Chamber and committees

There is a budget of £1.8m which covers Connecting Scotland, Ethical Digital Nation and Unlocking the Value of Data programmes. To date, the following spend has been committed:

• Grant funding to the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) to develop digital training, continue support for existing clients and deliver existing projects. This funding covers support for a wide range of digital inclusion initiatives including:
• ‘Digital Champion’ training, delivered through Mhor Collective, which equips individuals to support others in engaging safely and meaningfully online, building digital confidence within communities.;
• Offboarding support for existing Connecting Scotland users, including temporary extension of connectivity with further support for users to transition to other means of connectivity;
• Supporting the delivery of three digital inclusion programmes - lending libraries, social housing, and place-based initiatives - helping more people to get online through access to devices, connectivity, and technical support, and providing public and third-sector organisations and their staff with support in digital inclusion provision;
• The University of Liverpool to undertake research on a Minimum Digital Living Standard for Scotland. The findings from this research will provide the Scottish Government with detailed Scotland-specific data to identify where there is a need for targeted support for digital inclusion, and help to inform future service design;
• licenses, travel and other services
• staffing costs to support the management of the programme.

All remaining spend in this financial year will be assessed in line with the guidance set out by Ministers in the Scottish Public Finance Manual and current Scottish Government guidelines on spending controls

In 2023-24, total Scottish Government funding for Connecting Scotland and Ethical Digital Nation combined was £1.3 million. This was allocated as follows:

• Grant funding to the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) to develop digital training, continue support for existing clients and deliver existing projects. This funding covers support for a wide range of digital inclusion initiatives including:
  • ‘Digital Champion’ training, delivered through Mhor Collective, which equips individuals to support others in engaging safely and meaningfully online, building digital confidence within communities;
  • Offboarding support for existing Connecting Scotland users, including temporary extension of connectivity with further support for users to transition to other means of connectivity;
  • Supporting the delivery of three digital inclusion programmes - lending libraries, social housing, and place-based initiatives - helping more people to get online through access to devices, connectivity, and technical support, and providing public and third-sector organisations and their staff with support in digital inclusion provision;
• £100,000 for the Digital Participation Charter Fund to promote and recognise digital inclusion amongst organisations. Some of the projects funded include:
  • Budding Engineers (£10,000 award) to provide access to digital skills and teaching for people with additional support needs in several areas of Scotland;
  • Deaf Action (£10,000 award) to provide digital and employability support for people experiencing hearing loss across Scotland;
  • Milan Senior Welfare Organisation (£9,850 award) to provide basic digital skills and digital support for older people and their carers from the South Asian community in East Lothian and Edinburgh;
• Programme incidentals (e.g. software licences, training, stakeholder engagement, advertising and marketing);
• Staffing costs to support the ongoing management of both programmes

Our education and skills system is already adapting in response to the transition to net zero with colleges and universities acting as key anchor points for research, innovation, and training.

Against a challenging economic and financial context, the Scottish Government continues to increase funding for health and social care services.

Providing over £1.9 billion additional investment in frontline health spend since 2021-22 - ahead of trajectory to meet the £2.5 billion target by 2026-27.

Supporting a 20% increase in Primary Care investment over the same time frame – ensuring we remain on track to deliver our commitment to reach 25% by 2026-27.

Mental health remains a priority, with overall increases in spend and total investment now standing at over £1.3 billion across the Scottish Government and NHS Boards - enabling record numbers of staff in providing more varied support and services to a larger number of people than ever before.

We remain committed to making an additional £250 million available for the National Mission on Drugs over the course of the parliament, and we will continue to publish a financial breakdown in the National Mission Annual Reports.

Cancer remains a national priority, within the Scottish Government and across NHS Scotland. Our Cancer Strategy for Scotland 2023-2033 was published in June 2023.

We know that there is a clear relationship between alcohol consumption and increased risk of developing certain cancers, including breast cancer. Successful implementation of evidence-based prevention strategies targeted at harmful health behaviours could prevent approximately 40% of cancers.

Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems in partnership with Scottish Government shared information with primary care providers on the link between alcohol and some cancers in 2022-23, and maintains guidance on this on its website.

The Scottish Government has also increased the minimum unit price of alcohol to 65 pence per unit from 30 September 2024, and commissioned Public Health Scotland to carry out a review of the evidence for potential restrictions on alcohol marketing. If the evidence supports it, the Scottish Government will consult on focused proposals at a future date.

The Scottish Government are working to implement specific recommendations from the Drug Deaths Taskforce relating to the stigma that women very often face when accessing drug and alcohol treatment.

We are working to ensure that a gender-sensitive approach is taken across all new and developing initiatives in the National Drugs Mission, and are taking specific steps to address the particular stigma faced by women who have children.

This includes convening an expert working group to develop a good practice guide to improve the support and care that women and their infants receive during the perinatal period, which will reach across drugs and alcohol, social work and maternity and wider health services.

Scotland has a long-established and functioning register of tobacco and nicotine vapour product retailers. The Tobacco and Vapes Bill, if passed, will expand Scotland’s existing registration scheme to include retailers selling herbal smoking products and nicotine products.

The Scottish Government’s view is that introducing a licensing system at this time would put undue pressure on local authorities and the retail sector. In line with our Tobacco and Vaping Framework, the technical infrastructure of the register is being improved, which has been welcomed by stakeholders.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill, if passed, will ban the advertising, promotion and sponsorship of vapes including non-nicotine vapes and nicotine products that are currently not captured in a similar way to existing restrictions on the advertisement of tobacco products. The Bill, if passed, will also ban the free distribution, nominal pricing and substantial discounting of vapes to anyone of any age. This will ensure that retailers do not use this as an alternative way to promote their products.

The Bill, if passed, will also provide a number of powers to Scottish Ministers to regulate the display of vaping products and their prices, as well as the display of empty retail packaging or anything that represents the products, in retailers in Scotland. Further consultation will be undertaken before making regulations under this power.

Additionally the Bill, if passed, also provides powers for the Secretary of State to make regulations about the quality, safety and product standards to be met for production, sale or importation of vaping products, as well as their packaging, the features, and their flavours. These powers can only be exercised to make regulations containing devolved provision if the Secretary of State obtains the consent of the Scottish Ministers.

NHS 24 is committed to providing safe and effective care to our patients across Scotland 365 days of the year. During times of peak demand staff work hard to answer as many calls as quickly and safely as possible.

Calls to the 111 service can be unanswered for a variety of reasons, including callers choosing to end their call after being connected to the automated messaging service and hearing the options available to them.

These include accessing self-care advice via NHS Inform or contacting another area of the health service which may be more appropriate to meet their needs.

The Scottish Government continues to support NHS 24's on-going work to help reduce unanswered calls, including recently revising NHS 24's key performance indicators to help better reflect and understand the current demands on the service.

This work allows the Service to capture any unmet demand, and any potential risks where callers have made multiple attempts to access 111 without success.

It will also allow the Service to continue to make improvements to service delivery moving forward.