Seòmar agus comataidhean

As set out in the Future Skills Action plan, the Scottish Government is committed to the important work that the DYW Groups do to improve the relationship between young people and employers. To support this commitment, allocations and grant letters were issued on 31 March to the DYW regional groups for the first 6 months of the financial year 2023-2024.

Operational decisions on resourcing and staffing matters are for colleges to consider and decide but the Scottish Government expects colleges to align their staffing complement and skills with the needs of the economy and future skills. Colleges should work together with unions to make every effort to protect jobs where possible but colleges are not bound by Public Sector Pay Policy.

Public Health Scotland publish figures on how many 2C, 17C and 17J practices there are in each Health Board. The following information has been gathered from the GP Workforce and Practice List Sizes publication available at: General Practice - GP Workforce and practice list sizes 2012 - 2022 - General Practice - GP workforce and practice list sizes - Publications - Public Health Scotland .

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. We advise the member to contact the NHS Boards directly.

The previous Minister for Community Safety met with the FBU on 2 February 2023. This meeting, which included Professor Anna Stec of the University of Central Lancashire, was specifically to discuss issues around the FBU DECON campaign including firefighter health screening, the SFRS estate and budgets.

For those people who have been prescribed lifesaving equipment at home, such as home hemodialysis, any reimbursement of energy costs would be the responsibility of the NHS Board. In relation to home oxygen concentrators, the energy costs are covered by a contract with NHS National Services Scotland (NSS), part of NHS Scotland and delivered by Dolby Vivisol. As such, reimbursement of energy costs for running home oxygen concentrators are made to patients by Dolby Vivisol.

Our Fuel Insecurity Fund (FIF) was first established in late 2020, as part of the wider Winter Support Fund, delivered via trusted third sector partners, to help households struggling with their energy costs who were at risk of severely rationing, or self-disconnecting entirely because they could not afford their energy costs.

The First Minister, has confirmed the Scottish Government will now build on the doubling of the Fuel Insecurity Fund announced last year, to now triple it to £30 million for 2023-24. The Fund is a critical plank in our support to people who are struggling with their energy costs. It continues to provide a lifeline to households who are at risk of self-rationing or self-disconnecting their energy use.

This will be delivered in 2023-24 by third sector partner organisations, specifically the Fuel Bank Foundation (FBF), Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA), Advice Direct Scotland (ADS) and the Wise Group. Whilst core staff costs will be provided to Energy Action Scotland, as Scotland’s National Fuel Poverty charity.

FBF and ADS have to date from FIF funding, provided direct financial assistance, up to a limited ceiling, as a short-term crisis support to disabled people for help with their energy costs related to lifesaving medical equipment in their homes.

In light of the current impact of the cost crisis on disabled people, the former Minister for Equalities and Older People approved an immediate priorities plan and set up a Short Life Working Group to focus on progressing this work. The first meeting of this group took place in March 2023 and the group will meet four more times between now and May 2024. Although out of scope for the SLWG, further updates will be provided to them on the analysis of the energy costs and reimbursement of lifesaving equipment at home.

ScotRail advises that the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Manager (ED&I Manager) post ensures that its diversity, equality, inclusion, and engagement initiatives are a core element of its People Strategy and fully embedded across all areas of the organisation.

The ScotRail ED&I Adviser Reports directly to the ED&I Manager and supports the programme of work to ensure that ScotRail’s diversity, equality, inclusion, and engagement initiatives are delivered.

Full detail on roles and responsibilities are a matter for the employer. The Member may wish to contact Scottish Rail Holdings for further information, if required:-

correspondence@railholdings.scot

Currently, there are charges in place for the use of toilet facilities at Inverness, Fort William, Aberdeen, and Glasgow Queen Street stations.

In 2021, the Scottish Government reached a joint agreement with local authorities to increase the national minimum school clothing grant to £120 for each eligible primary school pupil, and £150 for each eligible secondary school pupil. This was an increase from the national minimum grant of £100 per eligible pupil which was agreed with local authorities in 2018.

The Scottish Government provided funding to local authorities of £11.8m in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 financial years to support eligible families to benefit from the minimum school clothing grant. In 2023-24, the Scottish Government has increased funding to £13m to support local authorities to maintain the school clothing grant in line with increased inflation costs.

It is for local authorities to determine their own eligibility criteria for school clothing grant and authorities have the option to set their grant level higher than the minimum if they wish.

Decisions about funding to local authorities in respect of the school clothing grant in future financial years will be made as part of wider considerations on the Scottish Budget, taking into account economic and other circumstances, including continued delivery of the Covid Recovery Strategy and its aim to increase support for low-income households.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-16574 on 19 April 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