Chamber and committees

The following table represents funding Sustrans has received directly from the Scottish Government or Transport Scotland, and does not reflect any monies that Sustrans may have secured from indirectly. In future years Active Travel funding will be distributed through Local Authorities for Infrastructure Investment and through Regional Transport Authorities for Behaviour Change initiatives.

The breakdown of support split by year

SEPA, as Scotland’s hydrometric and flood warning authority, and a civil contingency category one responder, provides a range of real time data including Floodline flood alerts and warnings; rainfall data at over 250 locations and water level data at over 400 locations in Scotland. Through an on-going technology improvement programme, SEPA has increased the timeliness of rainfall and water level real time data.

SEPA continues to develop its data and explore how its use may be expanded including sharing data through Application Programming Interfaces for organisations to ingest into their own websites or systems; prioritising data by internet searches during major flood incidents; and exploring how to better integrate flood warning and water levels information and to simplify real time access to the information.

In the last 5 years, almost 100,000 charges have been reported to the Aberdeen Office of COPFS.

COPFS uses a live, operational database to manage the processing of reports submitted to Procurators Fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies throughout Scotland. It is designed to meet business needs in the processing of criminal cases, rather than for statistical analysis. Any data sought in the requested period would encompass convictions for cases reported out with that period. As such, any figures would not accurately reflect numbers of convictions in respect of the cases reported in that period.

The following table shows percentage of cases reported to the Aberdeen Procurator Fiscal’s Office containing one or more charge under - Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

Information is not held centrally on the most common way to consume illicit drugs.

In 2023, 14% of all adults had used any of the drugs listed in the Scottish Health Survey in the previous 12 months. The drug most commonly used in the 12 months prior to being interviewed was cannabis (9%) (The Scottish Health Survey 2023 - volume 1: main report - gov.scot). Cannabis is typically smoked.

The Drug and Alcohol Information System (DAISy) captures information on people seeking specialist drug treatment. Public Health Scotland publish statistics annually presenting an overview of initial assessments for specialist drug and alcohol treatment (Drug and alcohol information system (DAISy) overview of initial assessments for specialist drug and alcohol treatment 2023/24 - Drug and alcohol information system (DAISy) - Publications - Public Health Scotland). This includes an analysis of the route of both cocaine and heroin use.

Public Health Scotland also publish information on the provision of injecting equipment (Injecting equipment provision in Scotland - 2022 to 2023 - Injecting equipment provision in Scotland - Publications - Public Health Scotland) along with information from their Needle Exchange Surveillance Initiative (NESI) which aims to measure the uptake of harm reduction services among people who inject drugs in Scotland (Needle Exchange Surveillance Initiative (NESI) 13 August 2024 - Needle Exchange Surveillance Initiative (NESI) - Publications - Public Health Scotland).

SEPA is responsible for producing national flood risk maps and operating Scotland’s flood warning system. Both actions are important to communicate flood risk and rely heavily on the use of data and presenting it for greatest impact; both in terms of knowing which places are at risk of flooding and what is the immediate risk during unsettled weather. SEPA keep these processes under review through engagement with stakeholders and customers and are committed to continuous improvement. Recent improvements include work on the Scottish Flood Forecast to deliver a mobile-friendly overview of the flood risk for the next 3 days, an upgraded Floodline messaging system, and improved and more accessible real time water levels webpage.

The draft Scottish budget indicates a £52.6m grant in aid allocation to SEPA for 2025-26 and SEPA may determine how to allocate those resources, setting this out in an Annual Operating Plan each year.

There are no mobile community pharmacies providing NHS Pharmaceutical Services in any part of Scotland. There are 1248 community pharmacies with fixed locations across the country.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of highlighting the link between alcohol and non-communicable disease. Evidence is clear that alcohol consumption increases the risk of developing non-communicable diseases, including some cancers.

A refreshed cross-government and cross-sectoral approach to population health - focused on prevention - is being progressed. Increasing healthy life expectancy and reducing health inequalities across Scotland remains a clear ambition for this Government. It is clear the reform of health and care services alone will not be enough to stem the current tide of population health decline in Scotland.

The Population Health Framework is being developed jointly by the Scottish Government & COSLA and in collaboration with Public Health Scotland, Directors of Public Health and key local, regional and national partners. The Scottish Government will set out key actions to reduce alcohol harm following the Population Health Framework, including the role of public health messaging and awareness.

The Scottish Government greatly values Muslim communities in Scotland and is committed to tackling Islamophobia in our society. Since the publication of the Report of the inquiry into Islamophobia in Scotland, the Scottish Government has worked towards adopting many of the relevant recommendations made by the Cross-Party Group (CPG), and progress continues to be made in their delivery. We work cooperatively with a wide range of organisations throughout the country to tackle all forms of hatred, including Islamophobia, and promote inclusion. This work is grounded in prevention, early intervention, evidence-based approaches and meaningful interaction with people who have lived experience of exclusion and hate.