Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to improving healthy life expectancy and addressing the underlying inequalities that contribute to health disparities across Scotland – and as part of that recognises the importance of addressing the wider determinants of health that are set out under Sir Michael Marmot’s eight principles.

We are currently working with local, regional and national level partners to develop a Population Health Framework, which will be co-published with COSLA in Spring 2025. The Framework will set out a cross-government and cross-sector approach improve the key building blocks of health which include: good early years and education; good work and income; healthy places; and equitable health care. It will have an overarching aim to accelerate the recovery and improvement of population health in Scotland.

In addition, Professor Sir Michael Marmot is currently working with Public Health Scotland, with councils and health boards (over the next two years), through the Collaboration for Health Equity in Scotland, in three ‘Marmot Places’: North Ayrshire, Aberdeen City and South Lanarkshire.

The Collaboration is intended to help these local areas reduce health inequalities and improve wellbeing in their communities. It will gather, integrate and share learning from all parts of the system (the NHS, local government, community and voluntary sectors, and businesses) about what is and isn’t working, towards improving health equity across the whole country.

Of the 700,000 reported homes that failed the tolerable standard in 2023, 244,000 were social homes. This means that 8% of social homes failed the tolerable standard.

Social landlords are required, under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001, to keep houses they let fit for human habitation and ensure that any repairs are carried out when they are needed.

We work closely with social landlords in our shared ambition to provide quality, affordable social homes and continue to have constructive engagement with them on a range of matters.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) are responsible for the delivery of the Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) audit which was commissioned by Scottish Government in July 2024. PHS has informed Scottish Government that there was a delay in recruitment required for audit development, however this has now been completed. PHS are now working at pace in line with the business case requirements to establish this new audit.

The UK Pesticides National Action Plan (NAP) was published on 21 March 2025.

The NAP is a UK-wide document which sets out the shared ambition of the Scottish Government, Defra, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive. It aims to minimise the risks and impacts of pesticides to human health and the environment, while ensuring that our land managers in the agriculture, horticulture and amenity sector have effective tools to manage pests and pesticide resistance.

Supporting uptake of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is central to the actions set out in the NAP. This includes targeting use of conventional chemical pesticides to when environmentally and economically justified. It also includes equipping pesticide users with the knowledge and support needed to adopt a range of sustainable crop protection practices, including innovative precision application technologies, to continue to reduce the use of conventional chemical pesticides whilst retaining the ability to address the crop protection challenges arising from climate change. The NAP also commits to improving and supporting compliance with regulations to ensure that pesticides are used safely.

Measuring progress is a key commitment of the NAP and as such sets the first domestic reduction target for pesticides in the UK, with an aim of reducing a suite of representative pesticide load indicators by 10% by 2030. The target is designed to measure progress against reducing environmental pressure from pesticides, rather than representing a simple usage reduction target. This reduces the potential for unintended consequences, which could risk the removal of important tools for farmers, growers and other land managers. The NAP sets a target for the arable sector, using data from the existing pesticide usage surveys, but also acknowledges that we want to improve our understanding of the nature of pesticide use in the amenity and amateur sectors in future.

We welcome publication of this plan, which commits us to measuring our progress over the next five years, and we look forward to working with stakeholders during the implementation of these actions.

The plan can be viewed at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-pesticides-national-action-plan-2025.

The overall condition of housing in Scotland has been steadily improving over the years, driven by existing standards. The Scottish Government is committed to tackling disrepair and driving a culture in which good maintenance is given a high priority.

The increase in the tolerable standard failure rate between 2018 and 2023 is due to the introduction of the fire and smoke alarm, and carbon monoxide alarm criteria. The Scottish House Conditions Survey results for 2023 show that 562,000 dwellings failed the smoke and fire alarm criteria while 407,000 failed the carbon monoxide alarm criteria, although some of these dwellings will overlap.

When previously analysed in 2022 it was found that without the fire and smoke alarm, and carbon monoxide alarm criteria the tolerable standard failure rate was similar to 2018 with an estimated 55,000 households or 2% of all dwellings below tolerable standard.

Scottish Government officials remain actively engaged with Public Health Scotland (PHS), who are responsible for the implementation of the Fracture Liaison Service audit. Progress against the business case requirements to develop and then implement the new audit is reviewed on a regular basis.

I also refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-35534 21 March 2025. 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-35647 on 21 March 2025. 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 cause behind the reported increase in homes falling below the tolerable standard since 2018 is due to the introduction of the fire and smoke alarm, and carbon monoxide criteria in 2022.

The legal duty to take action on houses that do not meet the tolerable standard rests with the local authority. No homeowner will be criminalised if they need more time, and there are no penalties for non-compliance.

Scottish Fiscal Commission forecasts for income tax include judgements for behavioural responses which are based on evidence from academic literature on how taxpayers have responded to previous changes to income tax policy in Scotland, the UK, and internationally. The SFC applies behavioural responses to policies over the course of their full forecast. More detailed information is available at the following link: How we forecast behavioural responses to income tax policy | Scottish Fiscal Commission.

We recognise the importance of this issue to harbour users; however, ports in Scotland are mostly independent statutory bodies – each governed by their own local legislation – and are deemed commercial entities. Therefore, the Scottish Government has no say in the day-to-day running of their business, nor can it dictate business decisions made by a company on how to best utilise its resources. These are matters for the port authority.