Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-30449 on 22 October 2024. 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.

Local authorities are independent bodies, and it is for them to consider whether to use the powers under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 to deliver local reliefs. The Scottish Government includes information on these powers in its Local government finance circular 5/2024: non-domestic rates relief guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) issued to local authorities annually.

Development of the consultation will be informed by an initial phase of expert research, which is currently underway.

Work is progressing towards publication of the report to develop a detailed baseline understanding of the distinct roles and functions of the Law Officers and how the functions of law officers operate in other countries.

We have committed to consulting on the role of the Law Officers. To further that commitment research has been commissioned to develop a detailed baseline understanding of the many distinct roles and functions of the Law Officers and will provide information on how the functions of law officers operate in other countries.

The role of the Law Officers is secured by the Scotland Act 1998, and reflects the system in place prior to devolution. What any changes to that role would require by way of an Act of the UK or Scottish parliament would depend on any changes proposed.

To support practitioners in applying the Six Principles of Good Rehabilitation, Scottish Government has developed a self-assessment tool in partnership with the National Rehabilitation Network. This tool was issued to all 14 health boards in September 2024, to be used as a local benchmarking assessment in line with local rehabilitation strategies, for monitoring and evaluation purposes as well as improvements in patients care.

The data collected through the self-assessment will be used to demonstrate the impact of rehabilitation services across health and social care services.

Since the strategy was published Scottish Government has also awarded funding to support the delivery of the Once for Scotland Approach. This includes £526,650 to the Care Inspectorate to enable them to scale up their Care About Physical Activity Programme and £250,000 to Thistle Foundation to support rehabilitation teams to adopt person-centred rehabilitation.

I met with the UN Special Rapporteur earlier this year and we welcome publication of the Report’s findings.

Our Strategic Approach to challenge and deter demand for prostitution and improve support for those with experience was published in February 2024. It recognises that prostitution cannot be considered in isolation, and sets out the Scottish Government’s collective approach, working with stakeholders across the wider public and third sector.

In common with the Nordic Model, the Strategy seeks to enable women to safely, and sustainably, exit from prostitution.

While we continue work with partners to develop a wider improved support pathway, we are now in a position to make progress with an initial phase of this work. Collaborating with Police Scotland, we will look to challenge demand and improve support for women with experience of commercial sexual exploitation.

I met with key stakeholders earlier this month to outline this collaboration, which includes:

• A secondment from the Scottish Government’s Violence against Women and Girls team to ensure that strategic connections to wider relevant Scottish Government initiatives are made.
• Supporting the further development of Operation Begonia (already operational in Aberdeen) to lead to a national and consistent policing approach.
• Funding Police Scotland to gather intelligence to understand the full extent of demand for commercial sexual exploitation across Scotland, helping to better reach victims and strengthen the response to tackling perpetrators

This is a key stage in implementing our Strategic Approach, ensuring that we increase the opportunities for women to access support whilst at the same time ever limiting the opportunities for those carrying out exploitation.

The Scottish Government has established a National Rehabilitation Network, comprised of rehabilitation leads from each health board or health and social care partnership. Network members lead on supporting the application of the Six Principles of Good Rehabilitation and share best practice where the principles are already in place.

The introduction of the Rehabilitation Self-Assessment tool, issued to all 14 health boards in September 2024, will support the evaluation of progress against the Six Principles of Good Rehabilitation to improve rehabilitation services as set out in the Once for Scotland Rehabilitation Approach. The data collected through the self-assessment can be used to demonstrate the impact of rehabilitation services across health and social care services and raise the profile of rehabilitation.

Scottish Government reconfirmed the commitment to improving rehabilitation services through joining the World Rehabilitation Alliance (WRA) in May 2023. This global network of stakeholders supports the implementation of the Rehabilitation 2030 Initiative through advocacy activities. Scottish government continue to share approaches and learning internationally.

The Stigma Action Plan was published on 12 January 2023 as part of the Cross Government response to the Drug Deaths Taskforce. As part of this, a “Design Team” made up of people with lived and living experience are currently exploring what concrete future actions should be taken to minimize the impact of stigma for people who are experiencing problems with their drug or alcohol use.

A number of existing initiatives are already working to reduce the stigma people who use drugs and their families experience. For instance, the Charter of Rights, to be launched on December 11th this year will articulate the Right to Health for this community, a Mental Health Protocol, delivered by Health Improvement Scotland addresses the barriers to accessing co-existing mental health and substance use problems, and an initiative named Humanising Health Care is working with medical students, providing opportunities for them to meet and speak to people in recovery to learn about the human costs of drug and alcohol problems.

We have been working closely with a range of stakeholders to make sure that children, young people and families affected by harms of alcohol or drug use are supported in their own right, as well as being involved in their loved one’s treatment and recovery without having to suffer the shame of stigma which we knows drives people away from support.

The Scottish Government is keen to ensure that local areas provide support at all times and that they assess the needs of people in their areas and work with them to design and deliver services in a way that meets the needs of people impacted by drugs and alcohol.

Through our National Mission we are providing around £250 million of investment to support local areas to assess and meet their local needs.