Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government recognise the impact of digital exclusion on low income families, including families with a disabled child.

As part of our wider work to tackle child poverty, the Scottish Government has committed more than £870,000 in grant funding, since 2024, to support over 50 locally-delivered digital inclusion projects across Scotland. We also continue to work with Ofcom and delivery partners to raise awareness of affordable connectivity options, including social tariffs.

Our Sustainable Public Services Delivery Plan sets out how services will be designed around the needs of people and communities to be accessible and inclusive. Through our latest Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan, Bringing Hope, Building Futures, we have also set out how we will enable whole family support which is responsive to the needs of families and connects them to the services and support they need to thrive.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to introduce a specific statutory duty on services to identify and respond to digital exclusion. However, we are developing a Digital Inclusion Delivery Plan to be published later this year. This will set out clear actions to address the wider barriers that prevent people from participating digitally and how we will work with partners, including local government, to achieve this.

The Scottish Government recognises the barriers highlighted by the Family Fund research, including affordability, access to devices and connectivity, and lack of digital skills and confidence. We are taking action to address these.

Since 2024, the Scottish Government has committed more than £870,000 in grant funding to support over 50 locally-delivered digital inclusion projects across Scotland. We also continue to work with Ofcom and delivery partners to raise awareness of affordable connectivity options, including social tariffs.

Alongside this, we are developing a Digital Inclusion Delivery Plan, which will be published later this year. This will set out clear actions to address the wider barriers that prevent people from participating digitally and how we will work with partners, including local government, to achieve this.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-03032 on 18 September 2026.

The forthcoming Digital Inclusion Delivery Plan will support delivery of the refreshed Digital Strategy for Scotland by setting out clear actions to tackle digital exclusion, and how progress will be measured and reported.

This will complement wider work to ensure public services are designed around the needs of people and communities to be accessible and inclusive.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

There are currently no specific Scottish Government policies or programmes focused solely on improving the digital skills of unpaid carers.

However, Lead Scotland, through its Scottish Government funded national Cyber Project, and its role within the CyberScotland Partnership, supports disabled people, unpaid carers and others facing barriers to develop the skills and confidence needed to use digital services safely. This includes accessible cyber security and online safety resources, tutor-supported learning and targeted digital skills support. Lead Scotland also works directly with unpaid carers in areas including Fife and Perth and Kinross, supporting people to use digital services safely and confidently, including online health and social care services.

More widely, since 2024, the Scottish Government has committed more than £870,000 in grant funding to support over 50 local digital inclusion projects across Scotland. These projects have been delivered by local organisations, reflecting the needs of the communities they serve, and have included support to help people build the skills and confidence needed to use digital services safely and effectively.

We are also developing a Digital Inclusion Delivery Plan, to be published later this year, which will set out clear actions to address the barriers to digital participation, including access, skills and confidence

The Scottish Government has well-established and tested processes for preparing for and responding to severe weather. We are also monitoring the potential impacts of a more severe El Niño. Our central resilience operation can be activated in advance of severe weather and ensures Ministers are kept fully updated on any developing issues. Officials work year-round with key partners, including the blue-light services, councils, health boards, transport operators, the voluntary sector and others to support shared understanding of risks, plans and processes.

We are supporting our partners through the autumn/winter period, and providing practical advice to the public on preparing for and responding to emergencies, including the impacts of severe weather, including through our Ready Scotland website (ready.scot) and social media channels. In addition, the Scottish Government stands ready to activate its Ready Scotland media campaign in response to amber or red Met Office weather warnings. The campaign uses social media and, where available, local radio to provide warning and advice to audiences in affected areas.

With respect to transport, Transport Scotland colleagues work with our contractors and Scottish Government partners to plan, prepare and respond to both planned and unplanned events which impact the transport network. Whilst bad weather and its associated disruption cannot be prevented, Transport Scotland works year-round with partners to prepare for those conditions to minimise disruption and ensure the transport network can recover as quickly as possible. Additionally, a dedicated Met Office advisor to Transport Scotland commenced on 1 September 2026 at the Traffic Scotland National Control centre, and will provide specialist meteorological advice to support operational decision-making.

MyCare.scot was rolled out nationally across Scotland from April 2026 and will continue to develop incrementally through the Scottish Government’s Digital Front Door (DFD) programme. A free downloadable app is also available via both the Apple and Google store. More information regarding the MyCare.scot rollout can be found in the National Rollout Plan (https://www.gov.scot/publications/health-social-care-app-mycare-scot-national-rollout-high-level-summary/pages/4/), published September 2025.

Through established sub-national planning and implementation arrangements, the Digital Front Door programme is prioritising the rollout of digital communications and appointment functionality across all NHS territorial health boards before expansion into wider health and care services. The initial phase due for delivery in 2027/28 is focused on enabling patients to view secondary care appointment information and related communications digitally. This capability will be enhanced incrementally in collaboration with other digital projects, including GP IT reprovisioning and the Digital Prescribing and Dispensing Pathways (DPDP) programme, to enable users to book, manage appointments and order their prescriptions online.

The DPDP programme will replace paper prescriptions with a secure, end-to-end digital prescribing and dispensing system. The roll out of a minimum viable product will commence at the end of 2028 and the current trajectory is for patient-facing benefits via MyCare.scot, including prescription ordering, from 2029.

The programme recognises that providing access to test results through MyCare.scot could deliver significant benefits for patients. However, in some circumstances, direct access to results may be inappropriate and could cause unnecessary anxiety or distress. Any implementation will therefore need to be carefully designed to ensure it is clinically safe and that results are presented with appropriate context, explanation and supporting information. This work is currently being considered and scheduled as part of the wider Digital Front Door and MyCare.scot development plans.

The Scottish Government know that neurodivergent people, including autistic people face significant structural barriers to employment. We also recognise the valuable contributions that neurodivergent people bring to the workforce and are committed to supporting those individuals to both enter and sustain fulfilling employment.

Employability support in Scotland is delivered through our No One Left Behind approach in partnership with local authorities. This allows Local Employability Partnerships (LEPs) to design and deliver services that meet the needs of their communities and local labour markets. Through this approach, tailored support is available to people of all ages, who are furthest from the labour market, helping them to gain skills and confidence, helping them prepare for employment, training, education, and/or volunteering.

In addition, Specialist Employability Support is also available in all 32 Local Authorities, targeted specifically at disabled people and people with long term health conditions, including those with autism who may benefit from longer-term support. This service also has a particular focus on significant aftercare and in-work support to help people sustain and prosper in employment.

The Scottish Government has also committed to work closely with local authorities and delivery partners to identify and share good practice, strengthen local provision and ensure that employment support is responsive to the needs of neurodivergent people and disabled people across Scotland.

This includes developing a stepped care model for neurodevelopmental services and is working with NHS Boards, clinicians, people with lived experience and third sector partners to support its implementation. The model aims to provide earlier access to advice, support and interventions, while ensuring that specialist assessment services are available for those who require them.

Through these measures, we are helping to ensure that autistic people can access timely, person-centred support and clear pathways towards fair and sustainable employment.

The Scottish Government does not provide funding to promote chestfeeding. It has provided more than £12m additional investment since 2018 to support new mothers to achieve their breastfeeding goals, with more babies in Scotland now being breastfed for longer than ever before.

We are aware of media reporting that has incorrectly characterised a voluntary-led community group, Queer Milk, as a service that trains people to breastfeed or supports medical interventions. The Scottish Government has received clear and unambiguous assurance that the group is not training men to lactate and feed infants. Any claim to the contrary is untrue.

The Scottish Government does not provide funding for Queer Milk.

The Scottish Government has long called for an effective Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Veterinary agreement to achieve some level of return to smoother, pre-Brexit, agri-food trade arrangements.

The Scottish Government welcomed the 19 May 2025 announcements (where the SPS outline agreement was described as part of the wider UK-EU reset summit and in a Common Understanding Document) – with the detail of the agreement yet to be finalized. Scottish Government officials have engaged with UK Government counterparts throughout the process on a range of issues, including animal welfare related matters.

The negotiations had been expected to conclude in advance of the UK-EU Summit, originally scheduled for the end of the month. However, following the resignation of the UK Prime Minister, the Summit has been postponed. Consequently, no further formal rounds of negotiation are expected to take place before September.