Chamber and committees

We are committed to delivering drug checking facilities in Scotland and we are currently waiting for further information from the Home Office around their acceptable criteria for these facilities. This is required to inform the license applications being developed in Scotland.

In the meantime we continue to support local city leads as they produce their plans for implementing drug checking facilities and once the acceptable criteria has been clarified we anticipate license applications, seeking permission from the Home Office for drug-checking facilities in Scotland in Dundee, Aberdeen and Glasgow, to be submitted in the coming months.

If those applications are approved by the Home Office, we would work with those cities who are committed to implementing drug checking facilities to have them established as quickly as possible.

The appearance of synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, in the Scottish drug supply has been a concern for some time. At the end of 2022 PHS flagged a small number of deaths related to nitazenes, a new synthetic opioid and issued a public health alert as a result in January 2023. Following recent deaths linked to these substances in England and Wales, the UK Government issued their own alert in June 2023. Changes in the production of heroin, particularly in areas such as Afghanistan, are also raising concerns amongst stakeholders of a likely rise in the supply of synthetic opioids and the danger this will pose to the UK drug supply.

The ability to know what is in the drug supply and when substances of concern, such as synthetic opioids appear, is vital. Recognising the need to understand changes in the substances people are taking, alongside being able to identify potential threats, has meant that through our National Mission we have invested in developing our surveillance abilities. Public Health Scotland now operate their Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response (RADAR) system which issues quarterly reports, but they have also released two health alerts relating to specific substances to raise awareness to individuals and to enable service providers to deliver vital harm reduction services, including provision of Naloxone. The use of fentanyl testing strips is also currently under consideration. In addition, we are continuing to progress the establishment of drug checking facilities in Scotland through proposed pilot sites in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee. These facilities will be able to provide real-time information about the substances in circulation, issue alerts about anything of concern and provide essential harm-reduction information to individuals using the service.

Scottish Government officials met with UK Government officials recently to discuss the Global Coalition on Synthetic Drugs and are contributing to the sub-working groups on this.

Planning is also underway to host a meeting of national and international partners to discuss this issue and learn from the experience of other countries. A lot of the harm reduction interventions we already have in place are what is recommended to counter the dangers of these new substances.

Public Health Scotland Publish information on the number of GPs and patients nationally and by Health Board and this is available at:

General Practice - GP Workforce and practice list sizes 2012 - 2022 - General Practice - GP workforce and practice list sizes - Publications - Public Health Scotland

Table 2 sets out the number of GPs nationally and in each board area and Table 4 shows the registered number of patients nationally and in each Health Board, over the past 10 years.

It is disappointing to see an overall increase in households becoming homeless from the private rented sector. However, there was a notable decrease between the first and last six months of the year. This is likely due to the cost of living legislation that was introduced in October 2022.

The cost of living crisis continues to place people across Scotland in a precarious position. On 1 June we laid regulations which would – subject to the approval of Parliament – extend emergency measures to cap in-tenancy rents and give additional eviction protections for a further, and final six months, to 31 March 2024, provided they remain necessary and proportionate.

If approved by Parliament, these measures will continue to help stabilise housing costs for private tenants and ensure that the enforcement of evictions will continue to be paused for up to six months across all tenures except in a limited number of circumstances. This provides tenants with additional protection where an eviction order/decree is granted - giving them more time to access the support they need and to find alternative accommodation.

We know that the best way to end homelessness is to prevent it from happening in the first place. As stated in this year’s Programme for Government (published 5 September 2023), in the coming year we will introduce a Housing Bill which will include new duties aimed at the prevention of homelessness.

Through local authorities we have provided over £8.8 million to support more than 6,620 households in rent arrears through the Tenant Grant Fund.

Discretionary Housing Payments play a vital role in safeguarding tenancies. In 2023-24, we are making £83.7 million available to local authorities to spend on Discretionary Housing Payments:

• £69.7 million to fully mitigate the bedroom tax, helping over 92,000 households in Scotland sustain their tenancies
• £6.2 million to mitigate the benefit cap as fully as possible within devolved powers
• £7.9 million to mitigate against the damaging impact of other UK Government welfare cuts, including the ongoing freeze to Local Housing Allowance rates

The Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs has three scheduled meetings per year with representatives from the Scottish Police Federation and met with them on 21 December 2022, 10 May 2023 and next scheduled for 21 September 2023. The Scottish Police Federation also meet regularly with senior Scottish Government officials.

Police pay is not discussed in these meetings as negotiations take place through the Police Negotiating Board for Scotland. I am delighted that an agreement has now been reached in police officer pay negotiations for 2023-24.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-20393 on 14 September 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 .

There are no additional or separately identifiable costs associated with the production and publication of Devolution since the Brexit Referendum paper.

The work to prepare the paper was carried out by officials as part of their normal duties. The Scottish Government does not have a centrally held record of the number of staff involved with this work because, in line with usual practice, details of individual tasks carried out by civil servants, including the number of hours spent on them, are not routinely recorded as there is no business need to do so.

The document was published directly on to the Scottish Government website (see Devolution since the Brexit Referendum - gov.scot ( www.gov.scot) ) as part of a standard central publishing function. It is not possible to provide information on the costs incurred to create and publish the document because in line with usual practice, details of costs to create and publish individual documents in-house published on the website are not routinely recorded as there is no business need to do so.

If a person believes someone has not obeyed a court order for child contact or residence, they can make the court aware of this and ask it either to vary the order or to have the person in question ordered to appear before the court. It would then be for the court to decide whether any failure to obey the order amounted to contempt of court. Individuals may be eligible for financial assistance to raise a court action through the Scottish Legal Aid Board .The Board is responsible for the administration of the legal aid system, independent of Scottish Ministers. The Scottish Government is not involved in the decision making process to grant or refuse legal assistance and it cannot intervene in or comment on legal aid decisions.

Section 22 of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 will, when commenced, place a duty on the court to investigate the reasons behind a failure to obey a court order for contact or residence.

Scottish Government does not currently directly fund projects which specifically promote freedom of religion or belief. Scottish Government funding of faith and belief organisations is now, and has for many years been focused on supporting interfaith engagement work, as well as supporting faith and belief partners to help build inclusive, resilient and cohesive communities across Scotland.

We provide funding to promote interfaith dialogue and support faith and belief communities across the country. The Scottish Government does not fund faith based organisations to promote or lead worship of a particular faith but does fund discrete faith led projects to meet a particular need, or overcome a barrier to equality of outcome or opportunity for a particular faith community. The organisations listed below deliver projects to enhance understanding of faith, interfaith dialogue and community cohesion.

In addition to this funded work, our new Hate Crime Strategy, published in March 2023, sets out our vision for a Scotland where everyone, including people of faith, live free from hatred and prejudice. The strategy was informed by those with lived experience of hate crime, including faith communities. A delivery plan setting out immediate and longer term activity in support of the strategy, including implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, will be published later this year.

Although we cannot provide a comprehensive breakdown of funding provided to faith and belief organisations across all of Scottish Government from 2007, the following is a breakdown of available figures for faith and belief organisations who received Scottish Government funding:

From 2021 until the present the following annual funding amounts have been provided through the Connected Communities Division:

Edinburgh interfaith Association £50,000

Faith in Community Dundee £40,000

Interfaith Glasgow £50,000

Interfaith Scotland £145,000

Scottish Council of Jewish Communities £50,000

In addition to this, in 2023 Interfaith Glasgow received an additional £20,000 for the year 23-24.

Prior to this funding was provided through the Promoting Equality and Cohesion Fund between 2017 and 20 21. Details of this fundingcan be found at Equality funding: Promoting Equality and Cohesion Fund 2017-2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

For 2016-2017 funding was provided through the PECF funding and details can be found at Equality funding 2016 to 2017 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Funding for Interfaith Scotland as an intermediary organisation was provided between 2012 and 2015 with a total funding of £ 330,000.

In 2022 we published our consultation on Tightening rules on advertising and promoting vaping products . Evidence about the impact of e-cigarette use on health was included as a section.

Since then Electronic cigarettes and health outcomes: systematic review of evidence (anu.edu.au) and the UK Government commissioned Khan report have been published, adding further to the evidence base.

In May 2023 we published "Vaping – understanding the prevalence and trends among adults and children" ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/understanding-prevalence-trends-vaping-adults-children/pages/2/). This analysis of data on vaping from twelve surveys conducted at UK or regional level, with a focus on current use, ever tried and dual use of vaping products, and differences by socio-economic status.

We work with Public Health Consultants, Scottish Government analysts, and a range of academics and stakeholders to understand how this, and other evidence, informs current understanding. It is an ongoing process to ensure that the development of a refreshed Tobacco Action Plan is based on the latest evidence.