Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has no current plans to update the 2005 Guidance for Local Authorities and National Park Authorities on Part 1 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) will provide updates on HIV statistics as part of the HIV in Scotland annual surveillance report. The latest report was published in September 2024 and the next release will be in Autumn 2025.

The HIV Transmission Elimination Delivery Plan was launched in March 2024. PHS is developing a monitoring and evaluation plan to assess progress against this plan and the Scottish Government will update Parliament on this in due course.

Between 1 October 2023 and end June 2024 we have supported the delivery of 6,774 affordable homes across Scotland of which 933 have been in rural and island areas. 26 of these homes were delivered through the Rural and Islands Housing Fund. We remain committed to delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 of which at least 10% will be in rural and island areas.

Figures relating to homes delivered in rural and island areas are based on provisional programme management information to end June 2024.

We want Scotland to be the best place in the world to grow up. As part of our approach, we recognise that online platforms, including social media, can have both a positive and negative impact on children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing and that it is important to support people to use social media in a healthy and balanced way.

Keeping children and young people safe online is a priority for the Scottish Government and while we recognise that regulation of the internet remains a reserved matter, we have successfully engaged with the previous UK Government to strengthen protections for children in its Online Safety Act. The Minister for Victims and Community Safety and I met with the online safety regulator Ofcom in August to discuss their strategy for online safety in Scotland.

Following the appalling acts of violence and disorder seen elsewhere in the UK over the summer, the First Minister wrote to social media companies Misinformation, racism and hateful material online: letter to social media companies - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) asking them how they are combating the spread of misinformation and steps being taken to address racist/hateful speech across platforms, and officials are considering responses. Our commitment to this work was further set out by the First Minister recently in response to a question on this issue in Parliament Written question and answer: S6F-03493 | Scottish Parliament Website

We have provided over £400,000 to children and young people’s organisations since 2020, to fund a range of initiatives including the Young Scot Aye Feel online hub and the Mind Yer Time resource, with some of the work focusing on addressing social media usage amongst children and young to help them navigate online spaces and use screen time in a healthy and positive way.

Additionally, our national resource for parents - Parent Club - has a range of information and advice to support parents to manage their child’s screen time, and to have informed conversations with their children on screen time, social media and internet use. The Scottish Government funded public awareness campaigns in 2022 and 2023 to inform parents and carers about the risks of online harm and how to protect their children online which linked to Parent Club resources. In addition, the Scottish Government has recently published guidance for schools on the issue of mobile phones in schools, which supports education authorities and schools in their consideration of limiting access to mobile phones in schools.

In September 2021, the Scottish Government published the National Neurodevelopmental Specification for Children and Young People: Principles and Standards of Care: Children and young people - national neurodevelopmental specification: principles and standards of care - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) which sets out seven standards for service providers to ensure children and young people who have neurodevelopmental profiles receive support that better meets their needs. This recognises neurodevelopmental differences are estimated to affect around 10% of pupils in Scotland’s mainstream schools, and their additional support needs.

We are working with Health Boards and Local Authorities towards implementing the Specification in full. As part of this, we have provided over £1 million to fund five pilots which are focusing on various aspects of the Specification, including implementing our Getting It Right For Each Child approach and multi-agency working. We are working to share the learning from these with all appropriate stakeholders to support wider implementation of the specification across Scotland and inform future service improvements.

More broadly, every child and young person should be able to access support for their mental health and wellbeing when and where they need it. Since 2021, we have provided local authorities with £15 million per annum to deliver community-based mental health and wellbeing supports and services for 5-24 year-olds and their families.

Public Health Scotland have produced regular Official Statistics post introduction of NHS dental payment reform. The most recent version was published on 27 August 2024 and provides the activity levels for all treatment items, each month since introduction. Statistical information will form the basis of ongoing monitoring of dental sector activity.

Our 2018 Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan, A healthier future: Scotland's diet and healthy weight delivery plan - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) set out ambitious and wide-ranging action to deliver our vision for a Scotland where everyone eats well and has a healthy weight. We are taking forward a range of action across five key outcomes: giving children the best start in life; creating a healthier food environment; better access to weight management services; leadership and reducing health inequalities.

This includes our continued support for convenience stores to increase the accessibility of fruit and vegetables in more deprived areas, supporting businesses to reformulate their products to make them healthier, and maintaining funding to community food networks, to enable them to increase access to affordable, healthier food to their communities and to promote the health benefits of nutrition and physical activity.

We have updated the Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations strengthening the provision of balanced and nutritious food to children. Our Scottish Milk and Healthy Snack Scheme promotes good nutrition to support healthy physical and brain development through the provision of healthy drinks and snacks in the earliest years.

The annual Scottish Health Survey (SHeS) Scottish Health Survey - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) provides key indicators relating to diet, including fruit and vegetable consumption, weight and physical activity, which we use to monitor progress towards our ambitious aim of halving childhood obesity by 2030.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the health and wellbeing of all children and young people by giving them the best possible start in life.

We expect all local authorities to meet their statutory duty to comply with their statutory duty to comply with the Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2020, which are based on scientific evidence and dietary advice designed to ensure children and young people are provided with food and drink which contains an appropriate amount of energy and nutrients to support their healthy growth and development. They also ensure there is a limit to the amount of salt, sugar, fat and saturated fat contained within food and drink offered at any time of the school day, including at meal times.

We recognise that local authorities, and schools themselves, are best placed to decide upon the content of their school menus at the local level given their understanding of local needs and circumstances. Working in partnership with Education Scotland Health and Nutrition Inspectors, who monitor compliance with the Regulations, we continue to support local authorities as they build upon the work already being done to ensure that school meals meet the highest standards of nutrition, recognising that this is vital to supporting our children and young people’s effective learning.

To improve our food environment and support heathier choices, we are committed to legislate to restrict the promotion of food and drink high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) at the point of purchase. The consultation on the detail of proposed regulations closed on 21 May 2024 and independent analysis of the responses is underway. The feedback received will be used as part of the policy decision-making process, alongside a range of other available information and evidence.

We support the Healthy Living Programme to help convenience stores offer healthier choices. More than two-thirds of the 2,300 strong Healthy Living Programme membership serves the most deprived areas of the country and ensures access to affordable, healthier food and drink in those communities.

We continue to help smaller businesses to reformulate common products to make them healthier. This is playing an important role in improving dietary health by removing hundreds of millions of calories from Scottish food and drink products sold across the country, including deprived areas.

This was also discussed as part of the Population Health Framework development roundtables with Public Health and Business stakeholders in September.

Data included in the 2019 Public Health Survey states that, among all children in 2017-2019 combined: 17% were living with at least one parent who exhibited hazardous, harmful drinking behaviour or had a possible alcohol dependence (AUDIT score of 8 or more), 2% were living with at least one parent who exhibited harmful drinking behaviour or who had a possible alcohol dependence (AUDIT score of 16 or more) and 83% did not live in a household with a parent who exhibited hazardous, harmful drinking behaviour or who had a possible alcohol dependence.

Having considered the circumstances and in response to the damage caused by unconsented activity in the area of the Parallel Roads of Lochaber Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Scottish Ministers have begun drafting a Nature Conservation Order (NCO). This is being developed in parallel with enforcement action being taken by The Highland Council and Scottish Forestry and an ongoing Police Scotland investigation.