Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03144 on
‎ 28 September 2021. 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 Scottish Government is committed to improving the population of Scotland’s mental health and wellbeing; ensuring everyone receives the best possible care and treatment from our health and care services. Delivering service improvement can only be achieved with the right workforce capacity and capability.

This is why we have committed to develop a long-term Mental Health Workforce Plan in the first half of this Parliament and will ensure that by 2026, 10% of frontline NHS budget is invested in mental health, with 1% directed specifically to children and young people.

Since May 2021 we have committed £27.23 million to support NHS Boards to implement the National Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Service Specification. Through this funding, NHS Boards have started to recruit additional staff to implement the Specification and to build professional capacity to support children and young people with neurodevelopmental support needs.

In addition to this work we continue to support our local authority partners providing £16 million in funding to ensure that every secondary school in Scotland has access to counselling services. Since the beginning of the 2019/20 academic year we have also invested more than £7 million to support our commitment to introduce more than 80 additional counsellors in colleges and universities with over two thirds of these now in place.

Since October 2020, we have also allocated £30 million of additional funding to local authorities to deliver locally based mental health and wellbeing support for 5-24 year olds in their communities. This includes £18.75 million to fund new and enhanced community mental health and wellbeing services for 5-24 year olds with a focus on prevention, early intervention and the treatment of distress. The remaining £11.25m was made available to support children and young people’s mental health and emotional wellbeing issues that have arisen as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As you know, our Mental Health Transition & Recovery Plan, which sets out over 100 actions in response to the mental health effects of the pandemic, is supported by a £120 million Recovery and Renewal fund.

This year, around £40 million has been allocated to NHS Boards to improve the mental health care that children and young people receive through Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and also includes funding for NHS Boards to build professional capacity to support children and young people with neurodevelopmental support needs.

Since October 2020, we have also allocated £30 million of additional funding to local authorities to deliver locally based mental health and wellbeing support for 5-24 year olds in their communities. This includes £18.75 million to fund new and enhanced community mental health and wellbeing services for 5-24 year olds with a focus on prevention, early intervention and the treatment of distress. The remaining £11.25 million was made available to support children and young people’s mental health and emotional wellbeing issues that have arisen as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In addition, we continue to prioritise support for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing in schools, including developing and delivering new mental health training and learning resources, and £16 million per annum in funding to ensure that every secondary school has access to counselling services.

As set out in the Scottish Government’s Climate Change Plan update (CCPu) published in December 2020, a route map will be produced by the end of 2021, assuming the pandemic has moved to a phase to allow this.

The commitment to reduce car kms by 20% by 2030 (against a 2019 baseline) was, as with all of the CCPu transport policy outcomes, determined through consideration of the overall emissions pathway for transport, which in turn was determined by the TIMES model alongside other evidence and assessments.

The 20% figure was also shaped through consideration of a range of analysis, including published academic material and UK Committee on Climate Change assertions on mode shift away from private car use. Moreover, the figure was informed by research Transport Scotland commissioned and undertaken by Element Energy (published here: Decarbonising the Scottish transport sector ). The Element Energy work modelled a number of scenarios to account for the many uncertainties between now and 2030, including the disruption to transport demand brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

I chaired the most recent Low Emission Zones Leadership Group on 8 September 2021. The LEZ Leadership Group comprises of myself, the Minister for Environment, Biodiversity and Land Reform, along with the four LEZ city Local Authorities of Aberdeen City Council, Dundee City Council, City of Edinburgh Council, and Glasgow City Council, and senior officials from SEPA and Transport Scotland.

Scottish Government funding for dementia research is not allocated to NHS Boards.

The following table shows Chief Scientist Office (CSO) funding for dementia research from 2007/8 through academic project/fellowship funding and the annual funding provided to the Dementia and Neuroprogressive Disease research network. CSO’s research project funding panels were paused during 2020 due to COVID-19 related pressures but have since reopened.

Breakdown:

The marine and European Protected Species licences issued to Seagreen Wind Energy Limited (SWEL) in respect of unexploded ordnance (UXO) clearance activities were conditioned such that high order detonation techniques for UXO clearance are used only when it is not possible to undertake UXO clearance using low yield or low order techniques. All possible opportunities to undertake clearance using low order and low yield techniques must have failed before use of high order detonation techniques. The marine licence also conditions that SWEL must, no later than 28 days following the completion of the licensed activity, submit a written report to the licensing authority which confirms the method used to remove each UXO, the considerations made and justification for selecting the method used to remove each UXO including, as appropriate, the failure of other methods.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and Skills Development Scotland (SDS) administer the Flexible Workforce Development Fund (FWDF) on behalf of the Scottish Government. They do not allocate funds to different sectors, as the Fund works on a first come first served basis.

Recognising the significant delivery challenges in the last year due to Covid-19 restrictions, it has been agreed with SFC and SDS to extend academic year 2020-21 delivery to the end of March 2022. Information on employer sector is provided by employers themselves to colleges, the Open University in Scotland (OUiS) and SDS during the application process. To date, the estimated FWDF spend per sector in 2020-21, as reported by SFC and SDS, has been the following:

We are working with industry, local government and environmental groups to develop a route map to deliver our waste and recycling targets for 2025. This work will also be critical in determining how the waste and resources sector will contribute towards lower carbon emissions in the period to 2030 and beyond.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03574 on
‎ 25 October 2021. 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
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