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The Scottish Government worked with Skills Development Scotland, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and others in the aquaculture sector to develop an Aquaculture Skills Action Plan in December 2018. The Action Plan was developed following a sector skills review ‘Skills review for the aquaculture sector in Scotland’, undertaken on behalf of Highlands and Islands Enterprise and published in the same year.

Lantra is the skills interests organisation of land-based, aquaculture and environmental conservation businesses and organisations across Scotland, and their activities are supported by the Scottish Government. Lantra coordinate the Aquaculture Skills Group that progresses the Aquaculture Skills Plan, with support from the Sustainable Aquaculture Innovation Centre and other stakeholders in the aquaculture sector.

The Scottish Government is also considering the skills and development opportunities required for aquaculture and other land-based sectors through the work of the independent Commission for the Land-Based Learning Review. The Commission reported the conclusion of its review in January 2023. As committed to in the Programme for Government, we will consider the recommendations made by the Commission in its review and produce a response.

The Scottish Government has issued the following guidance regarding “purposeful walkers” and use of restraint practices in hospitals and care homes:

The Scottish Government is committed to improving fair work practices across the social care sector.

There are more than 1,200 social care providers across Scotland; and each of these providers will have their own internal pay scales.

Since 2016, the Scottish Government has delivered funding to ensure adult social care workers are paid at least the Real Living Wage (RLW). Our ambition is that all care workers, including those working in the children’s sector, are paid the Real Living Wage as a minimum. Work to better understand the current composition of the Children’s social care sector is taking place in collaboration with key stakeholders.

The share of local government funding to be allocated to young carers is not set centrally, and the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authority spending is to allow each local authority the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of local authority funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including support for young carers, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Since 2018-19, additional funding to support the implementation of the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 has been included within the local government block grant, as set out in the following table:

Due to the scope and timeframe of the question, the information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost as this data is not available from a single source.

This information is not held centrally. Local authorities and integrated health and social care partnerships are responsible for commissioning services for people within their area.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14122 on 9 February 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Information on expenditure on the programme is published quarterly:

The recently published figures have additional information that show committed spend on remediation of £148,000.

Removal of cladding is not always necessary or appropriate. The Scottish Government fully funded Single Building Assessment is designed to identify any potential issues which have an adverse impact on the safety and security of residents. We expect the vast majority of buildings to be found to be safe, but we have to understand the extent of the problem to be able to fix it.

Public Library services in Scotland are devolved to local authorities which have a statutory duty to secure the provision of adequate library facilities for all persons resident in their area.

No Scottish Libraries have permanently closed in the last three reporting years. The following table from the Scottish Library and Information Council provides data, compiled by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), capturing the number of service points and net increase / decrease per year between 2009-10 – 2021-22. Information for 2022-23 will be available at the end of the current financial year.