Chamber and committees

Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office is fully engaged with UK partners, including the MHRA, on improving the clinical trials system across the UK. In addition to facilitating inputs from across the Scottish clinical research community to the MHRA’s recent public consultation on clinical trials legislation, officials are engaging regularly through cross-UK fora with MHRA and other UK partners to ensure that any updated regulations and their supporting guidance work well for Scotland, and as part of a streamlined, efficient, and innovative UK-wide clinical trials system.

St. Andrews House and Victoria Quay were illuminated in blue on 7 th July to mark Action Mesothelioma Day.

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy was published on 29 June 2023, along with an Executive Summary and Easy Read version. A programme of stakeholder engagement will take place over the Summer on the accompanying Delivery Plan, with the intention of publishing it alongside the Workforce Action Plan in the Autumn. The Strategy is available online at Mental health and wellbeing strategy - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Following searches by Scottish Government officials on the corporate system, 5 complaints have been identified which relate to ‘medical’ or ‘medical devices’ and ‘power. However it should be noted that complaints of this nature are more likely to be directed to health boards as providers of such devices.

We have not undertaken an assessment of the impact of recent increases in mortgage rates on levels of fuel poverty among Scottish households.

National Statistics on fuel poverty use data on mortgage costs collected through the Scottish Household Survey, with the latest available figures being for 2019. Updated National Statistics on fuel poverty for 2022, incorporating mortgage costs for that year, are expected to be published in January 2024.

Given that our definition of fuel poverty uses a household’s after housing costs (AHC) income, it is likely that rising mortgage costs and/or rents will result in more fuel poor households.

The data we collect on mortgages does not include information on households' mortgage types, or on the time left before the debt is expected to be paid off. This makes it difficult to include changes to mortgages within the fuel poverty scenario modelling previously produced in relation to changes in the energy price cap and mitigation measures.

The most recent estimates produced using this scenario modelling approach suggest that, at the current energy price cap, approximately 850,000 households (34%) in Scotland will be in fuel poverty from July to September. This year we have tripled the budget for our Fuel Insecurity Fund to £30 million, which is there to support any household at risk of self-disconnection or self-rationing their energy use. We also continue to call on the UK Government to provide more targeted support.

We published an update on our progress delivering the recommendations from the National Review of Eating Disorder Services in April 2023. This can be found here: National Review of Eating Disorder Services Implementation Group: final report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

We have made good progress responding to the short-term recommendations made by the National Review and will shortly establish the National Eating Disorder Network which will support us to deliver on the remaining long-term recommendations.

Since the Review published in 2021, we have:

• Provided funding to NHS Boards, including £5 million in 2021/22 to respond to the rise in eating disorder referrals we saw during the pandemic, and £46 million in 2022/23 via the 2022-23 Mental Health Outcomes Framework to improve the quality and delivery of mental health and psychological services, including eating disorder services.
• Established the Eating Disorder Lived Experience Panel to support us to deliver the remaining recommendations from the National Review.
• Initiated the development of Quality Standards for Eating Disorder Care and Treatment in Scotland (which we will be consulting on this summer).
• Provided over £600,000 annually to Beat to provide a range of self-help and carer support programmes in Scotland.
• Commissioned NHS Benchmarking to undertake a “deep dive” into Eating Disorders services and their data, to support us to target future funding appropriately.

Local Authorities and Integration Authorities are responsible for adult carer support plans and young carer statements in line with the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 and the associated statutory guidance.

The Care Inspectorate looked at practice and outcomes from adult carer support plans as part of its Inquiry into adult carers’ experiences of social work and social care services, published in December 2022. The annual Carers Census also collects information on support planning. The Scottish Government is using the results of both exercises, together with informal feedback from stakeholders to focus our actions to promote improvement and sharing of good practice, including those commitments set out in the National Carers Strategy.

Key activities include:

• networks for local statutory carer leads and managers of local carer centres and young carer services;
• training resources for front line staff;
•  improvement work with local organisations led by Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

We remain committed to bringing forward housing legislation to deliver the new deal for tenants and homelessness prevention duties. However, the exact timing is subject to ongoing discussion as part of wider legislative planning.

The Government's legislative programme for the coming parliamentary year will be announced in the autumn Programme for Government in the normal way.

Emissions from private jets departing from Scotland’s airports are captured in Scottish source emissions as reported in ‘Scottish greenhouse gas statistics’, the most recent version of which covers 2021 and was published in June 2023. Estimated emissions from aviation are based on data provided by the CAA and, for overseas territories, the UK Department for Transport.

There is no provision for exemption or compensation for key workers travelling into a Low Emission Zone (LEZ). However, Transport Scotland provides grant funding to support lower income households and smaller businesses to adapt to Low Emission Zones via the LEZ Support Fund. In return for scrapping non-LEZ standard cars, a cash grant of £2000 is received, and a further allowance of up to £1000 per household or business towards sustainable travel costs.