Chamber and committees

Individuals who are not healthcare professionals and provide such procedures are not currently regulated and therefore there are currently no regulated training requirements to work in the sector. Accreditation for training for the sector will also be considered as part of the work with stakeholders and the Scottish Cosmetics Interventions Expert Group.

We expect children and young people who need inpatient mental health care to be looked after in age-appropriate facilities. Following recommendations from the Mental Welfare Commission, the Scottish Government commissioned a national review of existing provision for young people under 18 years who had needs and risks that required intensive psychiatric care. This review published its findings in June 2021 and recommended purpose-built regional units adjacent to existing inpatient services.

Since then, the Scottish Government has provided funding to NHS Boards to support the development of regional Intensive Psychiatric Care Units for young people. Work is currently ongoing to support NHS Boards to establish these facilities, including engagement with regional planning and recruitment to develop this work.

In addition, in June 2020, the Scottish Government published a protocol for admissions of young people to adult wards, in response to action 19 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-27. This protocol is a best practice guidance to aid implementation of Section 23 of the Mental Health (Care & Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 which places a duty on health boards to provide sufficient services and accommodation to meet the needs of young people under 18 when they are admitted to hospital for treatment of a mental disorder.

Children and young people are only admitted to an inpatient unit for assessment and treatment when there is a clear clinical need and rationale. This would not be inappropriate within the context of current practice, and only becomes inappropriate at the point of becoming a delayed discharge.

Data on the number of delayed discharges for children and young people with learning disabilities is not held centrally. The current work referred to is directed at people aged 18 and above.

Our Autism, Learning Disabilities and Neurodivergence Bill is currently out for consultation within which are proposals on legislative options for Dynamic Support Registers.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on how many children and young people have been placed in adult mental health facilities, due to spaces being unavailable in facilities for children and young people, in each NHS board in each year since 1999.

For more information on children and young people being treated outwith NHS specialist CAMHS facilities, please refer to the answer to previous question S6W-26182 on 28 March 2024.

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 .

Public Health Scotland is currently leading the national roll-out of online postal self-sampling to test for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) with funding from Scottish Government. The service will initially offer testing for the most common STIs which are chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis and HIV. The scope of the service will be kept under review, with potential to add further tests if evidence suggests this would be an effective and cost-effective approach.

Testing for hepatitis C is currently available through a range of routes, with a particular focus on settings which are most likely to be accessed by people at highest risk of infection, such as drugs services and prison healthcare. The Scottish Government has also funded research and pilot projects – including opt-out testing in three Emergency Departments – to help identify optimal approaches to testing for hepatitis C and other blood borne viruses in order to achieve our elimination goals.

There is no specific exemption for public sector vehicles.

The national exemptions set in the LEZ legislation include: vehicles for disabled persons, emergency service, military, historic and showman vehicles.

As stated in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, each local authority may offer local time-limited exemptions.

The number of public sector vehicles exempt from each Low Emission Zone is a matter for the relevant local authorities as the information requested is not held centrally.

Boundaries Scotland has the statutory responsibility to review the electoral arrangements for local government areas. In line with the requirements of the Local Government Act 1973, Boundaries Scotland must submit to Scottish Ministers a report on its review of the electoral arrangements for a local government area no more than 15 years after the previous report for that area was submitted. Boundaries Scotland is currently conducting the Second Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries, and will report to Ministers by 1 May 2025. Work to review council wards will recommence once this review has been submitted. The Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Bill proposes an amendment to the deadline by which Boundaries Scotland must complete the next local government reviews, from 31 December 2028 to 30 April 2031. This is to align the 15-year period between reviews with the five-year local government election cycle.

Table 1 provides the average available number of staffed beds that were recorded for paediatric/child and adolescent specialties in Scotland for each year from 2001-02 to 2022-23. Information on bed numbers prior to 2001-02 is not available. A figure showing the amount of these beds that were recorded for psychiatric child specialties is also provided.

Due to the way specialties are recorded for beds data, it is not possible to use the Public Health Scotland beds statistics to estimate the total number of beds that are available for use by different services and/or departments. For example, selecting the Paediatric specialty grouping will only provide a partial picture of the staffed beds that are used for children’s services. This is because many beds used for children are not recorded under paediatric specialties and are instead recorded under more specific specialties, such as Haematology, Neurology and Respiratory Medicine.

Furthermore, the specialty recorded for a bed depends partly on what the patient is being treated for: therefore, for some wards, the mix of specialties may change over time.

Due to the volume of data included, a table including a full breakdown by NHS Board has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 64979).

Table 1: Average available staffed beds in paediatric/child & adolescent specialties, NHSScotland, 2001-02 – 2022-23

This information is not held centrally.

Some information on the percentage of people using glucose monitors and other diabetes technologies can be found in the Scottish Diabetes Survey, which provides an annual summary of key issues and trends in diabetes care and treatment in Scotland. The Survey provides annual data going back to 2004 and can be found here: https://www.diabetesinscotland.org.uk/publications/#survey-docs.

The next iteration of the Survey, covering data for 2023, will be published later this year.

We remain committed to ensuring funding is distributed equitably across the country as set out in the 2021-22 Programme for Government. The existing National Resource Allocation Formula (NRAC) is updated on an ongoing basis for a range of factors including population demographics, relative health needs and remote and rural factors. We will continue to assess the need for a more detailed review of the formula, in line with developments in National Care Service funding and Integration reform.

Public Health Scotland review the calculations each year, which informs the geographical allocation of the NHS budget, ensuring resources are distributed fairly. The Scottish Government is not involved in the calculation of the target values. However, we use the formula to ensure appropriate allocation of resource. In 2024-25, we will provide an additional £31.1 million in parity funding, ensuring that all Boards remain within 0.6% of their target.

Work to determine how the review should be taken forward is underway, with an initial meeting of the Technical Advisory Group on Resource Allocation (TAGRA) having taken place to consider the next steps to determine scope and timing of the review.

Please note that the main driver of the NRAC formula is the population size of each area for the target year and as such each run incorporates the most up-to-date population information available. This includes the latest population estimates (including census data) and sub-national projections published by National Records of Scotland (NRS).