Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government published the National Specification for Psychological Therapies and Interventions and the Core Mental Health Standards in September 2023.

We have made a commitment to take a phased approach to implementation, to ensure the Standards and Specification would be implemented effectively in light of existing pressures across the health and social care system.

Assessment tools to assess and support adherence to the Specification and Standards were developed and piloted in spring 2024 and will be rolled out across all boards in 2024-25.

Additionally, Public Health Scotland have reviewed the publication of the Mental Health Quality Indicator Framework and will be publishing this in interactive dashboard format including new Board and HSCP level data from 26 November 2024. This will provide transparency of key access and quality indicators relevant to the Specification and Standards in one place, with the intention to expand this collection in due course.

The removal of A1 Plus was a change enforced by Microsoft, applied to all customers globally. In effect, that licence tier has been retired by Microsoft, therefore there was no option to negotiate a deal to continue to provide A1 Plus for Glow users. Officials pressed Microsoft to afford some flexibility in regards to the A1 Plus licence withdrawal date. However, Microsoft responded that this was not possible.

The A1 licence in Glow remains in place and will continue to provide access to the web-based version of Microsoft Office until the contract end-date in September 2027. Scottish Government has commissioned Education Scotland to undertake a review of needs for any national digital provision in the future.

NatureScot culling data does not distinguish between public and private deer managers.

Significant progress has been made in recent years to improve smart, integrated ticketing and payment on public transport. Since 2019 Scottish smartcards are universal, meaning they are compatible for nearly all smart tickets available in Scotland. This includes the National Entitlement Card which is used by over two million citizens for concessionary travel. Regionally there are six integrated multi-bus operator or multi-modal schemes available in Scotland’s main cities, on a mix of mobile or smartcard platforms. The Smart, Integrated Ticketing and Payment Delivery Strategy, published on 21 August 2024 also provides detail on activity over the next period to build on this progress.

Data from the reported annual cull returns is set out in the following table:

NatureScot regularly publish this data and further breakdowns can be found on their website https://www.nature.scot/doc/naturescot-deer-census-results which includes a breakdown of reported cull information from 1996 – 2023-24.

The Scottish Government remains committed to modernising deer management to tackle high deer numbers, specifically in order to help us to achieve our biodiversity and carbon objectives. We continue to pursue a range of actions to deliver this commitment.

The Scottish Government’s future legislative programme has been set out as part of the 2024-25 Programme for Government. The Natural Environment Bill will be introduced this Parliamentary year, which will bring forward significant reforms to the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996.

In the meantime we are working on those Deer Working Group recommendations that do not require primary legislation through the Strategic Deer Board.

In addition to this there are three pilot incentive schemes led by NatureScot and the Cairngorms National Park Authority which will launch this autumn to financially support deer managers to control numbers of deer in specific parts of Scotland in response to the climate and nature emergencies.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29283 on 24 September 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website search facility, which can be found at: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy was published in June 2023. To show how the Strategy is making a positive difference to people’s mental health, at all levels of need, it is structured around a Vision and a set of Outcomes so we can be held to account for our progress.

We published our Delivery Plan and Workforce Action Plan in November 2023. Both set out the actions we will take in order to make progress on these outcomes. This requires local and national leadership as we collectively work towards key national outcomes whilst maintaining local flexibility.

We are committed to robustly review, monitor and evaluate the Strategy, the accompanying Delivery Plan and the Workforce Action Plan to ensure we are committed to the right actions. We will shortly begin publication of regular reporting on progress towards our Strategy Delivery Plan.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring high-quality care for people with kidney disease, and other non-communicable diseases, expecting adherence to existing guidelines and best practice, such as the National Specification for Psychological Therapies and Interventions.

The Specification sets out how access to and the quality of psychological service delivery can be improved, and what the people of Scotland can expect.

To support the implementation of the Specification we are producing a number of ‘Once for Scotland’ guides, in collaboration with key partners. These national guides will support the delivery of psychology therapies in Scotland and promote best practice.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29283 on 24 September 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website search facility, which can be found at: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers