Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has issued guidance to Health Boards setting out our expectation that Ukrainian refugees in Scotland will have access to all primary health care services along with vaccinations including those for COVID-19.

We know that alcohol misuse and obesity are the two main risk factors (together with blood borne viruses) that cause liver disease.

Research by the British Liver Trust shows that alcohol-related liver disease accounts for 60% of all liver disease. The latest alcohol-specific deaths statistics published by National Records of Scotland in August 2022 show that in 2021 alcoholic liver disease caused 795 deaths which is an increase of 36 compared to the previous year.

Living with obesity or being overweight is also linked with an increased risk of developing a non-alcohol-related fatty liver disease (NAFLD). According to the 2019 Scottish Health Survey , two-thirds of adults in Scotland were living with obesity or being overweight. Obesity prevalence in Scotland has remained relatively stable since 2008.

The Scottish Government has not carried out a specific assessment of the impact of either alcohol misuse or obesity on liver disease mortality rates in the West of Scotland.

However, we are determined to address Scotland’s problematic relationship with alcohol and unhealthy diet. We are in the process of reviewing the Minimum Unit Price and Alcohol Brief Interventions policies with an intention to consult on a range of potential alcohol marketing restrictions as we continue to implement the 2018 Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan .

Delivering on our 2021 Programme for Government commitment, the Scottish Government consulted on proposals for legal services regulation reform. An independent consultation analysis report was published in July 2022.

The report highlighted that all respondents, regardless of affiliation, shared as a common aspiration, the need for any future model to be transparent, open to public scrutiny and efficient to ensure that justice remains accessible to all.

The Scottish Government will respond to the consultation analysis report later this year. We continue to engage with stakeholders to collaboratively consider reform of the regulation of legal services, to provide for a modern regulatory framework for Scotland that will best promote competition, innovation and the public and consumer interest in an efficient and independent legal sector.

The Scottish Government welcomes the recommendations made in Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland’s (HMICS) Assurance Review of Police Scotland Strategic Workforce Planning. I look forward to discussing the recommendations with both Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority.

The recruitment and deployment of police officers and staff in Scotland is a matter for the Chief Constable, who along with the Scottish Police Authority, will continue to ensure the capability and capacity of Police Scotland to improve and maintain the safety and wellbeing of people, places and communities in Scotland.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans to ban disposable barbeques.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service are clear to encourage anyone using one to act responsibly both when using and disposing of the barbeques in line with their #safersummer campaign.

Scottish Government fund 31 third sector organisations throughout Scotland to deliver Support in the Right Direction, offering Advocacy and Brokerage Services, of which there is an administrative element. In financial year 2022-23 Scottish Government invested £2,959,658.23 in the Support in the Right Direction programme.

Part of the Grant tender process for SDS funding includes an assessment criterion that all funded projects should be accessible to anyone who might need social care, which includes disabled people.

Scottish Government has provided £46.6m funding since 2014 to organisations providing a range of support services. All people requiring support through the four Self-Directed Support options can benefit from administrative services. Figures are not available solely for the delivery of options 1 and 2, nor available solely for administrative support.

Information on the delivery of SDS Options 1 and 2 is not held centrally nor is the information on administrative support.

We are currently reviewing processes and systems for gathering such data going forward.

1,806 devices have been distributed by the Council in East Lothian using the £25m digital inclusion funding made available by Scottish Government in 2020/21.

In addition, information we have from councils indicates that almost 280,000 devices have been, or are in the process of being, rolled out to learners across Scotland. This includes 72,000 provided as a result of Scottish Government funding.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring every school aged child in Scotland has access to a device by the end of this parliament, in 2026.

This is a complex and ambitious commitment, and we are currently undertaking preparatory work, including looking at the available infrastructure in schools. We are taking work forward in partnership with local government colleagues and have convened a joint partnership board with COSLA to oversee the work.

£10 million of funding has been directed to support cancer waiting times (CWT) improvements in NHS Scotland across 2022-23, as announced by me on 10 August 2022.

Funds will be directed across a number of specialties and initiatives including investing in diagnostic tests to extended working days and weekend working, to increase capacity and see/ treat cancer patients as timely as possible.

Three Early Cancer Diagnostic Centres (ECDC) have been established in the last year within NHS Scotland, providing a new referral pathway to primary care for patients with non-specific symptoms suspicious of cancer, which can often be a sign of blood cancer.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10282 on‎ 26 August 2022. 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

The Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board (ARIOB) last met on 24 August 2022. Updates on the work of the Board, including minutes of meetings and the Board’s Terms of Reference, are available on the Scottish Government website . In relation to the ARIOB publishing its findings,

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05896 on 7 February 2022 and S6W-08269 on 6 May 2022. 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