Chamber and committees

The Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade met the Chief Executive of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce on 18 April. The First Minister and the I had a call with the main business organisations on 20 April and the Chief Executive took part in that call. The Director General for Economy, Gregor Irwin also met the Chief Executive on 21 April. Details of all Ministerial engagements and expenses are proactively published by the Scottish Government, including the costs of travel and accommodation. The information can be accessed in the followng link: https://www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/.

Information prior to 2017-18 is unavailable as it was deleted in accordance with our standard records management practice, before the date of your request.

Funding at the local level is distributed through alcohol and drug partnerships and many of the projects and organisations we support at the national level also work in both alcohol and drugs, therefore it is not possible to disaggregate funding allocated specifically for drug services rather than drug and alcohol services.

Alcohol and Drug Partnerships commission services from both statutory and third sector providers. Data on how this funding is broken down is not held centrally. Financial accounts are published annually by Health Boards and Alcohol and Drugs Partnerships (ADPs) and accessible via each areas website.

Scottish Government funding for drug and alcohol services is allocated to various organisations these are grouped below as:

• Core Funded Organisations (CFOs)
• Other third sector organisations
• Distributed via the Corra Foundation to third sector and grass roots organisations

Details of how funding was allocated by the Corra Foundation can be found in their published annual grants released from 2017 to 2021 at Publications - Corra

Table 1: funding for drug and alcohol services to third sector organisations. 2017-18 to 2022-23

Information about Ministerial engagements is proactively released on the Scottish Government website . The spreadsheets include a wide range of information including details of the organisation/individuals Ministers met along with the subject discussed.

Scottish Government officials work closely with the Scottish Women's Rights Centre (SWRC) to help progress Equally Safe (Scotland’s strategy to eradicate and prevent violence against women and girls), and through the grant monitoring process for the Victim Centred Approach Fund, for which SWRC are a beneficiary.

SafeDeposits Scotland has a duty to provide a quarterly performance report of the scheme’s performance measured against the key performance indicators (KPIs) in the Schedule to the Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011 .

The latest quarterly performance report indicates all KPIs have been met, with the average call response time was 12 seconds and email response time was 8 minutes.

HIV Scotland, along with all our third sector organisations, have made a significant contribution to Scotland’s goal of eliminating HIV Transmissions by 2030.

We were saddened to hear of the decision to close the organisation, and thank HIV Scotland for their support for people living with HIV in Scotland, and their valuable input across the sector.

Whilst their contribution will be missed, Scotland has a number of other excellent third sector organisations who share our ambition to eliminate HIV transmission within Scotland by 2030, and to improve the lives of those living with HIV. By working in partnership, I remain confident that we will meet those goals.

As one example, HIV Scotland were previously funded to lead the HIV self-test pilot which expands testing services so people can order a test in the privacy of their own home. Terrance Higgins Trust will now be funded to provide the service and mitigate any risk to the at-home testing service.

I can confirm that this programme was developed and nine Urology Nurse (non-medical) Advanced Practitioners with cystoscopy skills completed the programme in February 2023 and nine are due for completion February 2024.

Nine additional Urology Practitioners have been recruited to NHS Scotland since the publication of the Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan.

Seventeen Nurse Endoscopists have been signed off for independent practice since 2021 and we anticipate that a further three new Practitioners will sign off in Spring 2023. This would represent an achievement of 80% against the commitment of 36 Nurse Endoscopists by 2025.

The Scottish Government is committed to funding the expansion of free school meals to all pupils in primary and special schools, as well as introducing free year round breakfast and lunch provision to support eligible children and young people outside of the school term.

Currently, all primary school pupils in primaries one to five, all children in special schools, and eligible pupils in Primary 6 through to S6 can benefit from free school lunches in Scotland – the most generous provision anywhere in the UK, saving parents £400 per eligible child per year.

We have also provided £21.75m of funding for free school meal alternatives to eligible families during the school holidays. This is administered by local authorities as a cash payment directly to families.

There is a currently a mixed delivery of breakfast provision across Scotland with a range of service providers including public, private and third sector. We have begun work with local authorities and key stakeholders to better understand and map that provision. That process is ongoing and will feed into future plans as they develop.

In addition, we have committed to building a system of school age childcare, providing care before and after school and in the holidays, which will be funded for those on lowest incomes. As we design a system of school age childcare, we will integrate food and childcare provision wherever possible recognising the benefit to children and families of coordinating food, childcare and activities.

As a result of the difficult decisions which had to be taken through the Emergency Budget review, recruitment of the 1,000 additional roles to support community mental health resilience, ensuring every GP Practice has access to a mental health and wellbeing service has not yet commenced. We have already prioritised significant investment to build mental health capacity in primary care through Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027 and the Primary Care Improvement Fund.

We remain committed to improving mental health service provision in primary care settings. We are therefore working closely with stakeholders, including the Mental Health in Primary Care National Oversight Group, to develop plans to best use the resource available across the system in 2023-24, and in future years to improve support, assessment and treatment in primary care settings.

The Drug Deaths Taskforce concluded that, due to the prevalence of drug use in prisons and the principle of keeping people closer to their families for support, a specific recovery prison would not be adequate for the whole prison population. Issues were also raised around the punitive approach that may be taken for those who relapse in a recovery wing. It therefore recommended a more nuanced approach, expanding recovery cafes and hubs across the prison estate, and supporting these to develop into recovery communities. As these communities grow, there may be a case for providing dedicated wings, however any provision would be an operational decision for the Scottish Prison Service.

The Scottish Prison Service are already working in partnership with local third sector and national organisations to enhance and develop approaches to deliver consistent recovery pathways to support integration back into our communities. The Scottish Prison Service will also publish its new Drug and Alcohol Strategy this year that will include a focus on developing recovery communities across the prison estate.

As part of our National Mission, the Scottish Government is now providing a record level of funding to the community and grass roots groups which set up and run recovery communities, hubs and cafes in prisons.