The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally, as local authorities and integration authorities have legal duties to provide carer support under the Carers Act. In practice they commission third sector organisations, including carer centres, to provide much of that support on their behalf. The 2020-21 budget contained an additional £11.6 million and the 2021-22 budget a further increase of £28.5 million in the local government settlement for Carers Act implementation. Added to similar (baselined) increases in previous years since the Act came into force in April 2018, this brings the total investment in the Carers Act for 2021-22 to £68 million per year. It is for local authorities and integration authorities to decide how to use the funding to meet their duties under the Carers Act, but it is expected that this will include providing additional funding to carer centres and other organisations commissioned to expand carer support.

The previous Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport wrote to local authorities in March 2021 to highlight the importance of using this additional funding to expand carer support: www.gov.scot/publications/carers-act-finance-2021-2022-letter

Alongside funding for the Carers Act, the Scottish Government also funds the Time to Live scheme, administered by Shared Care Scotland, to enable local carer organisations to provide small grants for carers to spend on short breaks or something that gives them a break from caring. In recent years, £490,000 per year has been allocated to this scheme but in response to the pandemic, the Scottish Government put an additional £910,000 into the scheme in 2020-21 and has committed a further £400,000 in 2021-22.

In April 2020, we established a £500,000 fund to help local carer organisations transition to home working, so they could continue to provide advice and emotional support remotely, such as telephone counselling and online sessions.

In March 2021 the Scottish Government also provided over £24,000 of funding to 28 local carer organisations, who requested assistance with the cost of informing carers about how to access priority Covid-19 vaccinations.

Self-directed Support (SDS) is Scotland’s mainstream approach to social care. Under the Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 , all people in Scotland who are assessed as being in need of social care support have a right to choice, control and flexibility to meet their personal outcomes.

SDS is therefore not something that is applied for or denied. Local Authorities are required to ensure that people are offered a range of choices on how they receive their social care support.

Self-directed Support can be provided using one of four different options. Public Health Scotland statistics from 2018-19 indicate that 102,805 people in Scotland were involved in choosing and controlling their support through one of more of the self-directed support options.

At the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Scottish Government and partners began rapid, ground breaking joint work with the Scottish manufacturing sector to build resilient local supply chains.

The Scottish Parliament and people have been updated on the success of our efforts to develop local supply chains through our PPE Action Plan and Ministerial statements I made on PPE and other critical supplies, the COVID vaccine and test, treatment and cures being developed and manufactured in Scotland.

This work ultimately ensured we had adequate stocks of all Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) items, ventilation equipment, sanitiser, testing kits and vaccines to support our front line services and protect the public during the emergency period.

From a starting position of almost all PPE having to be imported, over the 2020/21 winter period nearly half of all PPE supplied to NHS Scotland was manufactured in Scotland. While we do not hold a central definitive supplier list, some key examples of Scottish suppliers who responded to our COVID -19 supply chain initiative are listed in the following table.

The amount spent by each local authority in each year since 1999 on energy efficiency for homes is a matter for individual local authorities. The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

Every public information campaign has a unique set of objectives and associated target audience.

The Scottish Government carries out research to ascertain the most effective strategy and messaging for all public information campaigns.

In some cases, a well-known public figure can deliver a message in a more compelling way thus increasing the potential impact of the campaign. Where that is the case, the Scottish Government consider various options recommended by their rostered agencies based on the personality and profile of the celebrity required and appointments are made based on suitability, availability and level of budget (if any) required.

A new protocol is being created and put in place by the Scottish Government to improve the approach to vetting public figures used in campaigns. This protocol will improve the sharing of knowledge between public sector bodies and the Scottish Government central communications function regarding the use of public figures.

In the Programme for Government announced on 7 September 2021 the Scottish Government committed to developing options to remove charging for non-residential social care. We are working to deliver these as soon as possible.

The information requested by Mr Briggs MSP is readily available on the SSSC website, and a detailed breakdown by local authority can be obtained directly from the official source.

Every year in August, the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) publishes the ‘Scottish Social Service Sector: Report on 2020 Workforce Data’. This year's edition was the 10th set of official statistics. Official figures, therefore, only go back to 2011.

According to the most recent data, published in August this year, as of December 2020, there were 6,049 social workers employed in local authorities, the highest number recorded, representing a 1.5% increase since the previous year, 2019, or a 6% increase since 2011.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities, separate from the Scottish Government. As such, the information requested is not held by the Scottish Government and would have to be obtained directly from individual local authorities or from COSLA.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities, separate from the Scottish Government. As such, the information requested is not held by the Scottish Government and would have to be obtained directly from individual local authorities or from COSLA.

Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics is an annual publication providing a comprehensive overview of financial activity of Scottish local authorities in 2019-20 based on authorities' audited accounts.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities, separate from the Scottish Government. As such, the information requested is not held by the Scottish Government and would have to be obtained directly from individual local authorities or from COSLA.

Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics is an annual publication providing a comprehensive overview of financial activity of Scottish local authorities in 2019-20 based on authorities' audited accounts.