Chamber and committees

The non-statutory guidance on supporting Transgender Young People in Schools sets out a range of advice on legislation, policy and practice including illustrative examples. It is for education authorities and schools to use the guidance as they see fit, in line with local priorities and circumstances.

As would be usual with any relevant significant legal or policy developments, the Scottish Government will consider whether the guidance requires to be updated to reflect these.

Information on enquiries to Boards about CAMHS is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. Each NHS Board in Scotland has their own system in place for managing complaints raised by the public.

The Scottish Government records and processes enquiries and correspondence addressed to Scottish Ministers on its Ministerial and Corporate Correspondence (MiCase) System and any correspondence related to CAMHS is answered via this system. Over the last 3 years, 27 cases specifically mentioned CAMHS waiting times.

The Supporting Transgender Young People in Schools non-statutory guidance sets out a range of advice on legislation, policy and practice including illustrative examples of the concerns faced by young people through a range of statistical information. All statistical material used in the production of the guidance was reviewed for suitability when the guidance was written. It is for education authorities and schools to use the guidance as they see fit, in line with local priorities and circumstances.

The NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026 refers to the support for CAMHS included in the £120m Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund. In total, £34m of the Fund was invested in 2021/22 to improve access to and quality of CAMHS services.

This fund was superseded in 2022-23 by the Mental Health Outcomes Framework, which bundled funding to Boards for improvements to CAMHS, psychological therapies, eating disorder care, primary care and children and young people’s neurodevelopmental services, as well as ongoing innovation and service reform.

The intention behind bundling was to allow Boards flexibility to align spending to local priorities, based on this it is not possible to separate out the specific CAMHS funding provided to each Board from 2022-23 onwards. We have allocated £48.6 million of supplementary funding to Boards so far this year via the Mental Health Outcomes Framework. This is in addition to £36.7 million allocated to Health Boards via the Outcomes Framework in 2022-23; and to the total package of core funding that Health Boards receive.

So far 13 out of 14 CAMHS services have effectively eliminated their long wait lists (where 3% or fewer of all waits are over 1 year). Full data information on for each Board on CAMHS patients starting treatment is publicly available via Public Health Scotland: PHS CAMHS Waiting Times .

Scottish Government Ministers and officials are aware of the current challenges faced by NHS Tayside in meeting waiting time standards set out for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).

NHS Tayside are receiving additional support which includes providing access to professional specialist advice, making sure that they have robust improvement plans place and are continually monitoring their implementation. Regular and structured engagement with NHS Tayside at both Ministerial and official level is continuing. This is in addition to requesting formal quarterly written updates.

In addition all Boards have been asked to submit trajectories setting out a timeline for clearing long waits. These will be updated annually and used to inform further targeted improvement work to ensure all Boards meet CAMHS waiting times standards.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S6W-25599 on‎ 4 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 .

Child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) workforce data is publicly available in NHS Education for Scotland (NES) Turas Data Intelligence at: NHS Scotland Workforce Data .

This also provides data on staff joining and leaving rates by each Health Board.

The Scottish Government does not hold information specifically on the number of car thefts. Information on the number of thefts of a motor vehicle is provided below, but it is not possible to break that down by type of motor vehicle.

In terms of a perpetrator breaking into a home to take keys, it should be noted that this is recorded as a crime of housebreaking and not as a theft of a motor vehicle. The data held by the Scottish Government does not include information on what was stolen during any recorded crime of housebreaking.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the use of so-called cloning equipment to steal a car without the keys.

Crimes of theft of a motor vehicle, Scotland, year ending December 2021 to year ending December 2023

It is well established that some occupations are restricted by capacity and age due to the physical demands of those roles, making it untenable to expect them to be carried out until the State Pension Age. This was recognised by the Public Service Pensions Act 2013 which set a pension age of 60 for firefighters, police officers and the armed forces.

Prison officers do not have a dedicated pension scheme as they are members of the Civil Service pension scheme, which is a reserved matter for the UK Government. We recognise that prison officers carry out frontline operational duties, including control and restraint, until the State Pension Age, which is due to rise to age 68. This can be particularly challenging and carries with it significant stresses and strains. We have previously raised the concerns around physical demands of prison officers role with the UK Government.

Scottish Prison Service do not assess age to determine whether a prison officer is capable of carrying out their duties but recognises that front line staff work in a very challenging environment. SPS has arrangements in place to support staff who may no longer be able to fulfil the physical demands of their role and these cases are managed in accordance with the circumstances of each individual.

It is well established that some occupations are restricted by capacity and age due to the physical demands of those roles, making it untenable to expect them to be carried out until the State Pension Age. This was recognised by the Public Service Pensions Act 2013 which set a pension age of 60 for firefighters, police officers and the armed forces.

Prison officers do not have a dedicated pension scheme as they are members of the Civil Service pension scheme, which is a reserved matter for the UK Government. The Scottish Government has raised concerns with the UK government regarding the requirement for prison officers to carry out frontline operational duties including control and restraint until the age of 68. We have always accepted that some jobs are restricted by capacity and age, and need to be viewed and treated as such.

The Scottish Government and SPS both duly recognise that prison officers work in a very challenging environment and are committed to a person centred approach to all employees and their circumstances.