Chamber and committees

As set out in the Women’s Health Plan, we are developing a menopause/menstrual health policy for NHS Scotland, which can then be promoted across the public, private and third sectors.

Work is underway, with the University of Glasgow to establish an evidence base for the new policy through a survey which will ask staff about their experiences of menstrual health and menopause at work. A series of focus groups will also take place with NHSScotland staff in early 2023.

The findings will be used to develop the policy in partnership with NHSScotland employers, trade unions and an expert working group.'

The Women’s Health Plan recognises that it is important all women know about the menopause, including perimenopause, and have access to consistent information and care when they seek help with menopause symptoms.

The Scottish Government launched a menopause resource on the NHS Inform Women’s Health Platform in October 2021 to ensure women have access to information on menopause, including the signs and symptoms of perimenopause. The resource includes 11 videos including common myths around the menopause, and personal stories. The resource is accessible in five language translations and an Easy Read version of the content. A British Sign Language translation will be available very shortly.

In addition, a series of webinars on menopause have been taking place in partnership with the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland. Webinars aimed at women and people who experience menopause have been held on menopause myth busting and menopause and the workplace with a third planned for October on menopause and sexual wellbeing. In August 2022, a webinar on menopause and the workplace aimed at employers was also held by Close the Gap, an organisation which seeks to address the causes of women's inequality at work.

One of the key aims in the Women’s Health Plan is to ensure that all women will have access to a healthcare professional with an interest in menopause through primary care, and that in the longer term, we build a basic understanding of menopause, including perimenopause, amongst all healthcare professionals.

The Scottish Government has recently commissioned NHS Education for Scotland to create a bespoke training package and framework focussed on menopause, including perimenopause, and menstrual health for GPs and others working in Primary Care.

As announced in the Programme for Government on 6 September, the Scottish government made a commitment that ScotRail fares will not increase before March 2023. The Scottish Government is clearly aware that any RPI linked fares rise would hit hard-pressed passengers in the pocket at a time when the cost of living crisis is at its height, and potentially turn them away from rail at a time when we should be encouraging them back.

The Scottish government supports calls for simplification of the current rail fares system and we will be exploring what we might be able to do with the powers the Scottish Government has to make fares easier for all, including through the Fair Fares Review.

Protecting children from online harm is a key priority for the Scottish Government. We are committed to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of Scotland’s children and young people.

In October 2021, a National Hub was established to review all deaths of children. This will channel learning in order to reduce preventable deaths of, and harm to, children and young people. It is jointly operated by Health Improvement Scotland and the Care Inspectorate with £550,000 funding from the Scottish Government.

Recognising that public engagement is vital, we ran a communications campaign giving advice to parents and carers on how to help keep children safe online. Across February and March, that campaign reached hundreds of thousands of Scots. It linked to the Scottish Government’s Parent Club website and a newly created Online Safety Hub .

With regards to education, the technologies area of the curriculum includes learning on internet safety and cyber resilience. Children and young people will learn about the safe and responsible use of different technologies, including the internet and social media, as part of their broad general education under Curriculum for Excellence. Education Scotland’s DigiLearn website provides training, resources and tailored guidance to support teachers to embed cyber resilience and internet safety learning across the curriculum.

The regulation of the internet is a reserved matter and falls to the UK Government. The UK Government’s Online Safety Bill was introduced to the House of Commons on 17 March 2022, and has begun its passage through the Houses of Parliament. The legislation contains a number of important provisions which have the potential to keep children in Scotland safer online while enjoying the benefits the internet has to offer. The Scottish Government continues to work with UK Government counterparts and Ofcom on the implications of this legislation for Scotland.

The First Minister chaired a summit with energy suppliers and advice organisations, including Ofgem representatives, on 23 August, at which these matters were discussed at length. The First Minister subsequently wrote to the new Prime Minister, urging that she cancel any further energy price increase for domestic consumers, and work with the regulator and energy companies to put in place the funding to support this, while also underlining the pressing need for additional support for vulnerable consumers.

There are strong protections in Scots law for wild animals and habitats. The Scottish Government has made clear our commitment to play a full role in the international effort to tackle the twin global crises in climate and nature. We have recently consulted on our new Biodiversity Strategy and will respond to the conclusions of the forthcoming Conference of Parties of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. We plan to introduce a Natural Environment Bill putting in place key legislative changes and statutory targets to restore and protect nature. We will introduce a right to a healthy environment as part of our proposals for an ambitious Human Rights Bill.

Scottish Government has delivered its native woodland creation targets as set in the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy and more recently the Bute House Agreement, and is committed to supporting further expansion of our native woodland resource. As part of the work to develop the next Scottish Biodiversity Strategy, and underpinning Delivery Plans, we are reviewing the current targets for native woodland expansion and setting evidence based targets for future years. We recently invited views on the next Scottish Biodiversity Strategy though a recent consultation exercise. The creation and management of new native woodlands will continued to be underpinned by the UK Forestry Standard, and supported through our Forestry Grant Scheme.

Protection for woodland is in place via the felling regulations under the Forestry and Land Management (Scotland) Act 2018. Where felling permission is not applicable, the Control of Woodland Removal Policy only permits removal of existing woodland where it would achieve significant and clearly defined additional public benefits including habitat restoration or public safety. Scottish Planning Policy 2014 (SPP) seeks to protect and enhance ancient semi natural woodland, together with individual trees, and encourages the creation of new woodland and planting of native trees in association with development.

The Cost of Living Crisis represents an unprecedented challenge and is undoubtedly having an impact on communities across Scotland. Effective fire safety, to prevent fires and reduce their impact, remains a priority for the Scottish Government and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) and this was reflected in the latest Fire and Rescue Framework published earlier this year: Fire and rescue framework 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Our Programme for Government set out to use our Emergency Budget Review to double our Fuel Insecurity Fund to £20 million, which has helped households at risk of self-disconnection, or self-rationing their energy use, since late 2020. Support is provided to people either as fuel vouchers, or via direct payments to their energy suppliers, and is available to people on any tariff type and using any kind of fuel.

The Scottish Government has produced Home Fire Safety advice which can be found here: Home fire safety - Fire and rescue - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . SFRS also have fire safety advice relating to candle use on their website: Scottish Fire & Rescue Service (firescotland.gov.uk) .

Waste collection is the responsibility of individual local authorities and they are best placed to make decisions regarding the provision of waste and recycling services in their area.

The Scottish Government supports strong trade unions in Scotland and recognises the importance of collective bargaining in improving terms and conditions, and respects the right to strike. However, we would always encourage unions and employers to work collaboratively to resolve disputes.

The Scottish Government has allocated £336 million this year (2022-23) to heat, energy efficiency and fuel poverty measures including £119 million targeted at fuel poor households. Our resources are delivered through long-standing programmes that have successfully assisted over 150,000 households in or at risk of fuel poverty to access energy efficiency adaptations.

We have recently expanded the capacity of Home Energy Scotland to enable them to help an extra 12,000 households a year with free, impartial advice.

Our national fuel poverty scheme, Warmer Homes Scotland, is focussed on supporting households living in fuel poverty – or at risk of fuel poverty – by installing insulation and heating measures into individual properties. WHS has a record annual budget for 2022-23 of £55 million. Additionally, recently agreed changes to the eligibility criteria for WHS have made around 110,000 more households eligible for this assistance across Scotland.

The Scottish Government has significantly expanded funding for welfare advice to reduce benefit take-up gaps in Scotland. In the current year (2022-23) we have allocated over £12.5 million to support the provision of free income maximisation, welfare and debt advice. This vital funding ensures that people who are struggling the most can access the support they need in a way that works for them including face to face, online or over the phone.

The Scottish Government ran a national financial support campaign between January and March this year, beginning with a focus on maximising benefit take-up, and including signposting for debt advice and affordable credit.

The Scottish Government has launched a 'cost of living' portal to help people find out what support and benefits may be available depending on their own personal circumstances, for example for families with children or older people. This will streamline advice and support links from multiple sources of support into one page, including reserved support which is often under claimed by older households. We will ensure the promotion of this resource through all relevant existing campaigns.

The Scottish Government is also launching a Scotland-wide public information campaign to highlight help and support available to individuals as well as energy efficiency measures for households to minimise cost.