The then Minister for Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing issued a letter to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) supporting the release of Alcohol Focus Scotland’s guidance on undertaking alcohol death reviews on 24 September 2020. The letter asked that ADPs undertake an alcohol death review every three years.

We are currently working with both Alcohol Focus Scotland and Public Health Scotland to review how alcohol death reviews are being delivered in Scotland and also what learning can be taken from the delivery of drugs death reviews.

These findings will feature in the national specification for treatment of drug and alcohol misuse in Scotland which is currently in development and will build on the recommendations of the forthcoming UK Clinical Guidelines for Alcohol Treatment.

It is our expectation that future Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) funding letters will ask ADPs to undertake local alcohol death reviews .

Public Health Scotland’s report, published on 18 June 2024, presents a high-level overview of the number of statutory-funded residential rehabilitation placements between April 2021 and March 2024. This includes statutory-funded placements approved by:

• local Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs)
• the Scottish Government, using funds that are managed centrally for some residential rehabilitation placements (e.g. under the Prison-to-Rehab pathway). These placements are reported as National Mission-funded in this report.
• Ward 5 of the Woodland View mental health facility and community hospital in NHS Ayrshire and Arran. Ward 5 is a residential unit for Ayrshire and Arran residents who have an alcohol or drug problem and mental health 5 issues. Ward 5 offers detoxification followed by a four-week residential programme.

The Planning Hub is hosted and coordinated by the National Planning Improvement team in the Improvement Service. As host, the Improvement Service is responsible for the operational delivery of the Hub, including resourcing.

The Scottish Government continues to support the Improvement Service to work at pace to make the Hub fully operational.

GP practices are funded to provide cervical screening services as a default part of their contracts with health boards. Practices are responsible for ensuring appropriate provision.

The handbook for people performing cervical screening includes guidance which states that sample takers who work with physically disabled women should be confident and experienced in taking cervical samples. In addition, sample takers should consider whether it is appropriate to take actions or make adjustments based on the woman’s healthcare needs, such as making arrangements with local colposcopy services to ensure samples are taken at clinics where hoists are available.

In addition to the £600 million announced in December 2017, the Scottish Government has invested an additional £20 million with the UK Government's Project Gigabit programme contributing a further £31 million. This further investment has been deployed via the R100 contracts to extend and enhance the coverage footprint.

The R100 contracts form only one part of the overall R100 programme. The R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) is demand-led and, as such, there is no pre-determined amount of funding allocated for delivering connections via SBVS. As of 31st August 2024, £10 million has been paid to suppliers to deliver connections via SBVS.

These figures are rounded to the nearest million pounds.

The ground investigation report is being prepared by Petroineos for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). The Scottish Government would not expect to receive it formally and has no plans to publish it, as this is an operational matter for SEPA.

We are advised that the ground investigation work has concluded that the contamination is localised and SEPA continue to work with Petroineos and their consultant Adler and Allan to ensure the physical remediation works, which have commenced, can be delivered timeously. Once the remediation has concluded SEPA will be in a position to publish a statement regarding the environmental condition of the site.

Latest assured figure (from 31 July 2024) showed that around 1,000 premises were still expected to be connected through the R100 Central contract in the Falkirk Council area.

Latest coverage figures, including premises connected that were beyond the scope of the initial R100 contracts, are available on our website at Data insights | Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband.

Following the publication of the UK Government’s equality analysis on the impact introducing means-tested Winter Fuel Payments, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice wrote to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on 20 September urging the UK government to reinstate Winter Fuel Payment for all pensioners. The Cabinet Secretary also called for reform of the UK energy markets to address the root causes of fuel poverty in Scotland, such as high fuel prices.

This followed the previous letter to the Secretary of State on 14 August, in which the Cabinet Secretary urged the UK Government to undertake a benefits uptake campaign for Pension Credit and to move forward with plans for a social energy tariff.

The three strands of activity which form the Reaching 100% (R100) programme – the over-£600 million R100 contracts, the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) and ongoing commercial build - continue to deliver faster broadband connections across Scotland.

The interim voucher portion of the R100 SBVS was originally intended to close on 31 December 2021, but was extended by three months and closed on 31 March 2022.

The Scottish Government continues to fund the charity, Health in Mind, to deliver a specialist peer service to those affected by historic forced adoption. This is in direct response to feedback from people with lived experience for this type of support.

Funding has totalled over £73,000 to date, (£23,389 in 2022-2023 and £49,276 in 2023-2024). Health in Mind continues to promote the service across Scotland and raise awareness of the impact of historic forced adoption practices. Further details of the service are available at: https://health-in-mind.org.uk/how-we-can-help/national-services/historic-adoption-trauma-support-service/