Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government have purchased the following laptops since 1st March 2020 for use on the SCOTS network.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of biodiversity and nature restoration, and the urgent need for action at home and abroad to tackle the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change. This is why our Global Affairs Framework makes clear that Scotland will play its full role, engaging with international networks on biodiversity protection and nature restoration to make positive contributions and cooperate with others.

Our biodiversity strategy sets out our vision to be nature-positive, halting biodiversity loss by 2030 and reversing declines by 2045. Achieving these goals will require significant efforts and – as part of these – we will continue to implement our international obligations, engage with international partners to cooperate and share best practice, and actively participate in multilateral fora where possible.

One of the key principles of the Guidance on the Provision of Equipment and Adaptations is to ensure that people are able to access support at the point they feel they need it, including for advice and signposting. Fair and consistent access to suitable assessments should be available on a non-discriminating, tenure neutral and human rights basis.

The timely provision of equipment and adaptations can reduce risk and injury, help with people’s confidence and their mental well-being, and may prevent unnecessary admission to hospital or care settings.

It is also a cost-effective solution which can contribute significantly to the streamlining of service responses and pathways, and support wider agendas including, hospital discharge and avoidance of admission, prevention and early intervention, frailty pathways, Anticipatory Care Planning, Mental Health & Dementia, child development, and the management of long-term conditions, including end of life care.

These interventions can allow people to do more for themselves and avoid the need for additional, more expensive, input from other services, and compliments rehabilitation intervention, for people of all ages.

Our vision is to have a Tobacco-Free Scotland by lowering smoking rates in our communities to 5% or less by 2034. Our aim is to create a generation of young people who do not want to smoke, with all the health and economic benefits that follow.

The Scottish Health Survey gathers data on children living in accommodation where someone regularly smokes and the number of children exposed to second hand smoke:

• In 2021, the proportion of children living in accommodation in which someone regularly smoked indoors was significantly lower than in previous years, from 19% in 2012 to 4% in 2021(Scottish Health Survey - 2021).
• In 2021, the proportion of children exposed to second-hand smoke in their own home was also significantly lower than in previous years, from 12% in 2012 to 2% in 2021 (Scottish Health Survey - 2021)

We do not hold specific data on the impact on poverty of parental smoking. However, in 2022 ASH Scotland estimated that on average, a smoker in Scotland uses 12 cigarettes a day. This costs around £2500 annually for people smoking pre-rolled cigarette and £1150 for those who roll tobacco. For further information see https://www.ashscotland.org.uk/ .

The Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2010 set outs the fines that can be levied and these are detailed below:

• offence of selling an NCP to a person under 18 - level 4 on the standard scale (£2,500)
• Offence of purchasing one on behalf of a person under 18 - level 5 on the standard scale (£5,000)
• Offence of purchasing an NCP by a person under 18 - level 1 on the standard scale (£200).

We do not currently have plans, at this time, to revise these fines and any revision would require consultation.

The Scottish Government made an additional funding guarantee to Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership, which was in addition to the HSCP’s share of the Primary Care Improvement Fund, which funds the majority of general practice Link Worker posts across Scotland. The guarantee of additional funding, should the HSCP require this, was to protect 26 existing posts.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21068 on‎ 14 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

The appearance of synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, in the Scottish drug supply has been a concern for some time. At the end of 2022 PHS flagged a small number of deaths related to nitazenes, a new synthetic opioid and issued a public health alert as a result in January 2023. Following recent deaths linked to these substances in England and Wales, the UK Government issued their own alert in June 2023. Changes in the production of heroin, particularly in areas such as Afghanistan, are also raising concerns amongst stakeholders of a likely rise in the supply of synthetic opioids and the danger this will pose to the UK drug supply.

The ability to know what is in the drug supply and when substances of concern, such as synthetic opioids appear, is vital. Recognising the need to understand changes in the substances people are taking, alongside being able to identify potential threats, has meant that through our National Mission we have invested in developing our surveillance abilities. Public Health Scotland now operate their Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response (RADAR) system which issues quarterly reports, but they have also released two health alerts relating to specific substances to raise awareness to individuals and to enable service providers to deliver vital harm reduction services, including provision of Naloxone. The use of fentanyl testing strips is also currently under consideration. In addition, we are continuing to progress the establishment of drug checking facilities in Scotland through proposed pilot sites in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee. These facilities will be able to provide real-time information about the substances in circulation, issue alerts about anything of concern and provide essential harm-reduction information to individuals using the service.

Scottish Government officials met with UK Government officials recently to discuss the Global Coalition on Synthetic Drugs and are contributing to the sub-working groups on this.

Planning is also underway to host a meeting of national and international partners to discuss this issue and learn from the experience of other countries. A lot of the harm reduction interventions we already have in place are what is recommended to counter the dangers of these new substances.

It is disappointing to see an overall increase in households becoming homeless from the private rented sector. However, there was a notable decrease between the first and last six months of the year. This is likely due to the cost of living legislation that was introduced in October 2022.

The cost of living crisis continues to place people across Scotland in a precarious position. On 1 June we laid regulations which would – subject to the approval of Parliament – extend emergency measures to cap in-tenancy rents and give additional eviction protections for a further, and final six months, to 31 March 2024, provided they remain necessary and proportionate.

If approved by Parliament, these measures will continue to help stabilise housing costs for private tenants and ensure that the enforcement of evictions will continue to be paused for up to six months across all tenures except in a limited number of circumstances. This provides tenants with additional protection where an eviction order/decree is granted - giving them more time to access the support they need and to find alternative accommodation.

We know that the best way to end homelessness is to prevent it from happening in the first place. As stated in this year’s Programme for Government (published 5 September 2023), in the coming year we will introduce a Housing Bill which will include new duties aimed at the prevention of homelessness.

Through local authorities we have provided over £8.8 million to support more than 6,620 households in rent arrears through the Tenant Grant Fund.

Discretionary Housing Payments play a vital role in safeguarding tenancies. In 2023-24, we are making £83.7 million available to local authorities to spend on Discretionary Housing Payments:

• £69.7 million to fully mitigate the bedroom tax, helping over 92,000 households in Scotland sustain their tenancies
• £6.2 million to mitigate the benefit cap as fully as possible within devolved powers
• £7.9 million to mitigate against the damaging impact of other UK Government welfare cuts, including the ongoing freeze to Local Housing Allowance rates

Public Health Scotland Publish information on the number of GPs and patients nationally and by Health Board and this is available at:

General Practice - GP Workforce and practice list sizes 2012 - 2022 - General Practice - GP workforce and practice list sizes - Publications - Public Health Scotland

Table 2 sets out the number of GPs nationally and in each board area and Table 4 shows the registered number of patients nationally and in each Health Board, over the past 10 years.