Chamber and committees

I have written to the Defra Secretary of State twice regarding the designation of HPMAs in Scottish offshore waters. A meeting between Scottish Ministers and the Defra Minister of State for Biodiversity, Marine and Rural Affairs is currently being arranged to discuss the issue.

The Scottish Government is committed to tackling all forms of antisocial behaviour and to making all of our communities safe places where people can live free from fear or harm. I will monitor the development of the UK Government’s Antisocial Behaviour Action Plan as I consider how best to continue to prevent and tackle antisocial behaviour in Scotland.

The Scottish Government continues to support local authorities and Police Scotland to further reduce the damage caused by antisocial behaviour in our communities, including investing in prevention and early intervention. These agencies have a range of powers available to tackle antisocial behaviour. Additionally, the Scottish Government has been working with the Scottish Community Safety Network to better understand how we can prevent antisocial behaviour, and limit its harms.

Scottish Ministers have not met with the Defra Secretary of State to discuss marine protection. I have written to consecutive Defra Secretaries of State on two occasions (June 2022 and October 2022) regarding powers for Scottish Ministers to designate HPMAs in Scottish offshore waters and suggesting a meeting to discuss respective priorities regarding the delivery of HPMAs. This meeting has been postponed twice but is currently being arranged.

The Scottish Government commissioned the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland to undertake a programme of lived experience engagement and information sharing, that supports the implementation of the Women’s Health Plan: 2021 - 2024 over the lifetime of the plan.

An update on the delivery of this work since the publication of the Plan can be found in our recently published Women’s Health Plan: A Report on Progress .

The jointly funded £250,000 endometriosis research project with Wellbeing of women covers a period of 3 years, and began in the financial year 2022-23.

The findings from the research will be published in an open access journal after the research completion in 2025. The results will also be presented at national and international endometriosis conferences.

Consistent with Scotland’s Framework for Tax we are consulting and engaging to help inform the development of the Scottish Aggregates Levy Bill.

This process began with a public consultation conducted last autumn, complemented by engagement with stakeholders. Taking account of feedback, it was concluded that more work was needed to ensure that decisions on Bill provisions are based on optimal evidence.

In January 2023, the decision was taken to establish an advisory group to assist this process. The group is designed with a broad mix of expertise and perspectives and is chaired by a senior Scottish Government official.

The group has already met twice and expects to hold its next meeting on 19 April. Through constructive and informed discussions, it is providing valuable insights to help refine policy positions and, in turn, Bill provisions. Summaries of its work will be published on the Scottish Government website in due course.

The Scottish Government appreciates the contribution of all members of the group, which will likely have a further role to play as the Bill progresses.

Our Diabetes Improvement Plan, published in 2021, contains a key commitment to further increase access to existing and emerging diabetes technologies. A link to the Plan can be found at link: Diabetes Care in Scotland (www.gov.scot) .

Our national policy is to increase access to these life changing diabetes therapies to everyone who would benefit, and we expect NHS Boards to provide technology to all clinically suitable children and adults.

We are supporting the ANIA collaborative as they work through the current proposal of a national onboarding programme. We are also working with wider stakeholders, including health finance colleagues, to determine what longer term developments would be required to support ongoing roll out of technologies.

Public bodies, including NHS health boards, are responsible for monitoring the accuracy of interpretation services. The Scottish Government expects all healthcare services to be accessible to all people in Scotland, regardless of the circumstances of individual service users, including where an interpreter is required.

The Scottish Government works across public and third sector partners to improve the availability of translations and accessible formats. We collaborate to share best practice and signpost to translation, interpretation and transcription services that are accessible to all public bodies. Scottish Government resources to support this include the Interpreting, Translation and Transcription Services Framework .

Additionally, Public Health Scotland published the Interpreting, Communication Support and Translation National Policy in October 2020. Its aim is to ensure that NHS Scotland and its partners have a clear, consistent and fair approach to the provision of information and communication support for all. The policy outlines guidance for NHS Scotland to ensure that appropriate governance of interpreting and translation services is in place, as well as the need for systematic monitoring and review of local/contracted services and procedures.

As part of our review into the operation of the Public Sector Equality Duty in Scotland, we are proposing to create a new duty that would seek to ensure inclusive communication is embedded proportionately across the work of listed authorities when they are communicating with the public. This would include translation and interpretation into other languages.

This is a matter for individual local authorities. The information is not held centrally.

The independent Barclay Review of non-domestic rates reported in 2017 and made 30 recommendations, the majority of which were accepted by the Scottish Government in the implementation plan published in December 2017. All of the agreed recommendations of the Review have been implemented, including those which came into effect on 1 April 2023 such as the move to revaluations with a one-year tone date, the introduction of a new two-stage appeals process, and powers for councils to tackle rates avoidance.

We are fully committed through our employment policies and procedures to support employees who experience pregnancy loss at any stage of pregnancy and our current package of support measures fully reflect the spirit and intent of the Pregnancy Loss Pledge.

This includes the terms of our bereavement policy, which include miscarriage and stillbirth, as well as through a number of sources of support for colleagues who have experienced loss including:

• guidance and support from line managers;
• HR People Advice and Wellbeing support; and
• an internal Counselling and Wellbeing Team.

Colleagues can also access the Employee Assistance Programme for external confidential support.