Chamber and committees

The Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019: Overview - Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019: overview - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) commenced on April 2024, the Act places duties on Health Boards to ensure that at all times suitably qualified and competent individuals are working in such numbers as are appropriate for the health, wellbeing and safety of patients, the provision of high-quality care and the wellbeing of staff.

Under the Act, there is a Duty on Health Boards to submit a report on how they complied with their legislative requirements. Following this, Scottish Ministers must publish these reports alongside setting out how they have taken into account and plan to take into account, in their policies for the staffing of health service, the information included in the combined report. The first Health Board Annual Reports are due 30 April 2025.

In addition to our investment in policing, to strengthen our approach to address violence, in May 2023, we published a Violence Prevention Framework for Scotland. This sets out our strategy to prevent violence, and where it does occur, to reduce the harm. The Framework takes a public health approach to tackling violence, with a focus on prevention at a primary, secondary and tertiary level. By using the research and available evidence, in collaboration with our partner organisations we can target those most at risk of experiencing violence (victim and perpetrator), as early as possible.

Through the Framework’s Action Plan, we are delivering a range of activity to prevent and divert people away from violence, supported by over £2m investment this year.

Funding is supporting partner organisations to carry out a range of activities in schools, hospitals and across communities to prevent and respond to people at risk of experiencing or engaging in violence. This activity is being taken forward by the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, Medics Against Violence, YouthLink Scotland, Education Scotland and Police Scotland Youth Volunteers.

A progress update outlining some of the activity carried out over the first year of the Framework was published on 11 September 2024.

Tackling all forms of violence including knife crime is a key priority for this government.

Law enforcement and prosecution are essential in our overall approach to tackling violence, including knife crime. In addition to this, Scotland’s Violence Prevention Framework uses a public health approach to address violence, including knife crime, that focuses on identifying and tackling the underlying root causes of violence. We want to prevent people from picking up a knife in the first instance.

Through the Framework and our partner organisations, a range of activity is being taken forward to divert people away from violence, including reducing knife crime. This includes supporting and monitoring the effectiveness and progress being achieved on the following;

• YouthLink Scotland’s No Knives, Better Lives programme which provides training to practitioners and engages directly with young people on the risks and consequences of violence including knife crime.
• Medics Against Violence’s schools education programme, which delivers violence prevention lessons within schools and other settings.
• The Scottish Violence Reduction Unit are working within communities to provide violence prevention training including the carrying and use of weapons.

We will also utilise national statistics to monitor levels of handling offensive weapon crimes, which includes knife carrying and would hope to maintain the improvements we have seen over the longer term.

As part of implementation of the Framework, we committed to developing a Measurement Framework which will monitor high-level progress towards the Framework’s vision over the long term. This will be published following publication of the findings from the 2023-24 Scottish Crime and Justice Survey in 2025, thereby aligning it with the very latest national data available on violence victimisation.

Whilst the Scottish Government sets the strategic policy direction for the NHS in Scotland, operational matters including staffing requirements are in the first instance the responsibility of the relevant NHS board. Recruitment is a matter for health boards who will take into account turnover, retention, absence rates and budgets when making recruitment decisions. This can mean that vacancies fluctuate across boards and by specialism. It is for health boards to ensure safe and effective staffing levels, and recruit to these to provide services.

Funding allocated to its violence reduction strategy* are as follows:

Whilst the Scottish Government sets the strategic policy direction for the NHS in Scotland, operational matters including staffing requirements are in the first instance the responsibility of the relevant NHS board. Recruitment is a matter for health boards who will take into account turnover, retention, absence rates and budgets when making recruitment decisions. This can mean that vacancies fluctuate across boards and by specialism. It is for health boards to ensure safe and effective staffing levels, and recruit to these to provide services.

All local authorities are required to review the operation and effectiveness of any firework control zones designated within their area. Data gathered as a part of such reviews can be utilised for the Scottish Government's statutory obligation to report on the operation of the Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Act 2022 for the period through to 10 August 2027. Ministers also engage with relevant parties, such as Police Scotland, to understand the impact of firework control zones.

The current maximum legal noise level for fireworks is defined in UK-wide legislation, the Pyrotechnic Articles (Safety) Regulations 2015.

While we recognise that some retailers label fireworks as silent or low noise consultations with various stakeholders had confirmed that no formal standard or specification exists to identify or differentiate these products.

We are keen to stay informed about advancements in this area, and I have written to the new UK Government to request a meeting to discuss possible updates to fireworks regulations on a UK wide basis. I recognise we share the goal of enhancing community safety and wellbeing, and I plan to address noise as part of these discussions.

Within the powers available to us, we have taken a series of proportionate, evidence-based steps to strengthen the law around access to and use of fireworks.

The Scottish Government pathways report: Pathways into, through and out of Residential Rehabilitation in Scotland: Results from the Residential Rehabilitation Providers Survey (www.gov.scot), published in November 2021, serves as a baseline to help identify specific barriers and facilitators to accessing Residential Rehabilitation (RR). Public Health Scotland’s Evaluation of the Scottish Government Residential Rehabilitation programme: Evaluation of the Scottish Government Residential Rehabilitation programme 13 February 2024 - Evaluation of the Scottish Government Residential Rehabilitation programme - Publications - Public Health Scotland, published on 13 February 2024, also provides details of some of the barriers individuals, including women, face when seeking access to RR, and the actions already taken to address these.

The main barriers women face while accessing RR is the awareness of rehab, including funding, and how to access services and the lack of provision for individuals with caring responsibilities.

The Residential Rehabilitation Rapid Capacity Programme (RRRCP) was established to provide funding to increase RR capacity, with a particular focus on improving provision for women and those with childcare responsibilities.

Through the RRRCP, funding has been awarded to support the establishment of two Aberlour mother and child recovery units, one in Dundee and the other in Falkirk. It has also supported the establishment of Phoenix Future’s Harper House, in Saltcoats, that offers a unique national family services which can support up to 20 families at one time.

It is the Scottish Government’s view that delay in child contact proceedings will usually not be in the best interests of the child.

The Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (the 1995 Act) is the key legislation in relation to child contact and residence. In deciding whether to make a contact order under section 11 of the 1995 Act, the welfare of the child must be the court’s paramount consideration.

The Children (Scotland) Act 2020 will reform the 1995 Act and a key aim is to ensure that the child’s best interests are at the centre of any contact or residence case. Section 30(2), once in force, will require the court to have regard to any risk of prejudice to the child’s welfare that delay in proceedings would pose.

The Family Law Committee of the Scottish Civil Justice Council developed new case management rules: Act of Sederunt (Ordinary Cause Rules 1993 Amendment) (Case Management of Defended Family and Civil Partnership Actions) 2022 (scottishciviljusticecouncil.gov.uk) covering family actions in the sheriff court. The new rules came into effect on 25 September 2023 and are intended to help prevent undue delay in proceedings relating to the welfare of children.