Chamber and committees

The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 27 March 2024 by Liam McArthur MSP (Liberal Democrats). As such, this is a Member's Bill, not a Scottish Government Bill.

Alongside the Bill, Mr McArthur submitted a Financial Memorandum, setting out an assessment of the projected costs of implementing the Bill. He also wrote to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee on 17 June 2024, and again on 14 October 2024, to provide updates to the figures in the Financial Memorandum.

A Scottish Government memorandum was provided to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee on 30 September 2024. This advised that the Scottish Government considered that the costs provided by the member responsible for the Bill were likely to be underestimates. This same memorandum also set out the Scottish Government’s view that the Bill, as introduced, is outside of the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament, and that the Scottish Government would be taking a neutral position on the Bill.

A further letter was sent to the Committee on 27 February 2025, following the Scottish Government’s oral evidence session, to provide estimates of the costs associated with providing initial and refresher training to NHS staff. This noted that all cost estimates provided at this stage are purely indicative, and that this is something that will need to be kept under careful review as the Bill moves through the Parliamentary process.

Significant issues were raised about various aspects of the Bill in the Committee’s Stage 1 report, and during the Stage 1 debate. As highlighted in the Stage 1 report, the Committee made a number of recommendations in relation to the detail of the Bill including about areas for further debate and potential amendment. As such, we are considering our own position moving forward, in light of Parliament's decision to support the general principles of the Bill, and we will be paying close attention to any amendments put forward by non-Government MSPs to consider the practical, financial and legal implications of these.

It is the Scottish Government’s view that both parents should be involved in their child’s life, as long as this is in the child’s best interests.

The Children (Scotland) Act 1995 is the key legislation on contact, residence, and parental responsibilities and rights. When deciding whether to make an order under section 11 of the Act (e.g. a contact order) the welfare of the child must be the court’s paramount consideration.

The court must also – taking into account the child's age and maturity – have regard to any views the child wishes to express and the need to protect the child from any abuse, or the risk of any abuse, which affects or might affect the child.

There is no legal presumption in favour of contact contained in section 11 of the 1995 Act. It is for the court to decide what information and evidence it needs to make a decision about what is best for a child, based on the facts and circumstances of the case.

However, recent research suggested there is a general presumption that contact is in the child’s best interests: Domestic Abuse and Child Contact: The Interface Between Criminal and Civil Proceedings - SCCJR.

Following this research, the Scottish Government has held workshops with key stakeholders on how to improve the interaction between the civil and criminal courts in the context of domestic abuse. The Scottish Government is currently considering potential changes to take forward.

The Children (Scotland) Act 1995 is the key legislation on contact, residence and parental responsibilities and rights. When the court is deciding whether to make an order under section 11 of the Act (e.g. a contact order) the driving principle of the legislation is that the welfare of the child must be the court’s paramount consideration.

The court must also – taking into account the child's age and maturity – have regard to any views the child wishes to express and have regard to the need to protect the child from any abuse (including domestic abuse), or the risk of any abuse, which affects or might affect the child.

It is for the court to decide what information and evidence it needs to make a decision about what is best for a child. The court may request a range of reports and information before reaching a decision and may appoint a child welfare reporter to get the child’s views or report on the best interests of the child.

The court can order that contact must take place at a child contact centre. This can either be supervised contact, when a trained member of staff observes the contact to ensure the safety of those involved, or supported contact, facilitated by staff who will support children and non-resident parent to meet and spend time together.

Statistics on the class sizes of P1 to P3 pupils are published in the pupil census supplementary statistics, available on the Scottish Government website at:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/pupil-census-supplementary-statistics/

It is a matter for individual Health Boards to consider the implementation of any new medicine to meet the needs of their local population, and they are responsible for funding new medicines from their local medicines budgets. However, the Scottish Government has committed to investing rebates from the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines, Pricing Access and Growth (VPAG) to fund the New Medicines Fund (NMF), which provides additional top-up funding to territorial Health Boards to support the cost of introducing new medicines. Since 2014-15, £906 million has been made available to Health Boards through this fund. In addition, a national process is in place, administered by National Services Scotland National Procurement (NP), to review early access programmes on a ‘once for Scotland’ basis on behalf of Scottish Health Boards.

The South East Scotland Cancer Network (SCAN) continue to focus on reducing waiting times and improving outcomes for people diagnosed with ovarian cancer. They have made recent innovations in both the pre-diagnosis and post-diagnosis parts of the pathway:

• Pre diagnosis: patients referred with suspected ovarian cancer automatically receive a CT scan appointment and should the scan show any suspicious features, the multi-disciplinary team will review and an action plan will be formalised. They report that this has significantly decreased waiting times.
• Post diagnosis: 10 dedicated advanced ovarian cancer surgery lists are offered each week supported by the specialist gynae-oncology team and the colorectal and hepato-biliary surgery teams, as appropriate, aiming to improve post-surgery outcomes including survival rates.

Local authorities are supported in fulfilling their duties under the 2004 Act through the statutory code of practice on additional support for learning.

In instances where parents/carers are concerned that education authorities may not be fulfilling their duties under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004, there are a range of dispute resolution mechanisms available under the 2004 Act. These include mediation, independent adjudication, and referral to the Additional Support Needs Tribunal.

Under section 70 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 any interested party can make a reference to the Scottish Ministers that a responsible body (the managers of a school or education establishment, an education authority or other persons) has failed to discharge a duty imposed on them by or for the purposes of any enactment relating to education.

Scottish Government does not collect the information on the number of children and young people in receipt of home education.

Local authorities hold responsibility for ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children being home educated, and that the education they are receiving is suitable for their age and ability. In line with the Scottish Government's home education guidance, it is recommended that local authorities should make contact on an annual basis with those families who are known to be home educating within that local authority area.

As part of the update to this guidance, Scottish Government will work with local authority partners to consider options for collecting an aggregate number of children and young people home educating in their area.

I refer the member to S6W-38037.

The £60m Scottish Government funding for play park renewals was distributed among the 32 local authorities based on population of 0-14 year olds and rurality. In the first year, the formula was:

1.95% on population 0-14

2.5% on rurality

From 2022/23, the formula was:

1.93% on population 0-14

2.7% on rurality

Information on Ministerial engagements is routinely published on the Scottish Government website and can be found at: www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/. The engagements for May 2025 will be published three months in arrears, in line with the Scottish Ministerial Code.