Chamber and committees

The New Deal for Local Government reflects a desire of both partners to re-set the relationship between local and national government. The New Deal will provide greater flexibility over local funding, with clear accountability for delivery on shared priorities and outcomes. This will include considering further reforms for council tax in partnership with local government through the Joint Working Group on sources of local government funding.

Council tax is a local tax, set and collected by each local authority, with every council financially and administratively accountable to their electorate. Council Tax Debt was discussed at the last meeting of the Joint Working Group on Sources of Local Government Funding and Council Tax Reform on 22 March 2023. It is important that local authorities retain the tools to enforce the payment of council tax by those who have the means to pay but choose not to do so, whilst the Council Tax Reduction Scheme, promoted as part of the Scottish Government funded Citizens Advice Scotland's Money Talk Team, as well as by local authorities and the DWP, means nobody should have to meet a council tax liability they cannot be expected to afford.

The Scottish Government continues to liaise with the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit regarding youth violence and funds the Unit to take forward a number of preventative measures, using a public health approach which focusses on the underlying drivers of offending behaviour. These are outlined in the recently published Violence Prevention Framework for Scotland and include targeting weapon carrying amongst some young people; targeting the effects of social media on violence; and helping support more young people with multiple complex issues to engage with appropriate services. The Scottish Violence Reduction Unit will also be one of numerous partners we are engaging with in the forthcoming summit on violence in schools.

The following table sets out the number of children and young people who have died by suicide annually, since 2018. The suicide statistics for 2022 are due to be released by National Records of Scotland in August 2023.

The Scottish Government welcomes this report and would encourage local authorities, who are responsible for the collection and enforcement of Council Tax arrears, to consider its findings.

Gender reassignment surgery is a specialised field of surgery, accessed by a small number of patients each year. Given the highly specialist nature of this surgery it is carried out in the UK under a four-nations contract, managed by NHS England.

NHS Scotland monitors the number of surgical referrals to the service. Patients referred for assessment do not necessarily proceed to surgery. A patient’s surgery will not necessarily take place in the same year as the referral.

Wide-ranging progress has been made since the publication of the Women’s Health Plan in August 2021 and the first report on progress , published on 26 January 2023, sets this out in more detail.

Our Women’s Health Champion, Professor Anna Glasier, recently published her first blog , highlighting her initial work and priorities for the months ahead. Future blogs will be published quarterly, and provide updates on the work of the Women’s Health Champion, as well as the delivery of the Women’s Health Plan more broadly.

Ministers and officials regularly meet with environmental stakeholders including Friends of the Earth.

The last time Ms Slater met with Friends of the Earth was on 17 May

Friends of the Earth were invited but unable to attend a meeting with Ms Slater and eNGO’s on 2 June 2023, to discuss the impact of the UK Government’s decision not to grant a full IMA exclusion for the Scottish Deposit Return Scheme and to consider the implications of this decision on the environment in Scotland.

The Scottish Government stands with the international community in deep concern over the spiralling violence in Sudan.

We welcome the initial £5 million in life-saving aid announced by the UK Government but more must be done.

The Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, Europe and External Affairs has written to the Foreign Secretary to raise a number of issues in relation to the situation in Sudan. This included a call for everything possible to be done to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to vulnerable people in need. The content of this letter is available here: Protecting those fleeing violence in Sudan - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The Scottish Government stands with the international community in deep concern over the spiralling violence in Sudan.

The Scottish Government maintains a £1 million per year Humanitarian Emergency Fund (HEF). Decisions on which crises to respond to are made by the Scottish Ministers based on recommendations from the HEF Panel. This expert Panel is made up of eight representatives from leading humanitarian aid organisations in Scotland.

We are in contact with the Panel regarding the situation in Sudan and expect to provide further information on this in due course.