Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government understands the benefits of reusable nappy use in relation to reducing household costs in addition to reducing the impact on the environment.

Following the concerning news regarding the liquidation of TotsBots Ltd, our Baby Box Managing Agent ensured that all outstanding orders for a reusable nappy pack that had been sent to Tots Bots were fulfilled. Our Baby Box Managing Agent subsequently appointed a new reusable nappy supplier on 22 November who are providing the same offer as Tots Bots when parents return a pre-paid voucher or register via a QR code. The reusable nappy pack offer provides one waterproof nappy wrap and five stay dry nappy pads to try for free and offers a 15% discounted rate on future purchases. All families who received a Baby Box whilst the programme was without a nappy supplier have now been contacted and offered the opportunity to claim a reusable nappy via the new supplier.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23070 on 4 December 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23097 on 4 December 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body announced on 23 November that it will undertake an investigation in line with its duties under the MSP code of conduct.

As stated then, in the interests of fairness to all, and to avoid prejudicing our investigation, the Corporate Body will not comment on any matters that could have a bearing on the process. It is important to stress, however, that the Corporate Body remains wholly committed to openness and transparency and will release all material that it can, when it can, in line with its legal obligations.

Imprints are a way of stating who is responsible for publishing campaigning or promotional political material and who they are promoting it for.  This point is reflected in the Electoral Commission’s recent statutory guidance on digital imprints under the Elections Act 2022. 

The functions of the SPCB are laid out in the Scotland Act and require the SPCB to provide the property, staff and services required for the Parliament’s purposes.  In principle, the SPCB does not include imprints on its material as it is publishing material for the purpose of these statutory functions and not political campaigning or promoting.   

The SPCB provides support to Members through the Reimbursement of Members Expenses Scheme to produce and distribute parliamentary funded publications to inform constituents of the work of the Member in their electoral area or in Parliament or about the work of the Parliament itself.

As SPCB resources are applied for the Parliament’s purposes, in accordance with the SPCB’s statutory functions, Members must abide by the rules in the SPCB Policy on Members’ Publications where costs are met from the Members’ Expenses Scheme.

The Policy restricts members from including material promoting the political views of any person, political party, the government or other organisation involved in political campaigning in parliamentary funded publications.  The Policy also prohibits the issue of parliamentary funded publications in the immediate run up to elections and referendums. For its purposes, the Policy requires the inclusion of a statement in relation to how the costs were met for such a publication and a header which must include the Parliament’s Corporate Identity, alongside the Member’s name and their area of representation, whether the publication is online or in hard copy.

The Quarantine mailbox provides a holding area for email messages that are automatically identified as potentially harmful (e.g., potential phishing and malware messages). 

The IT Helpdesk initially sent out emails to all users to raise awareness of the Junk and Quarantine storage areas when it was introduced and most recently in 2020.  Since then, the screens at the BIT Engagement desk at Holyrood have been used to remind Members about the existence of the Quarantine area, and staff have been available to offer advice and assistance on accessing the folder.

Staff in the BIT Office are currently investigating a means of more actively alerting Members and other users of the email system to any quarantined email messages.  The alerts will take the form of a weekly roundup email reminding users to release or delete items as appropriate.

The Scottish Government continues to engage with key skills stakeholders and Historic Environment Scotland on this matter to ensure that Scotland has the required traditional skills to meet the demands of the historic environment sector.

We deliver our support for the historic environment through sponsorship of Historic Environment Scotland which continues to champion traditional skills and is working with stakeholders to address heritage skills gaps to help ensure Scotland’s historic buildings can thrive as part of the country’s sustainable future.

The Scottish Government is also working with Skills Development Scotland to promote careers in construction and heritage skills as part of our Youth Employment Strategy, Developing the Young Workforce.

The refreshed Skills Investment Plan for Scotland’s historic environment sector is being led by Historic Environment Scotland in collaboration with key stakeholders within the sector and is expected to be published in Spring 2024.

Throughout the pandemic, any changes to Scottish Government’s guidance on the extended use of face masks in healthcare and social care settings went through an extensive consultation process. Whilst direct engagement with NHS staff was not conducted, the Directorate for Health and Social Care's Professional Advisor Group were consulted - this group includes representatives from across Health and Social Care. The Professional Advisors engage with NHS staff through various forums and networks.

The consultation process also included the Chief Nursing Officer, Chief Medical Officer, National Clinical Director and Health and Social Care Directors. All were content with the advice to withdraw the extended use of face mask and face covering guidance, based on the Antimicrobial Resistance and Hospital Associated Infection (ARHAI) Scotland and Public Health Scotland reviews, the expert opinion of Professional Advisors, and consideration of the current pandemic context.

Direct engagement was conducted between the Scottish Government and social care representative bodies and providers of care homes and care at home services. These groups expressed that the extended use of face mask and face covering guidance was having a detrimental impact on the wellbeing of service users. Representatives were content for services to revert to assessing the need for personal protective equipment (such as a face mask) using the National Infection Prevention and Control Manual and Care Home National Infection Prevention and Control Manual.

Electricity regulation, generation, transmission and distribution are reserved to the UK Government. This means that mandating financial benefits for communities through the consents process is beyond the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament. However we have pressed the UK Government to take action in this area on many occasions, in terms of transmission and generation infrastructure.

While we welcome the UK Government’s announcements on providing energy bill discounts and wider community benefit from upgrades to the electricity transmission network, Scottish Ministers will continue to press the UK Government to explore making such benefits for transmission and generation mandatory, subject to full consultation. I have written to the UK Secretary of State this week to urge the UK Government to ensure there is meaningful engagement with the Scottish Government as these proposals are developed.

Despite the powers to mandate being reserved, community benefits are well-established in Scotland with our national Community Benefits Register indicating that over £25 million worth of community benefits were committed from renewable energy projects in the last 12 months. We continue to explore different avenues within devolved powers that will build on the successes of our Good Practice Principles, the Onshore Wind Sector Deal, and work to develop a solar deployment ambition.