Chamber and committees

Scottish Ministers agreed to HSE refusing the 2023 emergency authorisation application for the use of the herbicide Asulox, to control bracken, because of the risks it poses to the environment and human health.

There is no reason to suggest compensation for previous users would be necessary. Asulox has been withdrawn in the UK for over 15 years. For the last 10 years it has been approved annually as part of an emergency authorisation, for limited and controlled use each season. HSE consider each application on a case-by-case basis against the legislative requirements, and this year considered that it did not meet the regulatory requirements for authorisation. There is no obligation to grant an emergency authorisation and it is the responsibility of the applicant to provide all relevant information to justify the need for emergency use.

Support for bracken control through the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) has continued for 2023. Contracts for chemical and mechanical bracken control were issued from the 2022 round of AECS which commenced in 2023. Where contract holders had intended to undertake chemical control, we have offered flexibility to allow mechanical or manual activity.

The Scottish Government recognises the role that Asulox has played in recent years in the control of bracken in Scotland. We recently held a bracken roundtable to work with stakeholders to identify priority actions to allow for the safe control of bracken, where land managers deem it necessary.

The RPW scheme is intended to provide police officers with a timely and proportionate means of dealing with offending which meet the criteria of being lower-level offending in terms of the Lord Advocate’s guidelines.

Those guidelines provide general principles which should be followed when an officer is considering whether to issue an RPW.

Officers have operational discretion to issue an RPW if they consider that appropriate in all the circumstances. An alternative would be for the officer to report the matter to the Procurator Fiscal.

Although the Lord Advocate’s guidelines are confidential, Police Scotland’s published guidance provides additional instruction to officers on when RPWs can be used.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-20927 on 19 September 2023. 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 .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-20927 on 19 September 2023. 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 .

Scottish Government officials engage individually with local authorities and health and social care partnerships alongside accessing feedback on autism strategies via the Social Work Scotland Learning Disability and Autism Subgroup meetings and the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) programme of work.

Local strategies are based on The Scottish Government Learning/Intellectual Disabilities and Autism: Towards Transformation Plan.

The Scottish Government has no plans to establish a database with regards to the monitoring of individuals with Lynch Syndrome.

We are currently in discussion with clinicians including members of the Scottish Strategic Network for Genomic Medicine and the Clinical Genetics Forum to bring together all stakeholder specialities to advise on testing, screening and management for individuals at increased risk of cancer.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-20714 on 19 September 2023. 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

Our ambitious work on suicide prevention is underpinned by a significant funding commitment of £2.5 million in 2023-24. This includes funding of approximately £1.9 million specifically focused on the delivery and implementation of the Creating Hope Together Action Plan and ongoing research to inform future suicide prevention activity and targeted support. Funding of approximately £600,000 has been allocated to taking forward priority programmes initiated under the previous plan including our bereavement support service pilot and the improvement of suicidal crisis responses.

The £2.5 million ring-fenced for suicide prevention is part of the core mental health budget. However, other elements of the mental health budget also support suicide prevention work. For example, our £15 million per annum Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults supported nearly 300 suicide prevention projects in 2022-23. Likewise, wider Scottish Government spending contributes to tackling the inequalities which can contribute to suicide.

The Scottish Government, through our National Delivery Lead, will be tracking national spend against the annual delivery plan and £2.5 million budget. We will not be tracking local spend. It is for local authorities and NHS teams to agree local action plans which meet local needs and agree resources to support these. As at the national level, there is recognition that suicide prevention involves a broad range of services and budgets including housing, money advice, alcohol and drug services, and it is therefore not possible to determine the full funding picture. We will however be actively working with our local partners, including NHS Boards and local authorities, to identify opportunities to co-ordinate action and share practice and learning so that our collective plans and resources work to prevent suicide.

Since December 2022, the Scottish Government has allocated over £896,000 to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHS GGC) to support work to improve their adult and young people’s gender identity services.

NHS GGC is using this funding to recruit to its Young People’s Service multidisciplinary team; contact those currently on the waiting list to identify unmet needs; and improve support for those waiting.

The Scottish Government has engaged with NHS England on the developing plans on clinical research, and the Scottish Government/NHS Scotland will join the planned NHS England study development process as an observer.

s set out in our answer on 21 June, decisions on prescribing are for clinicians to make in consultation with the patient, following individualised assessment, and they are subject to regular monitoring. The Scottish Government remains proactive in its commitment to help to deliver high-quality healthcare to children and young people in that sensitive field of medicine.

The Scottish Government has also committed to support the establishment of a nationally commissioned young person’s gender identity service. Work is underway with NHS National Services Scotland on how best to sustainably provide gender identity healthcare for young people in Scotland in the long term. This process includes considering existing and future treatment pathways.

The Scottish Government does not routinely gather or centrally hold information on staff attrition rates across all public sector, or publicly funded, bodies.

National Statistics on employment across the public sector in Scotland, including headcount by devolved and reserved sectors, are published on a quarterly basis and can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/collections/public-sector-employment-statistics/.

In the case of some specific workforces, further information relevant to attrition rates is also available:

• Official Statistics on the NHSScotland workforce, including staff turnover, are published and can be found at: https://turasdata.nes.nhs.scot/data-and-reports/official-workforce-statistics/ .
• National Statistics on the composition of the Civil Service workforce, including staff turnover by department and devolved administration, are published annually and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics