Chamber and committees

There has been no specific analysis completed on the impact of our expenditure in relation to mobile phone addiction. However the funding has been used to create a suite of online resources, information and advice to support the emotional health and wellbeing of children and young people.

The Scottish Youth Parliament receive funding for ‘Mind Yer Time’ - a national resource comprising of positive tips, stories and information to help children and young people use their screentime in a healthy and responsible way.

Young Scot receive funding for ‘Ayefeel’ – a national hub for young people to support their mental health and wellbeing. This includes a podcast series called ‘This is How AyeFeel’, allowing young people, content creators, known figures, and influencers a platform to share their experiences, coping mechanisms, and journeys toward better mental health through interviews, personal stories, and expert insights.

The Dementia Strategy for Scotland (published by Scottish Government and COSLA in 2023) sets out an ambitious 10-year vision for dementia policy in Scotland, developed in collaboration with people with lived experience and wider partners. This includes third sector, local authority and healthcare organisations. The first 2-year delivery plan was subsequently published in February of this year, setting out the key deliverables being prioritised in this initial period. This was agreed with the National Dementia Lived Experience Panel, and local/national delivery partners including HSCP representatives and dementia charities. It includes:

• Launching the new Rethink Dementia anti-stigma campaign on Wednesday 4th September. The campaign is intended to increase awareness that maintaining relationships with someone with a diagnosis is an important part of helping them keep well for longer.
• A £600,000 fund to support and sustain community-led work across Scotland, allocated via a Resilient Communities Programme board made up of local, national and community representatives.
• Continuing our additional investment of £3.5m a year, to enhance access to dementia post-diagnostic support, in addition to the routine spending on dementia support services by local partnerships.
• Working with partners in Public Health Scotland to develop a clearer understanding of the number of people with dementia in Scotland, with a strengthened focus on inclusion and equalities.

This work sits alongside ongoing activity, locally and nationally, to improve the dementia experience. This includes embedding a Getting It Right for Everyone approach to care and support wrapped around the person, continued investment of over £88m in local carers support, and collaborations with Alzheimer Scotland and others to empower people living with dementia to participate in the design, and development, of the National Care Service.

We look forward to continuing to engage with partners within the Member’s region and beyond, to improve the dementia experience.

Scottish Water continues to deliver a high quality service throughout Scotland as demonstrated in its Annual Report for 2023-24, available here. Compliance with its statutory obligations is independently regulated by the Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland (DWQR), the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS) and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). Scottish Water is required to meet strict drinking water standards and its performance is reported on annually by the DWQR; available here. It must also ensure the water it discharges into the environment meets strict standards; SEPA’s water environment classification is available here and Scottish Water publishes the information it provides to SEPA here. WICS’ most recent report on its performance in the 2021-27 regulatory period is available here. Ministers meet with Scottish Water and its regulators routinely to discuss a variety of matters.

Scottish Water’s Improving Urban Waters Route Map sets out a programme of continued action to reduce wastewater pollution and sewage litter over the coming decade backed by investment of half a billion pounds. As part of the programme, Scottish Water is progressing improvements to 109high priority unsatisfactory CSOs, identified in conjunction with SEPA, that have water quality or sewer related debris impacts

Many of these unsatisfactory discharges are due to sewer related debris – materials such as wet wipes that have been inappropriately flushed away by consumers into the sewer system. Scottish Water’s Nature Calls campaign aims to highlight how consumers can help to protect our environment by disposing of their wet wipes, plastics etc in the waste bin.

We need to fundamentally transform the way social care is delivered in Scotland, and we have listened to thousands of people, including the social care workforce, who have told us this.

People who receive support through social care, their families and communities, and the workforce must be involved in planning and delivery at local level. But the system needs to work and people have told us, clearly, that it does not provide the high standard of care that people should rightfully expect. We are committed to establishing a National Care Service that delivers clear, consistent national care standards by the end of this Parliamentary term.

The Scottish Government will continue to engage with GMB and other Trade Unions as we co-design the National Care Service.

The responsibility for development and delivery of flood protection schemes rests with individual local authorities, who are best placed to respond to local resilience needs.

Proposals to improve flood resilience in potentially vulnerable areas, including flood protection schemes, are set out in Flood Risk Management Plans published on SEPA’s website, and Local Flood Risk Management Plans, published by local authorities.

These plans are renewed every 6 years. The current plans are valid until 2028.

Routinely collected data on the waiting time for a diagnosis of endometriosis are not available.

Through the actions set out in our Women’s Health Plan we have taken steps to support both women and health professionals to learn more about endometriosis, the symptoms and treatment options. Our Women’s Health Plan Final Report on Progress will provide more detail.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested on passenger compensation by route.

Creating Hope Together, our 10 year joint suicide prevention strategy with COSLA, adopts a whole of government and society approach to reducing suicide in Scotland. This allows us to focus on tackling the social determinants of suicide such as poverty, which also presents increased risk for alcohol addiction; and we are taking forward work to join up mental health and addiction support. For example, Healthcare Improvement Scotland has recently produced an exemplar joint working protocol for mental health and substance use services, which draws on best practice from across the country and internationally. We are also prioritising suicide prevention training for the workforce supporting people with addictions.

In developing the Creating Hope Together strategy, and the associated 3 year action plan, we reviewed all available evidence on suicide, including risk factors such as alcohol addiction. This was complemented by extensive engagement with communities and partners across Scotland. The delivery of our strategy continues to be evidence informed and guided by our suicide prevention Academic Advisory Group whose most recent research on the risk and protective factors associated with suicide includes analysis of alcohol related factors. Insights from such research, along with those from our suicide prevention lived experience panels, are informing the design and delivery of interventions which meet the needs of different groups and communities, including those with addiction issues.

The full suite of Academic Advisory Group reports on suicide prevention research can be accessed through the Suicide Behaviour Research Lab site.