Chamber and committees

To date, Scottish Ministers have delegated regional marine planning powers to three Marine Planning Partnerships, which are required by the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 to include in their governance arrangements representatives with an interest in; the protection and enhancement of the region, its use for recreation and its use for commercial purposes.

The Scottish Government will shortly publish its response to the inquiry of the Scottish Parliament’s former Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee into the development and implementation of regional marine plans in Scotland. This response will include recommendations to support partnerships to identify opportunities to improve community representation in regional marine planning and marine licensing decisions.

South of Scotland Enterprise sought to attract applicants with a wide range of interests relating to ‘land-based industries’. Grouping these together was designed to attract applicants with experience of working or advising in industries such as agriculture, farming and forestry or who had experience of contributing to the economy and/or society through their involvement with the land-based sector. The application pack made clear that applicants were not expected to have worked in a management post or at a senior level. Rather, applicants might have a natural aptitude in these areas or they might have gained relevant knowledge and skills by being active in their community.

As this relates to knowledge held by existing members of South of Scotland’s Board, I have asked Professor Russel Griggs, Chair of South of Scotland Enterprise to respond to you directly.

NHS Borders, Fife, Forth Valley, Highland, Lanarkshire, Lothian and Tayside have all been receiving enhanced support to meet the waiting times standard and eliminate long waits by end March 2023.

We will shortly be writing out to all Boards to inform them about our programme of support for the next 6-12 months, including those which will be offered additional support.

From our £120 million Mental Health Recovery and Renewal fund, we have allocated around £40 million to NHS Boards to improve CAMHS. £4.25m of that allocation is directly focussed on offering treatment to those already on their CAMHS waiting lists.

We have also provided an additional £9m to NHS Boards in 2021/22 to address waiting lists for Psychological Therapies with further investment being planned for 2022-23.

There is currently no formal plan to review the labelling requirements within the Honey Regulations (Scotland) 2015. However, as the body with policy responsibility for these regulations, Food Standards Scotland continues to monitor the effectiveness and suitability of the legislation through communication with its stakeholders, such as Local Authorities, businesses and consumers, as well as discussions with other Scottish and UK Government departments.

It should be noted that FSS and the wider Scottish Government have a responsibility to conduct a formal post-implementation review within 10 years of the respective regulations coming into force. With regard to the Honey Regulations this is due to be factored into business planning at a point up to and including 2025.

While there is no evidence that any honey on sale in Scotland or in the UK is unsafe, it is a product that is frequently described as being at risk of fraud.

The volume of blended product required for the honey market and the availability of plausible adulterants (such as sugar syrup), in addition to the price premium associated with higher value honey products, mean that it is a realistic possibility that adulterated or misrepresented honey is present within world honey supplies.

Consumers or businesses who have concerns or suspicions around the authenticity and/or the mis-labelling of honey can report the circumstances to the Scottish Food Crime Hotline in partnership with Crimestoppers at 0800 028 7926, which is a free and anonymous service. They can also speak directly to trained staff at the Scottish Food Crime and Incidents Unit at Food Standards Scotland to discuss their concerns in the strictest of confidence via the [email protected].

The Scottish Government welcomes Coeliac Awareness Week and remains committed to enhancing diagnosis and care for people with coeliac disease in Scotland.

We have developed a new Scottish Coeliac Disease Pathway (2020) in partnership with people living with the condition, the charity Coeliac UK and clinicians. This has been shown to accelerate correct diagnosis and access to appropriate treatment (gluten-free diet and lifestyle) as detailed in the Coeliac Disease Pathway Report . It is our expectation that all Health Boards will fully implement this pathway in order to improve services and ensure that, with dietetic person-centred support, people with coeliac disease take control of their condition and manage its impact on their health and quality of life.

We have also invested £70 million in support of our Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan . This includes a commitment to promote and implement guidelines for non-biopsy diagnosis for coeliac disease, which is expected to reduce waiting times for diagnosis for this condition.

The new pathway embeds the successful Scottish Gluten-free Food Service, which is unique in the UK. The service provides gluten-free food prescriptions and also annual coeliac disease health checks via community pharmacy. Annual coeliac disease health checks have re-commenced now that COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted. They provide pharmacy, general practice and patients with an efficient and safe means of referral back to coeliac services for dietetic and clinical advice as required.

Primary care teams are further supported through information resources on NHS Inform which have been co-produced by people with coeliac disease, clinicians and Coeliac UK.

The Scottish Government believes that all women have the right to access comprehensive universal healthcare, including abortion services, without fear or intimidation.

The Scottish Government is currently looking at how to tackle protests and vigils that intimidate women as they access healthcare services, and are seeking to make progress as soon as practicable.

In light of the recent protests outside of sexual health clinics, if an individual feels uncomfortable attending an appointment, they should contact the clinic directly to discuss their concerns.

Food security levels in Scotland have been measured using the Scottish Health Survey since 2017. Survey respondents are defined as being food insecure if they answer positively to the question: ' During the last 12 months, was there a time when you were worried you would run out of food because of a lack of money or other resource?'.

Sample sizes for local authority areas are too small to publish statistics annually, however, by combining data from multiple years (2017-2019), local authority level figures can be produced. Statistics are publicly available on the Scottish Health Survey dashboard: Scottish Health Survey (shinyapps.io) .

Since the Scottish National Investment Bank opened for business in November 2020 it has committed £206.9 million in 16 investments in line with its strategic missions.

Details of the each of the Bank’s investments, including the alignment to missions, are published on the Bank’s ‘Our Portfolio’ page: https://www.thebank.scot/our-portfolio/ .

Many of these investments support our net zero targets and some meet more than one mission.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08581 on‎ 31 May 2022. 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.