Seòmar agus comataidhean

We are grateful to all those who responded to the Government’s consultation on electoral reform. We are considering the responses to the consultation and the analysis and will publish a formal response in due course. The responses were independently analysed, and the analysis of the consultation can be found on the Scottish Government website.

As noted, a Bill on electoral reform was announced in the Programme for Government 2023-24. We anticipate that this will be introduced to Parliament by spring 2024.

The Scottish Government cannot mandate that a proportion of GP surgeries offer enhanced services: GP practices are contracted to provide essential services with any enhanced services provided over and above that carried out on an optional basis. Practices which provide enhanced services are paid agreed rates for doing so in addition to their funding for essential services. These services are determined locally by Health Boards so that service planning reflects local needs and circumstances and makes the best use of GPs and other clinicians.

The Scottish Government does not intend to change this model.

The Scottish Government is currently reviewing Health Board expenditure on drug treatment enhanced services by GPs to determine whether the existing funding arrangements for enhanced services are sufficiently prioritising drug treatment services.

Since 2000-2001, the Scottish Government has funded a total of £4,785,000 of hardship rates relief. The Scottish Government funds 75% of the value of hardship relief, with the remaining 25% funded by councils. For properties affected by the Glasgow School of Art fire, the Scottish Government’s contribution was increased to 95% to reflect the exceptional circumstances.

We are unable to reliably estimate the number of awards granted; numbers of properties receiving any relief are derived from the annual Billing System Snapshot, and due to the nature of hardship relief, the final number awarded per year is not well reflected in snapshot data. The latest non-domestic rates relief statistics, derived from snapshot data, can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/non-domestic-rates-relief-statistics-2022/ .

Hardship relief is a discretionary relief provided for in section 25A of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1966 which specifies that a council can award Hardship relief if it is satisfied that the relief applicant would sustain hardship if the council did not award the relief, and if it is reasonable for the council to do so, having regard to the interests of persons liable to pay council tax set by them. It is for councils to determine the criteria to ensure these requirements are met when awarding Hardship relief.

There has been no specific assessment and it is important to note that these data only reflect Considerate Contractor members.

Scottish Government monitor the market dynamics through our data dashboard which was developed by the Construction Leadership Forum (CLF) and can be viewed on the CLF website https://www.constructionforum.scot/ .

We work closely with the construction industry through the Construction Leadership Forum (CLF), chaired by myself, which is the main forum for Scottish Government/Industry interaction and meets every two months.

The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places statutory responsibility for local roads, including the timeframe for repairing defects on local authorities. As such it is the responsibility of the local authority to determine how best to meet its duties on local roads in their respective areas.

SCOTS (the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland) is responsible for implementing best practice on local road maintenance and has published a best practice guide detailing recommended repair times for different categories of road defects: Road Asset Inspections: A Risk Based Approach - Road Asset Safety Inspection Strategy (scotsnet.org.uk)

We are making good progress on this commitment and since 2017 headcount has increased by 291 with a record 5,209 GPs now working in Scotland.

We have increased medical undergraduate intake by 448 places, and created an additional 135 GP training places since 2016. 100% of training places advertised so far this year have filled successfully with a further round of recruitment in February 2024.

We have also established a GP Retention Working Group that will report to me by the end of October with its findings and recommendations.

Officials met with the UK Department of Health and Social Care in advance of the UK Government’s consultation and will continue to engage with them as the Scottish Government takes forward its own proposals on the regulation of non-surgical cosmetic procedures. As the Scottish Government’s work progresses in this area, we will take into consideration all relevant material, including – where relevant – the UK Government consultation.

The review of deer management by the independent Deer Working Group (DWG) found that deer populations in Scotland have grown significantly since 1990, when the population estimate was approximately 512,000 wild deer. The DWG estimated the current deer population to be in excess of one million animals through analysis of data published by NatureScot in recent years. We have no reason to doubt the credibility of this estimate.

Chemicals regulation in the UK engages a complex mix of devolved and reserved competence. Scottish Government works with the Welsh and UK Governments (the “appropriate authorities”) under the UK Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (UK REACH) Regulation to ensure the risks posed by chemicals and chemicals in products, including period products, are adequately controlled for people and the environment across Great Britain.

During preparation of the 2022/23 UK REACH work programme officials considered a number of potential chemical risks for further investigation and, where necessary, control under UK REACH. One such case was hazardous substances in period products (See Rationale for prioritising substances in the UK REACH work programme, 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) ). Based on evidence presented by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the appropriate authorities concluded that no further investigation was necessary because existing evidence suggests such chemicals are either not measurable, or the levels present are too low to present a risk to human health. As with all previously considered cases that were not taken forward, this conclusion will be kept under review.

The conclusion was based on the findings of a study into feminine hygiene products by the French Chemicals Agency (see ANSES OPINION on the safety of feminine hygiene products & Feminine hygiene products: composition and toxic shock syndrome, our recommendations | Anses - Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail ) which did not find any risk associated with the presence of the substances tested for, and a related study by the Swedish Chemicals Agency (see kemi.se/download/18.6df1d3df171c243fb2331064/1589120703821/report-8-18-survey-of-hazardous-chemical-substances-in-feminine-hygiene-products.pdf & New report: No reason for concern about chemicals in menstrual products - Kemikalieinspektionen ) that concluded that the risk to human health of the 61 substances that were identified was low (although investigated, no per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS, were found). The French study recommended that manufacturers improve the quality of these products in order to eliminate or minimise the presence of chemicals.

With regard to PFAS, in April 2023 the HSE published a Risk Management Options Analysis ( UK REACH: Regulatory management option analysis (RMOA) (hse.gov.uk) ) recommending several actions to better protect people and the environment from this group of chemicals. Scottish Government strongly supports regulatory action on PFAS as a priority and we expect these recommendations to be taken forward without delay under the UK REACH Regulation.

By 31 August 2023, there were 84,660 cardholders in Aberdeen City within the National Concessionary Travel Schemes. In Scotland, there are a total of 2,263,403 cardholders. This includes cardholders in the free bus schemes for those aged 60 and over, those aged under 22 and eligible disabled people.

Cardholder data is supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO) and is provided by local authority.

NECPO supports the 32 local authorities by assisting with the integration of various national and local public services on the National Entitlement Card (NEC) and are the joint controller with local authorities of this data. The figure includes travel products collected from the Transport Scot Pass Collect mobile app.