Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has provided £15 million to local authorities for the provision of community-based mental health and wellbeing supports and services in 2024-25.

Scottish Ministers make contractual grant payments based on the projected cumulative difference between Operating Costs and Revenue for each Service Year.

Islander fares on Northern Isles routes were frozen from 2020 to 2024 along with a 20% reduction in cabin fares. This meant that government effectively bore the loss of revenue.

These initiatives have required the Scottish Government to invest an additional £4.8m since 2020, over and above the general subsidy, in order to protect islanders from the impacts of recent high levels of inflation.

The Scottish Government has provided funding to community-based mental health and wellbeing support services for children, young people and their families in the Scottish Borders since 2020. This is broken down into:

Justice agencies are operationally independent of the Scottish Ministers.

However, misogyny and racism should play no part in the operation of the justice system. We will continue to support all justice agencies and bodies who operate within the justice system to eradicate racism and misogyny.

In April 2023, Scottish Government published a landmark summary of data on Ethnicity and Justice. This presents a picture of what is currently known about the experiences of minority ethnic people within Scotland’s justice system and supports the development and delivery of evidence-led actions.

Through our Cross Justice Group on Race Data and Evidence, the Scottish Government continues to improve our understanding of the experiences of minority ethnic people within Scotland’s Justice system. Generally, our approach supports the commitments contained within the Race Equality Framework (2016-2030) and Immediate Priorities Plan (2021-2023).

In relation to policing specifically, in May 2023, the former Chief Constable of Police Scotland declared that it is institutionally racist and discriminatory. This is an important recognition of the work still to do to ensure that policing and justice feel trusted by, and provide the right service to, all our communities. Their Policing Together programme is taking forward a range of actions to move towards this goal.

Our ambition is for everyone to have a safe, good quality and affordable home that meets their needs in the place where they want to be, including women and families. Since 2007, we have supported the delivery of more than 133,000 affordable homes, over 94,000 of which were for social rent, including over 26,000 council homes. We remain committed to delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 with at least 70% for social rent and 10% in rural and island areas, and between 23 March 2022 and end of June 2024, we have delivered 22,743 affordable homes towards the 110,000 target, of which over 17,000 have been homes for social rent.

We continue to work closely with partners to deliver the right homes in the right places and it is for local authorities through their Local Housing Strategies and Strategic Housing Investment Plans to identify the type, location, size and tenure of homes required in their areas.

The Scottish Government regularly publishes figures on homes delivered, which can be found online at:

Housing statistics quarterly update: new housebuilding and affordable housing supply - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The draft Islands Connectivity Plan (ICP) Strategic Approach paper was published for public consultation earlier this year. Building on the Fair Fares Review, we said that we would take forward detailed consideration of a number of ferry fare proposals, including on Road Equivalent Tariff, islander fares and under 22s.

The outputs from the consultation and engagement, published on 3 September, will support the finalisation of the ICP Strategic Approach, and will inform the development of the remaining elements of the ICP, including work on future ferry fares policy.

Funding for Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Supports and Services for children, young people and their families has been distributed to each local authority area as follows:

The Scottish Government is continuing to look into this matter and awards to TN Trawlers or associated companies over the periods of time covered in the BBC’s recent reporting.

Every child and young person should be able to access support for their mental health and wellbeing when and where they need it. Not all children and young people need specialist services like CAMHS, and many will find more suitable support in their local community.

Since 2020, we have provided local authorities with over £50 million to develop and deliver community-based mental health and wellbeing supports and services for children, young people and their families, with a further £15 million being made available in 2024-25. The services are focused on prevention and early intervention and, where appropriate, offer an alternative to CAMHS by providing support in a community setting.

Supports and services are available in every local authority area, with more than 300 now in place across the country. This includes mentoring services, art-based therapies, digital services, whole-family supports, counselling services and supports involving sport or physical activity.

Local authorities have reported that over 58,000 people used the supports and services in the first half of 2023. We have also ensured access to counselling services in all secondary schools, and continue to give local authorities £16 million per year to fund this.

Information on how many children and young people have accessed community-based mental health and wellbeing supports and services is provided retrospectively to the Scottish Government by local authorities. Reporting provided by Scottish Borders Council for the period 1 July 2023 to 31 March 2024 indicates that 3,967 children and young people used the community-based mental health and wellbeing supports and services delivered by Scottish Borders Council through its share of the £15 million per annum funding provided to local authorities by the Scottish Government. Data is not collected on whether those accessing these supports and services are also accessing, or have accessed, CAMHS.

In addition, young people aged 16 and over residing in the Scottish Borders have benefitted from grassroots community-based projects supporting mental health and wellbeing provided through the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults. However, the Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of young people using these projects or those accessing other community-based mental health support that may be available in the Scottish Borders but not provided through the Scottish Government funding streams referenced above.