Chamber and committees

Scottish Ministers are legally required to consult, develop and implement fisheries management measures for inshore Marine Protected Areas and Priority Marine Features.

Developing the evidence-base for effective fisheries management measures, and undertaking statutory requirements, for more than 160 sites and areas within the inshore region is a complicated and challenging process. We are continuing to work at pace to complete the necessary statutory social, economic and environmental assessments ahead of launching a public consultation.

Fisheries management measure will be implemented as soon as possible following analysis of the consultation responses and a final decision on the measures has been taken.

The Scottish Government has already published the estimated financial contribution made to public spending by the voluntary Ministerial pay freeze since it was established on 1 April 2009. Between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2025, Ministers made an estimated £2.2 million available for public spending from their own pay packets. This is public funding that would not have been available had Ministers not voluntarily decided to return a proportion of their pay. In 2024-25, Ministerial pay was 30.4% below where it would otherwise have been. From 1 April 2025, the MSP element of the pay of all Ministers except the First Minister was equalised with that of all other MSPs, while the freeze on the Ministerial element of their pay continues for a seventeenth consecutive year. In 2025-26, Ministers will make an estimated £166,000 available for public spending from their own pay packets and, as such, public funds this year will again be higher than they would have been without the pay freeze. This is the point that the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport was making.

Responsibility for publishing data and intelligence on the social service sector in Scotland was delegated to the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) in 2001 by Scottish Ministers under the Regulation of Care Scotland Act 2001.

Reports on sector vacancy rates, including breakdowns by local authority and ‘hard to fill posts’, between 2018 and 2023 can be found on SSSC’s website here:

Vacancies reports | Scottish Social Services Workforce Data

Please note SSSC is working to provide more current data to workforce planners and now publishes data on social worker-filled posts and vacancies every six months which can be found here:

Social worker filled posts and vacancies six-monthly survey at June 2024 | Scottish Social Services Workforce Data

We received an excellent response to the Inshore Fisheries Management Improvement Programme call for evidence which ran for twelve weeks from 26 November 2024. We intend to publish an analysis in due course. The responses are both numerous and voluminous and have required longer than anticipated to fully analyse and report upon. The scale of the responses has however provided a detailed insight into the views of our stakeholders on numerous aspects of inshore fisheries management. These will be invaluable as we begin to develop proposals for a new inshore fisheries management framework, which we intend to consult on in early 2026.

Whilst evidence shows that people feel more able to talk openly about their mental health, we know there is more work to do in tackling stigma and discrimination in relation to complex, severe, and enduring mental illness and we all have a role to play.

This work remains a key priority for the Scottish Government, which is why our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy sets out a vision for a Scotland, free from stigma, discrimination and inequality. This is also reflected across our strategy Delivery Plan, Suicide Prevention Strategy, Self-Harm Strategy and Mental Health Workforce Action Plan.

Key actions include:

• Providing £5 million funding over 5 years since 2021 to See Me as our key delivery partner on tackling mental health stigma and discrimination to work with a range of other partners to drive forward anti-stigma and discrimination action.
• Investing £66 million since 2021 in our Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults, which includes a focus on supporting those with mental illness. We are also working with the National Rural Mental Health Forum and SAMH’s The Changing Room: Extra Time programme to reduce stigma and discrimination, including in disadvantaged areas.
• Working nationally to raise awareness and reduce mental health stigma through our Mind to Mind, Parent Club Young Scot and Aye Feel campaigns and resources for adults and young people.
• Working in partnership with Public Health Scotland and See Me to support employers to tackle mental health stigma and discrimination in the workplace and to promote mentally healthy workplaces.

Long waits for neurodevelopmental support are unacceptable. Health boards and children’s services partners are responsible for working together to ensure that children and families receive support and access to services that meet their needs at the earliest opportunity. To support this, we have provided almost £250,000 in 2024-25 to fund a range of individual projects to improve neurodevelopmental assessment and support for children and young people. This includes nearly £54,000 for services in the Lothian area.

We have also directly allocated £123.5 million to NHS Boards and IJBs for the Enhanced Mental Health Outcomes Framework. The Framework provides a single, flexible funding stream to support continued improvements and better outcomes across a range of mental health and psychological services in line with the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy including neurodevelopmental services for both adults and children.

We are also continuing to work with Health Boards and local authorities to improve our understanding current levels of need and the level of support children and young people currently receive, and how this could be used to support improvements for children and families.

For adults, we have commissioned the National Autism Implementation Team to support NHS Boards to develop, enhance and redesign adult neurodevelopmental services. Our £1 million Autism Support Fund for Adults funds organisations that support people with ADHD, especially where this co-occurs with autism.

Body-worn video footage can be an essential part of a prosecution: providing a rich source of real evidence including exculpatory evidence. Provided promptly, such footage can:

• enable prosecutors to make an informed marking decision
• facilitate the early resolution of a case
• support an effective prosecution

Considerable work being undertaken within the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to measure and monitor impact the impact of submission of BWV footage on both operational processes and prosecution decisions.

Officials from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service are working closely with colleagues from the Police Service of Scotland to ensure that the body-worn video footage submitted to prosecutors supports and does not detract from these aims.

When setting access criteria, the National Fertility Group take cognisance of safety, capacity and outcomes and in particular looks to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guideline CG156 Overview | Fertility problems: assessment and treatment | Guidance | NICE. This guideline sets out that female BMI should be in the range of 19 to 30 before commencing assisted reproduction. Female BMI outside this range is likely to reduce the success of assisted reproduction procedures.

The group have no current plans to review BMI related access criteria for NHS IVF treatment.

Access Criteria for NHS IVF treatment in Scotland is set at a national level within the National Fertility Group. The group brings together experts in the field and makes recommendations to Scottish Ministers. Whilst the group has been modelling future access for single people, it has no current plans to review access criteria. A copy of NHS IVF Treatment access criteria can be found here Access-Criteria-NHS-IVF-Treatment-Scotland.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on where mental health patients specifically are awaiting discharge to, or the reason for delay.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) publishes an annual report and summary of occupied bed days and census figures. The report includes the total number of bed days occupied by people delayed in their discharge from hospital and the average number of delayed discharges across monthly census points. PHS published the latest release in December 2024 covering the financial year 2023-24 (available by visiting Delayed discharges in NHS Scotland annual summary of occupied bed days and census figures). The next publication is expected in June 2025.