Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29252 on 19 September 2024. 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.

Development of Scotland’s Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services (RCDS) is being led through the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD). Colleagues in CfSD have regular progress discussions with each of the established RCDS teams.

The Scottish Government have provided funding to each of these services until March 2025, and NHS Boards continue to develop their business cases for sustainable investment.

The introduction of Body Worn Video is a priority for Police Scotland, and it is working to introduce it as soon as possible. The decision on how and when to roll out body-worn video is a matter for the Chief Constable with oversight provided by the Scottish Police Authority.

The Chief Constable and senior colleagues provided an update to the SPA Board on 22 August, assuring the Authority that progress is being driven at pace given the complexities of the programme. They highlighted their expectation that the devices will begin to be deployed on roll-out from Spring 2025 for the first tranche of over 10,000 officers and staff. This will be followed by a coordinated, sequenced roll-out thereafter for all other relevant officers and staff. The Chief Constable informed the Criminal Justice Committee on 11 September that she would update the Committee on specific timings when she is able to do so.

The effectiveness of the campaign will be monitored by YouthLink Scotland, Medics Against Violence and the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, our funded partners who created the campaign, produced the accompanying resources and will be delivering training sessions to support those working with young people to help them navigate social media safely and prevent violence. Website traffic and data on the engagement with the online materials via the campaign landing page will be collected. Follow up sessions with training participants will monitor the impact and use of the materials. A report will be shared with the Scottish Government.

As a result of significant increases in construction costs due to inflation, and a lower than expected capital grant from the UK Government, a capital review is currently underway.

Alongside this, we are working with all health boards to develop a whole-system infrastructure plan which reflects on the needs for the whole of Scotland and will support continued safe operation of existing facilities and well as determination of longer-term investment priorities.

On the 3 September 2024, the Scottish Government pre-budget fiscal update outlined savings measures of £115.8m in the Health and Social Care budget, with funding redirected to support emerging pressures within Health and Social Care, not used for wider SG spending.

A breakdown of the savings can be found at: Scottish Government Pre-Budget Fiscal Update: Letter to Finance Committee - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23571 on 13 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.

We remain committed to delivering a Just Transition Plan that reflects the needs of the industrial site operators, workforce and the wider community and anticipate the launch of a draft plan for consultation in the coming months.

We will update the Parliament on the Grangemouth Just Transition Plan in due course.

£756 million of ScotWind option fees were received, of which £96 million was used in 2022-23 to support the overall financial position. No ScotWind Revenues were utilised in 2023-24.

£200 million of ScotWind Revenues were profiled as required to support the funding position in the original Scottish Budget for 2024-25. As was set out in the Fiscal Statement to parliament on 3 September current planning is on the basis of utilising up to £460 million of additional ScotWind revenue funding in the current financial year, the entirety of the remaining Scotwind option fee funding.

The statement made clear the intention to reduce this down as far as possible depending on the final financial position, with an update on the in-year consequential position expected at the UK Budget on October 30th. Decisions on the future utilisation of ScotWind Revenues will be taken in due course.

Creating Hope Together: suicide prevention action plan 2022 to 2025 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) our joint suicide prevention strategy with CoSLA, has a concerted focus on understanding and meeting the needs of those who face a higher risk of suicide. This includes the care experienced community. Our Creating Hope Together – Year 2 Delivery plan (2024-26) - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) includes specific commitments to support the care experienced community ensuring, where appropriate, connection is made at local level with the relevant Promise leads. As part of our work with high risk settings, we are also working with secure care providers to develop a suicide prevention action plan framework for use in the care experience sector.

Any death of a young person due to drugs is a real concern to this government and we are currently developing a set of Standards for local areas, co-designed with young people, to ensure there is sufficient support in place for young people who take drugs. As part of our cross-government response to the final Drug Deaths Taskforce Report, Changing-Lives-updated-1.pdf (knowthescore.info) we are investing £1.5 million in Planet Youth Home | Planet Youth Scotland, sometimes referred to as the Icelandic Model, which is an evidence based model for substance use prevention.

Since October 2021 we have commissioned and funded a National Hub to review and learn from the deaths of all children and young people in Scotland and ultimately help reduce future preventable child deaths. The first Data Overview report: National hub for reviewing and learning from the deaths of children and young people – Data overview report: March 2024 – Healthcare Improvement Scotland from the National Hub was published by Healthcare Improvement Scotland in March 2024.