Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has not held any discussions with South Lanarkshire Council regarding potential firework control zones within the local authority area. Firework control zones are a discretionary power for local authorities, however, and the Scottish Government is not required to be consulted regarding utilisation of these powers by a local authority. At present, the Scottish Government is aware of a potential 11 firework control zones being scoped out across Scottish local authorities. We remain committed to providing funding to local authorities who wish to consult on, and thereafter designate, a firework control zone (or zones) within their area.

Neither the Scottish Government nor Public Health Scotland (PHS) hold this information centrally. The majority of data held by PHS on Olaparib (Lynparza®) is on the quantity issued within hospital settings rather than on the number of prescriptions, only a very small number of prescriptions for Olaparib (Lynparza®) are held within their primary care prescribing dataset.

Colleagues with adjustment passports can wear Sunflower lanyards and/or pins or badges but must also wear a parliament issued purple lanyard.

It’s estimated that 70-80% of disabilities are hidden, including physical and mental health, sensory such as visual, auditory and processing difficulties, chronic conditions, and rare diseases. The SPCB want to make it easier for staff and visitors who have a non-visible disability to get the support they need. SPCB staff have been trained to recognise the Sunflower and offer help or adjustments as part of our existing reasonable adjustment process.

The Scottish Government funds a range of action that supports mental health and wellbeing which is available to anyone living in Scotland, regardless of their residence status.

The Home Office is responsible for the provision of asylum accommodation and support, including the use of contingency hotels. People seeking asylum living in Scotland are entitled to access healthcare, including referral to mental health services.

Through our actions in our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and Delivery Plan and Suicide Prevention Strategy and Action Plan, we will continue to tackle the underlying causes of mental health inequalities and how we can better support groups most at risk of poor mental health, including asylum seekers and refugees.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-25449 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

The Scottish Government and its partners on the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce - which includes Police Scotland and the National Crime Agency - oversee work to address the threats highlighted in the Scottish Multi-Agency Strategic Threat Assessment.

Decisions around the detection and disruption of drug supply are an operational matter for the relevant law enforcement agencies. I thank those bodies for the vital work they do to take drugs off our streets and dismantle organised crime groups.

While the law enforcement response to drug trafficking is essential, it is also crucial that we tackle the market for drugs. This Government's position is that tackling the drugs emergency requires a concerted public health approach to improve and save lives.

NHS Education for Scotland expect this module to be ready for publishing on their website and available to members by June 2024. Updates will be detailed in their newsletter to Practice Based Small Group Learning (PBSGL) members.

Scottish Government officials are working with beauty industry representatives, environmental health officers and healthcare professionals to explore the next steps in potential further regulation of non-surgical cosmetic procedures. Work with stakeholders will also consider any potential age restrictions.

The first iteration of Scotland’s Migration Service launched on 27 March 2024. The previous working title of ‘Talent Attraction and Migration Service’ was updated following testing with users.

The service is hosted on Scotland.org and provides information and advice to people who have recently moved to Scotland, international students, employers and inward investors, who are able to book one-to-one advice appointments with our expert suppliers – Citizens Advice Scotland and the law firm Seraphus. The scope of the full service will widen in Autumn 2024 to service the needs of individuals located outside Scotland with an interest in moving to Scotland.

Delivery of the first phase of the service is being promoted to employers across Scotland and all other users through a stakeholder advocacy approach. This involves targeted promotional activities through existing relationships and networks of stakeholders. Partnership communications toolkits have been shared with stakeholders containing materials to promote and encourage their own service users to use Scotland's Migration Service. The launch was also promoted via a news release from Scottish Government and social media post.

Further promotional activities will be conducted in Autumn to accompany the launch of the full service.

As part of our commitment to acknowledge the role of local leadership in addressing challenges linked to depopulation, the Scottish Government has committed to establishing an Addressing Depopulation Fund to enable local authorities to trial pathfinder interventions in support of population attraction and retention. The Fund will initially make available £180,000 to be split between a prospective three local authorities across financial years 2024-25 and 2025-26.