Special Advisers are appointed in accordance with Part 1 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 by the First Minister as a Special Adviser for the purpose of providing assistance to the Scottish Ministers. There are currently 12 Special Advisers.

The Scottish Government has published a list of the Special Advisers and their specific portfolio responsibilities at: Special advisers - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Decisions on prescribing medicines are a matter of clinical judgement for the prescribing clinician in consultation with their patient. These should be based on individual clinical need, informed by relevant advice such as that issued by the General Medical Council (GMC) and guidance for the medicine.

The Scottish Government’s Menopause Clinical Reference Group, Chaired by Dr Heather Currie, has discussed the prescribing of testosterone for women in menopause. This group is exploring supplementary guidance for healthcare professionals on prescribing testosterone for loss of libido in menopause, in line with the British Menopause Society and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance.

Social Security Scotland has not been subject to any denial of service (DoS) attacks during the period between 30 June 2023 and 24 July 2024. During that same period, our security mechanisms protected our environment against 345,027 cyber events, the majority of which being external actors scanning our internet facing benefit systems to identify potential weaknesses.

There are no plans to review the monetary penalties at this time.

It should be noted however that SEPA continues develop relationships with relevant parties with the aim of taking a prevention-based approach, where penalties are viewed as a last resort.

Whilst fixed monetary penalties remain as one available enforcement measure, they are intended for lower-level offending. For more significant offending, SEPA also has the option of variable monetary penalties (with the current limit set at £40k) or it can recommend prosecution in serious cases to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

SEPA collected around £ 4.8m in financial penalties in the financial year 2023-24.

The Scottish Government grant to the University of Glasgow for this purpose funds one PhD studentship and a number of small projects. The projects are currently at different stages, outputs from some of the projects are expected before the end of the year and all are expected to be completed by Spring 2025.

The successful candidate for the PhD studentship took up their post in January 2024 and the projects and PhD studentship are both wholly managed by the University of Glasgow.

As is standard with high quality research, it is anticipated that the findings will be published in relevant peer reviewed journals.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) is the national health and social care improvement organisation for Scotland which develops standards and indicators to support health and social care organisations improve the quality of care and support they deliver.

To support nationwide improvements in the quality of care, work is currently underway to develop a set of healthcare standards which outline the requirements for all healthcare services across Scotland.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland will publish draft National Healthcare Standards for consultation by 31 January 2025. It is anticipated that the final National Healthcare Standards will be published by end summer 2025.

The Scottish Landfill Communities Fund has provided an important source of funding for community and environmental projects across Scotland.

The Scottish Government recognises that the forecast decline in Scottish Landfill Tax revenues, which reflect the policy intent to reduce the volume of waste sent to landfill, will reduce the contributions that landfill operators make to the Fund. We are therefore, in partnership with Revenue Scotland and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, carefully considering future arrangements for the Fund.

More broadly, the Scottish Government is committed to supporting local environmental projects through, for example, the growth of our national network of regional Community Climate Action Hubs. These hubs, which are supported by up to £5.5 million of funding in 2024-25, enable local communities to develop place-based approaches to reduce emissions and become more climate resilient.

Urban areas typically have the highest concentrations of roads and as a result any significant road water run-off into rivers usually occurs in these areas. A mix of oils, chemicals and tyre particles from vehicles builds up on urban roads during dry spells and is washed off into drainage systems and watercourses during rainfall events. The resulting runoff can have an impact on our water environment if it enters watercourses before going through any mitigating treatment processes. For example sediment traps, such as road gulleys, or sustainable urban drainage systems designed to filter out as many “first-flush” pollutants as possible.

The widespread, diffuse and sporadic nature of this issue means it has the potential to impact our water environment in a range of ways and makes it challenging to monitor and to address.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) assess the aquatic environment in Scotland through the Water Framework Directive classification. SEPA carries out a range of surveillance, operational and investigative monitoring to assess Scotland’s water bodies and to prioritise and drive improvements and action where needed. SEPA’s monitoring strategy for Scotland’s water environment can be seen here: Scotland's WFD Aquatic Monitoring Strategy (sepa.org.uk)

SEPA has assessed two water bodies (sections of rivers) as having failed to have met the water quality standards, where the reason has been ascribed to road transport.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of managing urban run-off to protect the water environment and to reduce flooding in our towns and cities. The Scottish Government is working to improve how we manage surface water and drainage, including how we can bring in more sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) and blue and green infrastructure into our urban environment to help manage pollution and flooding from urban run-off and reduce pressure on piped urban drainage systems. This is part of our developing policy for the future of the water industry in Scotland in response to the climate emergency. We are also currently consulting on Scotland’s first Flood Resilience Strategy which will focus on actions needed to make our communities more flood resilient over the coming decades. Part of this is looking at how we can make the most of urban green spaces and natural water bodies to capture rainwater where it falls and to reduce run-off and water flowing into our drainage systems. This too will help to reduce the impacts of road run-off on the water environment.

More details on the consultation paper and how to take part can be found here .

The Scottish Government is not responsible for taking action against any land occupiers who have received multiple Section 59 notices. It would be for SEPA or the local authority responsible for issuing the notices to determine whether or not any further action or investigation would be appropriate in relation to any ongoing activity on the land.

Scottish Government officials met with Police Scotland and Environmental Health Officers on 12 January 2023 regarding concerns related to the potential involvement of organised crime groups in the beauty/cosmetics sector.

The implications of the use of counterfeit and unlicensed beauty products is one of a number of issues under consideration as we consider further regulation of non-surgical cosmetic procedures.

The Scottish Government and its partners on the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce are committed to working together to disrupt any serious organised crime and the harm it causes to individuals and communities.