the right skills who are able to deliver the new Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

Priority two in our new Stroke Improvement Plan , published in June is focused on awareness raising and includes a commitment to establishing the current degree of public understanding of FAST and stroke symptoms.

This work is currently underway and will help inform the most effective way of raising public awareness of stroke symptoms, including FAST campaigns.

In addition to FAST campaigns, we will also consider how awareness of the less common symptoms of stroke can be increased. We will continue to work with third sector organisations to consider how best to deliver future public health campaigns to raise awareness of stroke symptoms.

The Stroke Improvement Plan includes a commitment to assess the current ability of NHS Boards to implement the National Model of Psychological Care in Stroke (Scotland).

This is currently being assessed via NHS Board reviews which now include a requirement to demonstrate adequate provision of psychological support.

Assessment of ongoing implementation of the National Model of Psychological Care in Stroke (Scotland) will be reported on in the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme National Report.