Scottish Government funding of over £2.5m has been committed to support the mental health and wellbeing of health and care staff in 2024-25. These resources include a 24/7 compassionate listening service, confidential mental health treatment through the Workforce Specialist Service and access to psychological therapies and interventions.

Prioritising these treatment and therapeutic programmes reflects our commitment to offer care and support to those staff suffering from stress, anxiety and other conditions. In addition, the National Wellbeing Hub offers a range of self-care wellbeing resources and signposting to relevant mental health and support services.

All Scottish Ministers routinely use electronic boxes (‘e-boxes’) for ministerial business. Cabinet Folders are issued to Cabinet Secretaries on appointment.

The Scottish Civil Justice Council's review of access to justice in environmental cases has resulted in new rules being made. The new rules are contained within the Act of Sederunt (Rules of the Court of Session 1994 Amendment) (Protective Expenses Orders) 2024.

The Council continues to assess what more can be done via rules in support of environmental actions in the sheriff court and will consult again when appropriate to do so. Work also continues on the plan of action to address the remaining Aarhus concerns raised, where they would result in an amendment to court rules.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with the UK Government to provide a further update to the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee in advance of the 1 October.

As set out in The Dangerous Dogs (Compensation and Exemption Schemes) (Scotland) Order 2024 , from 1 August 2024 it is illegal to own an XL Bully dog in Scotland without a certificate of exemption, or without having applied for a certificate of exemption where a decision has not yet been made.

XL Bully dog owners had from 1 April 2024 to 31 July 2024 to apply to the Scottish Government for a certificate of exemption for their dog, to allow them to continue to legally own the dog.

3,308 certificates of exemption for XL Bully dogs have been issued to dog owners by the Scottish Government during the period 1 April 2024 to 31 July 2024.

454 were issued in April 2024

243 were issued in May 2024

479 were issued in June 2024

2,132 were issued in July 2024

We have responded to calls for more transparency and accountability by working with Public Health Scotland to track the number of residential rehab placements that ADPs have funded and the development of a National Core Minimum Dataset that will provide data not only on the number of publicly funded placements but also with time will publish insights on outcomes from placements in Residential Rehab.

This will provide the Scottish Government with a clear line of sight on how residential rehab funding is being spent across the country and help to further the evidence base for this treatment model.

The Public Health Scotland’s Interim monitoring report on statutory-funded residential rehabilitation placements published on 18 July 2024, shows that during the period between October 2023 and March 2024 estimated costs for 33 placements to Ward 5 was £495,396 – averaging at £15,012 per placement.

The Scottish Government have allocated a £5 million uplift in funding to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) based on the National Resource Allocation Formula, for funding of residential rehabilitation placements and distribution of this fund at ADP and Health Board level is a local decision.

The Scottish Government published a capacity mapping report in 2021 which found that residential rehabilitation provision was disproportionally located around the Central Belt.

We acted on this by announcing the second round of the Residential Rehabilitation Rapid Capacity Programme in 2022, with a specific priority to support new or expanded residential rehabilitation facilities which were regional or would accept placements on a national level.

Over £14 million was made available to support the successful projects, which included the expansion of CrossReach’s service in Inverness (with outreach support to the Highlands and Islands), the extension and refurbishment of the Maxie Richards Foundation’s service in Tighnabruaich, and the creation of a new national residential rehab service in Aberdeenshire by Phoenix Futures.

These projects are progressing well and we expect all to be operational by the end of the year.

Public Health Scotland’s baseline report on the residential rehabilitation programme, published in February, outlines the complexities in evaluating shorter programmes within the context of wider residential rehabilitation.

As noted on Page 12 of the report, discussion as to whether two-week or four-week placements are best included or excluded from the total number of publicly funded residential rehab placements remains ongoing. The argument for including them is that they are publicly funded placements. The argument for excluding them is that there has been some evidence in previous reports such as the 2020 Residential Rehabilitation Working Group report which suggests that positive outcomes are more likely with longer placements.

However, all placements for residential rehab are assessed on an individual needs basis, and so we cannot assume that longer programmes necessarily constitute a comprehensive rehabilitation experience in general. It is ultimately for professionals and clinicians to make the decision locally as to whether a shorter programme is as effective for the individuals involved.

Public Health Scotland’s (PHS) most recent report confirmed that 461 statutory-funded placements were approved in the second half of the 2023-24 financial year alone, with 938 placements approved for the year overall. This indicates that we are already on track to meet our commitment of 1000 people accessing statutory-funded residential rehab in 2026 (an increase of 300%).

While the PHS statistics indicate welcome progress, we recognise the scale of the challenge that we continue to face and are determined to do more.

We are working with ADPs to aid the development of clear pathways into residential rehabilitation across the country, and the establishment of pathway development clusters by Healthcare Improvement Scotland has resulted in 29/30 ADPs publishing their pathways. This will help facilitate a further increase to statutory funded placements and support our aim of meeting the final target before the end of the National Mission in March 2026.

The Public Health Scotland interim monitoring report on statutory-funded residential rehabilitation placements does not gather data on the number of successfully completed rehabilitation placements.

We have responded to calls for more transparency and accountability commissioning Public Health Scotland to develop a National Core Minimum Dataset that will provide data not only on the number of publicly funded placements but also with time will publish insights on outcomes from placements in Residential Rehab.

This will provide the Scottish Government with a clear line of sight on how residential rehab funding is being spent across the country and help to further the evidence base for this treatment model.