Chamber and committees

Alcohol remains a priority for Scottish Government and we are treating our policies to reduce alcohol and drug deaths as twin public health emergencies in Scotland.

This is why we established a National Mission to improve and save lives, at the core of which is ensuring that every individual has access to, and choice in the type of recovery and treatment they need.

We are working to ensure people with alcohol use disorder receive the care and support in the same way that people can access for problematic use of drugs. The forthcoming Alcohol Treatment Guidelines will help ensure support for alcohol treatment, in a similar way to how the Medication-Assisted Treatment Standards ensure this for people impacted by opiates.

Following publication of the UK-wide guidelines it is our intention to draft a paper on specific alcohol treatment standards for Scotland.

Through our National Mission we are investing in residential rehabilitation that will benefit people experiencing alcohol and/or drug addiction.

At present, we have no plans to establish and evaluate tests of change for alcohol treatment in the justice system.

The Scottish Prison Service is currently refreshing its Alcohol and Drug Recovery Strategy, this will ensure alcohol intervention and support are included in any recovery pathway planning across our establishments. It is anticipated that the strategy will be published later this year.

We are also supporting the UK Government on reviewing and updating clinical guidelines for alcohol treatment. The guidance will look to introduce new approaches to treatment and will apply to a broad range of settings including justice settings. The guidelines are expected to be published for consultation this year.

Following finalisation of the alcohol treatment guidelines, Scottish Government will review and use these to ensure that our justice systems are providing consistent and good care to those with problematic alcohol use.

Turner and Townsend are supporting the work of Transport Scotland in this area to maintain continuity of services. We are considering a range of procurement options, but no final decision has been taken at this point. An update will be provided to Parliament once a decision has been made.

No Transport Scotland or Scottish Government payments to Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP have been identified for consultancy work on the (a) design and (b) tender of the (i) Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services (CHFS) 1 and (ii) CHFS2 contract.

The Local Authority Digital Office is a collaboration of Scottish local authorities, and independent of the Scottish Government. They are currently assisting the Student Placement Management Group in the planning for a replacement student teacher placement system.

The Scottish Government has been working with the Improvement Service and Scottish Futures Trust since 2017 to support local authorities with the delivery of the 1140 expansion programme. Prior to the statutory entitlement of ELC provision increasing to 1140 hours in August 2021, support was focused on ensuring that local authorities had the necessary staffing and infrastructure in place to meet the increased entitlement. More information on this delivery support function can be found here: ELC Delivery Progress Reports | Improvement Service

Since August 2021, Scottish Government has refocused the support we provide to local authorities via the Improvement Service, to embed the intended benefits of the expansion and to strengthen, enable and assure the delivery of ELC services to all eligible children.

Improvement Service supports local authorities to identify and share good practice examples and to understand and implement service improvements. This includes supporting local authorities to understand processes involved in maximising two-year-old uptake, including how to make best use of the new data being shared with local authorities on the eligible population in their area.

Scottish Government does not collect information on work local authorities do within their local areas. Local authorities are able to share their experiences on the Knowledge Hub.

The Scottish Government published a new national Specification for Psychological Therapies (PT) and Interventions on 29 September 2023. This follows a two-year period of development working closely with partners, including the workforce, and other key stakeholders.

We have worked in collaboration with Public Health Scotland (PHS) to revise the waiting reporting guidance for PT and PHS have re-issued the Waiting Times data definitions guidance document which will help to improve accuracy of reporting against the PT waiting times standard. This applies to the delivery of PT as set out in the new Specification. The updated guidance document will be fully operational by 1 April 2024.

Scottish Government officials and Professional Advisors will continue to support NHS Boards to improve reporting of PT waiting times through the established engagement processes. We will work with data analysts and PHS to ensure improved information reporting is carried out consistently across Scotland.

The Scottish Government recognises that evidence is important in supporting policy design, monitoring progress and evaluation of impact. Our refreshed Tobacco Action Plan will be published in Autumn this year and is based on a wide range of evidence. This has included and will continue to include input from Public Health Scotland and Scottish Government Analysts. In addition, evidence requirements will continue to be considered and updated as plans around refreshed tobacco actions progress. Further detail on evidence will be published later this year.

Current PHS analysis on smoking attributable deaths and smoking attributable admissions can be found on the PHS website - Smoking attributable deaths - ScotPHO and Smoking attributable admissions - ScotPHO

No Transport Scotland or Scottish Government payments to Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP have been identified for consultancy work on the (a) design and (b) tender of the (i) Northern Isles Ferry Service passenger specifications, (ii) Northern Isles Ferry Services freight specifications and (iii) Gourock to Dunoon contracts.

I refer the Member to the answer to question S6W-21286 on 13 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