Chamber and committees

The then Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport Maree Todd MSP raised the consultation on alcohol advertising and promotion with Neil O'Brien MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care at a bi-lateral meeting on 1 March 2023.

Ms Todd set out the importance of taking action to reduce alcohol-related harms in Scotland, indicated that the consultation on alcohol advertising and promotion had issued and was live and highlighted that a UK wide approach on some areas of alcohol policy would be beneficial.

The 2023-24 budgets for employability programmes, including No One Left Behind and Fair Start Scotland were confirmed by the Deputy First Minister on 25 May, with Grant Offer Letters issued to local authorities on 30 May for No One Left Behind. The budget for Individual Training Accounts has now been confirmed and the scheme will re-open during the week commencing 19th June 2023.

We are currently considering the budget for the Flexible Workforce Development Fund in 2023-24 through colleges and the Open University in Scotland and will provide a further update once budget discussions have concluded.

The Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group was established as part of the refreshed system wide governance for the Deposit Return Scheme in Scotland (DRS) for the implementation stage of the programme. The function of this group is:

• To provide collective strategic assurance of successful DRS implementation.
• To hold all stakeholders mutually accountable for requisite actions.
• To build consensus on issues where there is conflict in stakeholders’ positions.

? To drive down the number of outstanding operational issues.

? To manage resolution issues escalated to the Group.

Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia is categorised into 3 stages. Generally, if a patient has stage A, the condition is monitored and treatment is not recommended. This is because there is no benefit in receiving treatment at this stage, and it can cause significant side effects.

The Scottish Government has made available £3 million of funding to the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD), hosted in NHS Golden Jubilee, to support implementation of the optimal lung cancer diagnostic pathway. CfSD is responsible for supporting the design and delivery of optimal cancer diagnostic pathways in NHS Scotland, and has been working with Boards across Scotland to enhance current services and direct investment to the areas with greatest need.

Scottish Ministers have not met with (a) UK ministers, (b) the Welsh Ministers or (c) representatives of international governments to discuss period dignity and the provision of free period products.

For the Academic Year 2022-23, the Scottish-Government recommended intake target to paramedic education programmes was 335 students. Similarly, for the Academic Year 2023-24, the Scottish-Government recommended intake target to paramedic education programmes is 335 students.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18432 on 14 June 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 .

Scotland participates in the Programme for International Student Assessments (PISA), which is an assessment of 15 year olds' skills in maths, science and reading. It is carried out under the auspices of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and includes over 80 countries. The assessments take place every three years across all OECD members and variety of partner countries. Scotland has participated in all eight surveys since the first wave of testing in 2000.

The most recent PISA assessments took place in Scotland in October and November 2022, with over 3,000 15 year olds and nearly 120 schools participating. Scotland's results will be published alongside the international results in December 2023. The Scottish Government will publish a statistical report looking specifically at Scotland's results, with comparisons to OECD and UK countries, as well as time series results. The data will include internationally comparable data on maths, science and reading performance, alongside results of a background questionnaire answered by learners and headteachers.

The Scottish Government indicated in the Equality, Opportunity, Community: New leadership – a Fresh Start publication on 18 April 2023 that Scotland would seek to re-join the Trends in International Mathematics and Science (TIMSS) and Progress in International Reading Literacy (PIRLS) studies. The next PIRLS assessments will take place in 2026, with data published in 2027; with TIMSS assessments taking place in 2027 and published in 2028.

The Scottish Government also provides data on the education system in Scotland for the OECDs annual Education at a Glance publication, which is the authoritative source of data on the state of education around the world. The publication provides information on the structure, finances and performance of education systems across OECD countries and partner economies. This includes internationally comparable data on financial resources in education, teacher pay, working hours, professional development and organisation of schools.

Following reports at the end of 2022 that nitazenes, a new form of synthetic opioid, had been detected in a drug related death in Scotland, Scottish Government officials have worked closely with Public Health Scotland (PHS) colleagues to monitor and better understand this new substance of concern.

Through work done with PHS to improve our public health surveillance system, an alert was issued through their RADAR (Rapid Action Drug Alert and Response) system in January in relation to nitazenes, highlighting the risks and dangers associated with these substances, but also providing information for people who take drugs as well as setting out actions which drug and alcohol service staff could take. This alert was further updated on 29 March. A copy can be found here - RADAR Alert 2023/04, Nitazene type drugs in Scotland - Publications - Public Health Scotland .

As a result, drug and alcohol services, health care settings and high-risk settings, like prisons, have all been urged to follow harm reduction advice for opioids and polydrug use and to increase and optimise the availability of naloxone to people they support.

Following the identification of this new substance in drug related deaths in Scotland, and a recommendation from the RADAR toxicology sub-group, post-mortem screening in Scotland has been expanded to ensure that toxicology providers are now routinely testing for nitazenes and, in selected cases, retrospective post-mortem testing has also been conducted.

Due to the potential for nitazenes, and other new psychoactive substances, to be present in the wider drugs supply, we are committed to delivering drug checking facilities in Scotland to enable us to respond faster to emerging trends in the drug supply. We anticipate that license applications to the Home Office, to grant permission for the establishment of these facilities in Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen, will be submitted in the coming months.