Chamber and committees

Public Health Scotland publish information on drug related hospital admissions. Data from 1996-97 to 2022-23 is available at https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/drug-related-hospital-statistics/drug-related-hospital-statistics-scotland-2022-to-2023/. The release of data covering 2023-24 is expected in the spring. The accompanying Data Explorer Dashboard provides a more comprehensive breakdown of the statistics, including by age.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) has never sold venison directly to public sector organisations.

FLS does not have the facilities to process venison into meat products for the human food chain. Instead, FLS supplies chilled carcasses to its commercial partners, primarily Highland Game of Dundee and Ardgay Game of Bonar Bridge who are accredited venison processors.

Scotland’s first Arctic policy framework, Arctic Connections, was published in 2019. In line with commitments in Scotland’s International Strategy, work has begun on an evaluation process. This will consider the impact of the framework, how Scotland’s relationship with the Arctic has developed during the implementation period and make recommendations on future engagement. It is due to be completed by the end of 2025.

Any level of violence is a concern but it is not correct to say that serious violent crime has almost doubled in a decade. The number of serious assaults and attempted murders recorded by the police has increased by 9% since 2014-15. However, levels have fallen over the past six years, down 21% from 4,361 in 2018-19 to 3,457 by 2023-24. This is replicated in other sources, with the number of hospital admissions related to assault down by a third between 2014-15 and 2023/24. Despite this encouraging progress we are determined to do more.

That is why, through the Violence Prevention Framework; Supporting documents - Violence prevention framework - gov.scot we have provided over £4 million investment over the last two years, to fund a range of targeted prevention and intervention activity across communities. Key actions so far include:

• Extending the support of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, to reach more individuals and communities across Scotland, including North and South Lanarkshire, Fife, Highlands, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
• Extending the Medics Against Violence Hospital Navigator Programme in two Children’s Hospitals in Aberdeen and Glasgow.
• Supporting Medics Against Violence engagement with young people to highlight the consequences of knife carrying and knife injuries in primary schools, youth clubs and secondary schools.
• Supporting the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit to develop a community of practice for over 100 police School Liaison Officers across Scotland.
• Trained over 800 teachers in schools to provide young people with key messages on violence, reaching 19 local authorities across Scotland.
• Supporting YouthLink Scotland to deliver various online and face to face No Knives, Better Lives training sessions to hundreds of practitioners working with young people, in addition to working directly with young people across Scotland.
• Supporting Education Scotland to deliver the Mentors in Violence Prevention programme, in schools across all 32 local authorities.

As published by Scottish Water on its website at https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/Your-Home/Your-Waste-Water/Overflows/Prioritisation-of-Sewer-Overflows-in-Scotland, there are some 4,080 CSOs on its network.

Scottish Water publishes data on all monitored overflows on its website, and recently launched an overflow map at https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/Your-Home/Your-Waste-Water/Overflows/Live-Overflow-Map. The overflow map lists the number of monitored overflows by local authority.

More detailed information is available from Scottish Water upon request.

A joint COSLA/Scottish Government Flood Risk Management Funding Working Group, including representatives from Scottish Government, COSLA, SEPA, local authority Directors of Finance and flood officers has been established to discuss reform of funding and governance for flood resilience actions in Scotland and make recommendations on these issues to COSLA and Scottish Ministers.

A breakdown of funding per year and requested areas for the last three financial years has been provided below as requested:

The information requested is not collected or held centrally by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained from Health Boards.

The Annual Reports for the NHS Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme (CNORIS) provide details of the scheme along with the number and value of claims made during each financial year and historical values.

The Annual Reports, which also cover information available in terms of categorisation of claims, are published online at Access annual reports for the scheme | National Services Scotland.

Some settlements are paid through a smaller lump sum together with periodic payments. Detail of these Periodic Payment Orders may be found at page 9.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-32778 on 7 January 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 flood resilience budget sits within the local government settlement and for 2025-26 is £121.5 million. An additional £15 million has been set aside in the draft 2025-2026 Scottish Budget to support the delivery of the new Flood Resilience Strategy, wider flooding resilience and coastal adaptation work.