Chamber and committees

Since the New Deal for Business Group published its implementation plan in October 2023, there have been a number of achievements, including re-instating the establishment of the Regulatory Review Group (RRG). The RRG is now beginning to deliver strong engagement across a range of policies, from Circular Economy and Heat in Buildings to public health policy, including Minimum Unit Pricing, and vaping. A flexible work plan has been created and the RRG have been meeting regularly since October 2023.

On 14 March 2024 I co-chaired the first quarterly meeting of the New Deal for Business Group in its revised role of governance and delivery assurance. The New Deal is a project which will take time and the Group continues to oversee ongoing delivery of outcomes that drive an economy that is fair, green and growing.

The Scottish Government continues to decarbonise faster than the UK average and is absolutely committed to reaching net zero by 2045 – five years ahead of the UK. The Scottish Government has no intention of delaying our net zero target date of 2045, in recognition that tackling climate change is the fight of our lifetime and must be addressed at the earliest possible date.

a) The annual Scottish Health Survey (SHeS) measures physical activity of children from the ages 2 to 15, young people from the age of 16 are captured in adult data. Questions are asked on the subject of walking, frequency of physical activity, physical activity at school, sports participation and sedentary time. Data is also captured on gender, age and socio-economic status, including deprivation.

b) The Scottish Government understand the importance of sport and physical activity for women and girls in Scotland and the positive impact that has on their physical, mental, and social health across all stages in life.

Scottish Women and Girls in Sport Week is an annual Scottish Government campaign which provides an opportunity to celebrate the ways in which women and girls take part in sport and physical activity and increases visibility and participation, highlighting the impact and health benefits it brings to their physical, mental and social health.

Active Schools, one of sportscotland’s flagship programmes, provides more opportunities for children and young people to take part in sport and physical activity, and develops effective pathways between schools and sports clubs in the local community.

In the 2022-23 academic year, the Active Schools programme successfully engaged with over 124,000 girls and young women who made over 2 million visits to Active Schools sport and physical activity sessions. This was an increase of 35% in the number of visits by girls and young women from the previous year.

Fit for Girls is a national programme developed in partnership between sportscotland and the Youth Sport Trust delivered to girls aged between 11 and 18. The workshops aim to inspire and empower girls and young women to create local change in their school, club, and community by developing their self-esteem and confidence so they can inspire more girls to start, maintain, or return to sport and physical activity.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Disclosure Scotland, an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government, is consulting on how disclosure fees could be discounted for certain groups in future. No decisions have been made on this. The consultation response from stakeholders and the public will help to shape decisions by Scottish Ministers. Since 2011, Disclosure Scotland has fully subsidised qualifying voluntary organisations to get free PVG disclosures for volunteers. Reviewing the policy on fee waivers and discounts helps to ensure the effective use of public finances and the potential impact of any changes, whilst providing an effective public service.

Disclosure Scotland does not expect any of the options detailed in the consultation to have an impact on child and adult safeguarding. Disclosure Scotland keeps a list of people unsuitable to do regulated work with children and a list of people unsuitable to work with protected adults. If an individual is listed, they are barred from working with the group covered by that list, that includes working as a volunteer. It is a criminal offence for an individual to carry out regulated work with the vulnerable group they are listed for. It is also against the law for an organisation to employ a listed person in regulated work they are barred from. If an individual is listed they are not eligible for Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme membership for that type of work.

In addition, when the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 is implemented it will become mandatory for anyone carrying out a regulated role, including as a volunteer, to be a member of the PVG Scheme.

The safety and security of people’s data, and the running of NHS services is of the upmost importance. The NHS in Scotland and across the UK successfully defends itself against attacks on its IT infrastructure on a daily basis, demonstrating resilience to the threats faced.

a) The annual Scottish Health Survey (SHeS) measures physical activity in children from the ages 2 to 15, young people from the age of 16 are captured in adult data. Questions are asked on the subjects of walking, frequency of physical activity, physical activity at school, sports participation and sedentary time. Data is also captured on gender, age and socio-economic status, including deprivation.

b) The Scottish Government recognise the many benefits derived from being active, and investment is being used to drive equality, diversity and inclusion in the sporting system. The Scottish Government work with sportscotland, our national agency for sport, in partnerships with Scottish Governing Bodies of sport (SGBs), local authorities, leisure trusts, sports clubs and community organisations, schools, colleges and universities to provide opportunities for all to participate in sport and physical activity, to break down the barriers, financial or otherwise, that keep too many people from leading active lives.

Information on the destination of referrals made for patients in relation to long COVID is not held centrally. This is a matter for territorial NHS Boards.

There are standard procedures in place in hospitals across Scotland for treating patients who present with an overdose, regardless of the substance involved.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery is responsible for driving clinically-led service redesign and transformation in care across NHS Scotland. It consists of a number of national improvement programmes which are focussed on individual Scottish Government strategic priority areas.

The Programme Team workplans for 2024-25 are still in the process of being finalised and will be approved by Scottish Government.

A summary of the CfSD national programmes of work are as follows:

Modernising Patient Pathways (MPP) Programme: The MPP team deliver national improvements in planned care and support front line clinical teams to develop and implement sustainable improvements in service delivery. A key focus of the team is on developing national clinical pathways and supporting boards to increase the use of Active Clinical Referral Triage (ACRT) and Discharge Patient Initiated Review (PIR).

National Elective Coordination Unit (NECU): The NECU team supports improved access to care by providing a consistent approach to national demand and capacity assessment and allocation as well as providing waiting list validation to ensure lists are up to date.

Unscheduled Care Programme: The Unscheduled Care Programme delivers support and develops improvement tools to help Boards to manage urgent and unscheduled care capacity and capability, including Optimising Flow Navigation Centre (FNC) services, hospital-at-home models and developing pathways to support care home access to urgent care.

Cancer Improvement and Earlier Diagnosis Programme: The Cancer Improvement and Earlier Diagnosis team drives NHS Scotland’s cancer strategic priorities and plays a key role in delivering Scotland’s 10-year cancer strategy, including working with Boards to ensure the Framework for Effective Cancer Management (FECM) is embedded.

National Endoscopy Programme: The National Endoscopy Programme supports Boards to deliver the Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan. This includes supporting the deployment of the new Endoscopy Reporting System and working with NHS Scotland Academy to promote and maximise training opportunities around non-medical endoscopy and cystoscopy.

Innovation Programme: The Innovation team manages the Accelerated National Innovation Adoption (ANIA) Pathway, which is designed to identify and support national adoption of high-impact innovations at pace.

National Green Theatres Programme: The Green Theatres Programme supports NHS Boards to meet the net zero commitments for NHS Scotland through reducing the carbon footprint of theatres and delivering more environmentally sustainable surgery.

Planned Care Programme: The Planned Care Programme is responsible for monitoring planned care performance across all NHS Scotland Boards. It also leads national improvement work around Trauma and Orthopaedics, Ophthalmology and Radiology.

The Scottish Government acknowledges this report which serves as a clear message that trans young people in Scotland are experiencing difficult and tangible challenges in their day to day lives.

Trans people continue to suffer poorer outcomes relative to the wider population, and this needs to change.

The Scottish Government are providing funding of over £1.1 million to LGBTQI+ organisations in 2024-25 to enable them to take forward a range of activities to advance equality and tackle discrimination.

We are taking forward our commitment to introduce legislation to end conversion practices in Scotland and responses to the public consultation, which closed on the 2 April, will be analysed and considered to inform the Bill the Scottish Government will introduce into Parliament. We have also funded a dedicated conversion practices helpline and are continuing to develop non-legislative measures to support victims and survivors of conversion practices.

We have published a Non-Binary Equality Action Plan to improve equality and wellbeing for non-binary people, established and funded organisations dedicated to stopping LGBTI-related bullying and discrimination, and published a new Hate Crime Strategy for Scotland, which sets out a vision for a Scotland that lives free from hatred and prejudice and where our communities are empowered, inclusive and safe.

It is essential that we continue to listen to people with lived experience and continue to strive for equality and inclusion to improve the lives of LGBTQI+ people in Scotland.