Chamber and committees

Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO) entered into a voluntary management arrangement with the Scottish Government in May 2018. These measures apply to all fishers catching wrasse supplying SSPO members, and lay the foundations of an evidence base in better understanding these species, a pre-requisite in undertaking any form of stock assessments.

Wrasse data currently being collected will help improve our understanding of the fishery and inform the design of data collection for the development of stock assessments. Marine Scotland Science have appraised the requirements for stock assessment methods already undertaken in other parts of the world for data limited stocks and are in the process of exploring how these emerging wrasse fisheries can best be assessed in the Scottish context.

Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO) entered into a voluntary management arrangement with the Scottish Government in May 2018. These measures apply to all fishers catching wrasse supplying SSPO members, and lay the foundations of an evidence base in better understanding these species, a pre-requisite in undertaking any form of stock assessments.

Wrasse data currently being collected will help improve our understanding of the fishery and inform the design of data collection for the development of stock assessments. Marine Scotland Science have appraised the requirements for stock assessment methods already undertaken in other parts of the world for data limited stocks and are in the process of exploring how these emerging wrasse fisheries can best be assessed in the Scottish context.

The Scottish Government welcomed the 2018 report commissioned by Public Health England. The findings on e-cigarettes from the report were in line with Scotland’s own Consensus statement on e-cigarettes, which was published by NHS Health Scotland in 2017. The findings in the report also helped inform some specific commitments made on e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products in Raising Scotland’s Tobacco-free Generation – our tobacco control action plan published in June 2018.

Our action plan includes commitments to: support NHS Health Scotland in its research, guidance, training and advice on a range of issues including e-cigarettes; make up-to-date information on e-cigarettes available for schools; build on NICE guidance for health and social care providers to ensure basic advice on e-cigarettes is available to support people in quit attempts; and work with health boards to reach consensus on whether vaping should be allowed on hospital grounds as an alternative to smoking.

We agree with the report’s findings that ever use of heated tobacco products (HTP) remains “very rare” and that it is currently not clear whether HTP provide any advantage as an additional potential harm reduction product compared to e-cigarettes, which are already widely available in Scotland. But in spite of this we agree that that more independent research is required into these products in case they become popular in future. We note that research to date, including research from Scotland, indicates that the risk of harm from HTP lies somewhere between the risks of harm from cigarettes and e-cigarettes. The report recommends that, depending on emerging evidence, HTP should be more fully regulated. Our action plan includes commitments to monitor any development in the HTP market in Scotland which would justify: regulating HTP use in enclosed public spaces; regulating attractive flavourings already banned from cigarettes; and even introducing standardised packaging for HTP.

The use of heated tobacco products is very rare and does not justify specific research in Scotland. The Scottish Government continues to monitor research and evidence from around the world through its ministerial tobacco control sub-group on research and evidence. The sub-group is chaired by Professor Linda Bauld, one of the co-authors of the PHE-commissioned evidence review from 2018 on e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products.

Information Services Division (ISD) within NHS National Services Scotland collects data on abortions in Scotland. Data for 2018 will be published by ISD at the end of May 2019. By the end of 2017, there were 58 medical terminations of pregnancy recorded as early medical abortions at home.

Misoprostol is a licenced drug, used for a number of purposes, including treatment of miscarriage and as part of abortion treatment. Its use in medical abortion is recommended by a wide range of expert bodies, including the World Health Organization and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

The Scottish Ministers’ approval of October 2017 does not relate to self-administration of misoprostol as it only relates to permitting a woman’s home as a class of place where misoprostol can be taken as part of treatment for termination of pregnancy. Most patients already chose to self-administer misoprostol tablets prior to the approval.

Before issuing the approval, Ministers were satisfied, on the basis of advice from clinical specialists, that there was no increased risk to patients from home administration of misoprostol and that the change would be a beneficial one for those women who chose the option of taking misoprostol at home. There is no evidence that misoprostol leads to any increased risks to either the physical or mental health of the patient compared to other forms of abortion treatment.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lothian are undertaking research on women’s experiences of taking misoprostol at home and the effectiveness of early medical abortion at home. This research will be published in due course.

We have been interested to hear about the database project developed by NHS Tayside and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and to consider how it has been used in work around methadone and sodium valproate.

As part of our National Action Plan on Neurological Conditions, we wish to better understand people’s interactions with services and have therefore been working with NHS Information Services Division to understand the gaps in prevalence and how best to improve data. Over the next five years, we will implement the action plan and continue to engage with stakeholders to take account of learning from projects such as the epilepsy database to shape future data systems and processes.

Scottish Government officials regularly meet with lenders in Scotland to discuss housing market issues, including appetite for lending to individuals and to organisations.

Through the delivery of our ambitious 50,000 affordable homes target, officials also regularly meet with developing housing associations and other partners, including housing sector representative bodies such as the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, to discuss and monitor delivery of affordable and social housing across Scotland.

The Affordable Housing Supply Programme also provides direct support for housing associations through Charitable Bonds, an innovative investment product which creates loan funding and is available to housing associations for the provision of affordable housing.

The table showing the number of affordable and social rented homes delivered from April 2007 to December 2018 by local authority area has been placed in SPICe under BIB number 60663. Figures to the end of 2018-19 are in the process of being finalised and are due to be published in June 2019.

The table showing the number of homes specifically designed for older or disabled people from 2008-09 to 2017-18 has been placed in SPICe under BIB number 60663. We do not hold this information in relation to homes completed in 2007-08 and the figures relating to 2018-19 are being finalised and will be published in the Affordable Housing Supply Programme Out-turn report later this year.

The Affordable Housing Supply Programme supports the delivery of flexible housing capable of being adapted to suit peoples’ changing requirements. Therefore wherever possible, all new build units are built to Housing for Varying Need Standards.

The grant subsidy arrangements for the Affordable Housing Supply Programme are also sufficiently flexible to support the development of specialist housing identified by local authorities as a priority, helping disabled people with more complex needs live independently in their own homes and older people to stay in their own homes for longer.

Local authorities are responsible for assessing the housing needs in their areas, and guidance for the setting of Local Housing Strategy targets, including reporting annually on progress, was published on Friday 29 March at https://www.gov.scot/publications/wheelchair-accessible-housing-target-guidance-note-mhdgn-201902/ .

Since the integration of health and social care, Integration Joint Boards are responsible for the planning and delivery of all adaptations.

Funding for adaptations is provided directly to Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and is additional to the Affordable Housing Supply Programme budget. It is for individual RSLs to determine how to make best use of the adaptations funding received from the Scottish Government. Between 2007-08 and 2017-18 the Scottish government has made £135 million available directly to RSLs to deliver adaptations for their tenants. Final out-turn figures for 2018-19 funding are still being finalised.

Further information relating to this investment is contained within the answer to previous Parliamentary Question S5W-21246 on 1 February 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .