Chamber and committees

Ending homelessness continues to be a key priority for the Scottish Government. Our ambition can only be achieved through a shared public responsibility when government and partners all play their part.

With that in mind, I met with the Scottish Veterans Commissioner on 30 November and have agreed a number of actions to raise the profile of veterans’ housing and homelessness issues with relevant stakeholders such as local authorities and social landlords.

I have also discussed with the Minister for Veterans how we can work together to provide support to veterans and their families and I have invited him to join the Ministerial Oversight Group on Homelessness, which brings together ministers from a range of portfolios across the Scottish Government to identify the actions required to prevent and end homelessness, including for veterans.

The Scottish Government measures progress against the commitment to increase GP numbers using headcount data as this provides an accurate number of GPs registered on the Performers List in Scotland at the time the data is collected. Currently whole-time equivalent data is calculated as an estimate, based on returns from General Practices through the General Practice Workforce Survey.

The latest publication can be found here: General practice workforce survey 2022 - General practice workforce survey - Publications - Public Health Scotland

The Scottish Government uses both headcount and whole-time equivalent data to inform workforce planning to increase GP capacity.

As part of the annual Homelessness in Scotland publication, the Scottish Government releases national statistics on the number of households assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness by former armed forces status. Table T22 in the main tables, in the supporting documents of the most recent publication, provides data from 2018-19 to 2022-23. These statistics are available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/homelessness-in-scotland-2022-23/

Additional statistics about veteran homelessness in Scotland, including the number of homelessness applications by former armed forces status, is available here:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/homelessness-in-scotland-veteran-homelessness/

Note, these figures have been rounded to the nearest 5 for disclosure control purposes and totals may not sum due to rounding.

Financial planning for the significant challenges our public finances continue to face took place in advance of the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance's update on the 2023-24 in-year budget changes on 21 November.

The difficult decisions which have had to be made have allowed us to help balance the Scottish Government's budget while still progressing implementation of our mental health and wellbeing strategy from a revised direct budget of £260.3 million.

The in-year budget changes impacted on a number of planned new programmes which could not proceed as anticipated. Planned increased funding to existing programmes were also not able to be progressed.

Despite the savings made, we have continued to focus on delivery of our mental health and wellbeing strategy and recently published delivery plan, which includes commitments around mental health services and specific programmes of work around learning disability and autism, and cross-cutting trauma work.

The vast majority of spending on mental health is delivered through NHS board budgets – and this is not directly affected by the Path to Balance reprioritisation. Between the Scottish Government and NHS boards we expect spending on Mental Health to be well in excess of £1.3 billion in financial year 2023-24.

The 2023-24 direct mental health budget of £260.3 million is still more than double the 2020-21 mental health budget of £117.1 million and will support delivery of the new ten-year Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and recently published delivery plan. The Delivery Plan has been produced with affordability and deliverability within that financial envelope as a primary consideration.

Infrastructure on the UK rail network, including lines speed and capacity, is a matter for Network Rail, therefore Network Rail would be best placed to provide this information.

Network Rail advises it is currently looking to understand the implications of the Prime Minister’s HS2 announcement made in October and how this might affect journey times in the medium to long term.

Following consultation with each of Scotland five medical schools most students receive taught modules on mental health and psychiatry in years three and four of their medical degrees with the opportunity to specialist mental health units on clinical placements from year four onwards. There are significant core learning requirements in relation to mental health set out by the GMC and each University ensures these are fulfilled.

The GMC also require all medical schools to provide support for the consideration of postgraduate careers and each school has their own way of doing this. For example, the University of Aberdeen hold careers fairs across the whole curriculum wherein Mental Health is always included, and the psychiatric education team engaged. Furthermore each of the medical schools have a ‘PsychSoc’ attached to them. These societies are funded by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and work with the medical schools to encourage and support medical students into a career within the psychiatric fields.

Medical training establishment is determined by the need for future trained doctor output, and modelling for supply takes into account a number of factors, including age of retirement. 153 additional trainee doctor posts were recently agreed for recruitment in 2024. These posts will be spread across 24 different specialties, including core psychiatry, which will gain an additional 12 posts.

The Scottish Consultants Contract is designed to ensure that Consultants who work within NHS Scotland have time for supporting professional activities. How much time received is based on working patterns and forms part of the job planning process they undertake with their employers.

The time that is dedicated to supporting professional activities can be used for research, teaching, training and supervising Junior Doctors.

Infrastructure on the UK rail network, including level crossings on the West Coast Mainline, is a matter for Network Rail, therefore Network Rail would be best placed to provide this information.

Network Rail advises that all level crossings fully meet the operational and safety requirements and regularly undergo the required risk assessment programme.