Chamber and committees

Engaging with people with lived experience, including autistic people, and other neurodivergent groups, is essential to the work of the Scottish Government and we have put person-centred approaches at the heart of our work.

We have commissioned the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) to support local areas to involve a range of neurodivergent voices in planning, decision making and delivery of neurodevelopmental pathways. NAIT will also set up a neurodevelopmental community of practice for professionals and will continue to work with neurodivergent people. This will support local practitioners in developing local practice in co-production.

In addition, the Scottish Government has involved people with lived experience in the development of a new leadership and engagement framework and in policy design around mental health support for autistic people and people with learning disabilities. This new way of working is based on the belief that the most effective and sustainable change is made by the people who need and use supports and services, in equal partnership with decision makers at all levels.

ScotRail advises that in Paisley there are 34 positions with 27 monitoring CCTV as part of their duties. 4 Managers and 3 Announcers who can monitor CCTV but it is not their primary role. In Dunfermline there are 20 positions with 13 monitoring CCTV as part of their duties. 4 Managers and 3 Announcers who can monitor CCTV but it is not their primary role. ScotRail has 1 additional position which covers both centres and ScotRail now has 24/7 coverage between the centres. Each centre has the capability to monitor sites across the ScotRail network.

In collaboration with local and regional partners, the Scottish Government supported the development of Community Wealth Building (CWB) action plans for each area that set out practical actions to maximise the economic benefit realised for local communities, businesses and people.

Clackmannanshire, Glasgow City Region and Tay City region plans have been published on the Scottish Hub for Regional Economic Development website. Western Isles’ plan can be found here . South of Scotland Enterprise published their report on the potential for a CWB approach to adding energy efficient measures to Registered Social Landlord (RSL) housing stock in the South of Scotland, which concluded that 2,200 jobs could be created by 2023. The analysis can be found here: A roadmap to decarbonisation ,

A summary of all learnings from the pilots informed the Economic Development Associations Scotland (EDAs) practical CWB guide, available here: Community Wealth Building Scotland | EDAS

Local authorities have a duty under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 to manage and maintain local roads and pavements in their area.

The vast majority of funding to local authorities from the Scottish Government is provided via a block grant and we do not stipulate how local authorities should utilise their individual allocations. It is therefore the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budget and to allocate the financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The Mental Welfare Commission produces annual reports on admissions of young people under the age of 18 to non-specialist wards in Scotland. The latest report was published on 1 December 2022, and can be found here: ChildrenYoungPeople_MonitoringReport_2021-22.pdf (mwcscot.org.uk) . Table 1 provides a breakdown of numbers of young people admitted to non-specialist facilities by year from 2012/13 (177 admissions relating to 148 young people) to 2021/22 (90 admissions relating to 80 young people).

Information on young people placed in adult mental health services has more recently also become available through the Mental Health Quality Indicator Profile publication. Under the “Equitable” theme of indicators, indicator EQ4 provides data on the percentage of under 18 year old psychiatric admissions admitted out with NHS specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) wards. Please note this information is only published at a national level. The Mental Health Quality Indicators were produced in September 2018 and data on these was first published on 17 March 2020. Indicator EQ4 was first published on 23 March 2021.

The most recent Mental Health Quality Indicator Profile publication can be found here: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/mental-health-quality-indicator-profile/mental-health-quality-indicator-profile-25-april-2023/.

The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 (“the 2014 Act”) obliges Integration Authorities to publish an annual performance report setting out an assessment of performance in planning and carrying out the integration functions for which they are responsible. The content of these reports is prescribed in the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Content of Performance Reports) Regulations 2014 which states that the reports must include an assessment of performance in relation to the national health and wellbeing outcomes.

Under the 2014 Act, the Health Board and the local authority must provide such information as the Integration Authority might reasonably require for the purposes of preparing a performance report to the Integration Joint Board or the authority as appropriate to the model of integration chosen.

The most recent instance of Scottish Ministers declining to consent to a first grant of temporary release of a life sentence prisoner was in January 2018, where the Minister indicated that on the basis of the information presented in regard to the individual, they were not willing to give consent.

It would not be appropriate to publish information regarding the circumstances of an individual prisoner.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17450 on 11 May 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 Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund has received various applications from local authorities and registered social landlords (RSLs) since its inception in 2020.

To date the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund has received 65 applications since 2020 for capital funding, of which 55 applications have been awarded funding. 10 applications have been rejected, invited to resubmit following feedback or have been referred to alternative funding sources.

The Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund also funds a stream of pre-capital projects for development funding and has received 20 applications for development funding, with 12 applications being funded, and 8 being rejected, invited to resubmit or referred to alternative funding sources.

The Scottish Government has worked collaboratively with partners, patients and third sector organisations in recent months to develop a ten year cancer strategy for Scotland.

Due to publish Spring 2023, the strategy will take a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways, from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care. It aims to improve cancer survival and provide excellent, equitably accessible, care across Scotland, including those affected by brain cancer.

A new earlier diagnosis vision will feature within the strategy and will include similar actions to those outlined in The Brain Tumour Charity’s report. This includes continuing to deliver our Detect Cancer Earlier Programme, working with primary care clinicians to ensure they have direct access to diagnostic tests and quality education sources; optimal cancer diagnostic pathways are designed and implemented across NHS Scotland; and public campaigns educate and empower those with possible symptoms to act early.