Chamber and committees

The latest available information from the Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database is for 2019-20 and is provided in the following tables.

Information for 2020-21 will not be available until publication of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2020-21 statistical bulletin later this year.

Number of people convicted for taking, distribution, possession etc. indecent photos of children 1 , by disposal and length of custodial sentence, where main charge, 2010-11 to 2019-20

The Minister had a positive and constructive meeting with Scottish Huntington’s Association (SHA) in November to discuss the issues raised within motion S6M-00923. Scottish Government officials will meet with the SHA this month in order to further explore the need for provision and service development across neurological conditions, including Huntington’s Disease.

The pandemic has seen our NHS under the most severe pressure in its 73-year existence. The NHS Recovery Plan sets out plans and ambitions for recovery, backed by more than £1 billion of funding. The plan will support increased inpatient and outpatient activity, including an aim to increase outpatients capacity by 10% compared to pre-pandemic levels.

In March we published a National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care which supports the remobilisation and recovery of health and social care services and sets out priorities for recruitment, training and retention.

The Scottish Government’s National Advisory Committee for Neurological Conditions and the Centre for Sustainable Delivery have set up a working group to improve workforce and care pathways in neurology. This includes development of tools to support statutory providers to make effective workforce decisions. Alistair Haw, Chief Executive Officer at the SHA is a member of this group, representing the Neurological Alliance of Scotland.

The Scottish Land Matching Service (SLMS) launched at the end of September 2019. During the period 1 October 2019 to 30 September 2020, Scottish Government provided £55,480 of funding. For the second year between 1 October 2020 and 30 September 2021, Scottish Government expenditure was £54,785. So far £31,958 has been spent in the seven months from 1 October 2021 to 30 April 2022.

The SLMS has dealt with over 300 enquiries and has helped achieve 19 contractual agreements since its introduction.

In 2020-21, we provided £25 million of funding to councils across Scotland to tackle digital exclusion, resulting in over 72,000 pupils receiving a device to support their learning.

The following table shows the number of devices distributed via that funding, as reported by individual local authorities.

The Scottish Government has made £100,000 available for 2022-23 for tests-of-change to improve care co-ordination for people living with rare diseases.

Our Bridge to a Scottish Genomics Strategy project focused on expanding our genomics capabilities to support the diagnosis and treatment of rare and inherited disease. This was a key programme for government commitment for 2017-18, and £4.2 million was made available to NHS National Services Division over 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21. A further extension of the Bridge was agreed in 202-/22 with a further £2.3 million made available.While the work of the Bridge has concluded, we have announced a significant increase in the genomics budget for 2022-23, rising to £6.2 million. This funding will support the sustainability of the successes from the Bridge as well as expanding our genomics capabilities further into cancer.

Furthermore, the Scottish Government has made available over £600,000 since 2019-20 to Public Health Scotland for the development of the Congenital Anomalies and Rare Diseases Registration and Information Service for Scotland (CARDRISS). A further £169,000 will be provided for 2022-23. The registry will become operational in this financial year. Discussions are ongoing with Public Health Scotland in expanding the registry’s functionality to support our wider endeavours for rare disease.

While the above sets out discreet funding to support those with a rare disease, many of our wider health priorities will equally contribute and deliver improved care for those living with a rare disease.

I refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-08215 and S6W-08217 on 10 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

NHS boards are provided with monthly reports on the activity levels of practices providing NHS activity. We have set out through NHS Boards action plans for those practices with lower levels of activity with the intention of seeing substantial increases from them in the immediate future.

Local authorities are distinct corporate bodies whose powers and duties are set out in statute. The Scottish Government does not have a record of how many social work departments have their own policy in place for missing children.

Multi-agency risk assessment and co-ordination is essential to managing risk, responding to and tracking missing children. Local Child Protection Committees should ensure that there are specific and appropriate arrangements in place through policy, guidance, protocols and procedures which are known and implemented by relevant services. Local authority social work departments are a core multi-agency partner. The National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2021, which replaced the 2014 guidance, states that each agency needs to develop its own policies and protocols to manage risk and track missing children. These should sit alongside and make reference to the multi-agency Child Protection Committee guidance reflecting that other agencies, for example, Police Scotland, will have to become involved very quickly when a child goes missing.

Alcohol and drug-related harms are important public health issues in Scotland, which is why we established a national mission to improve and save lives. At the core of which is ensuring that every individual is able to access the treatment and recovery they choose.

We are working to ensure people with alcohol use disorder continue to receive the same quality of care as those with drugs misuse. The forthcoming Alcohol Treatment Guidelines will provide support for alcohol treatment, similar to the Medication-Assisted Treatment Standards for drugs. We are also developing alcohol treatment targets alongside Stage Two of the Drugs Targets Implementation in 2024.

We announced £100 million of additional investment to increase the availability of residential rehabilitation, that will benefit people experiencing alcohol and/or drug addiction.

On 06 December 2021, we launched a campaign to address stigma experienced by people with problematic alcohol and drug use. The campaign ran across multiple media platforms.

I have asked the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) to reply.

While information is available for children and young people with additional support needs, neither Scottish Government nor SQA collect specific data on candidates who may have a neuro-divergent diagnosis. The Education (Additional Support for Learning) Act 2004 (as amended) requires education authorities to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils. The provision of additional support is based on need for educational support rather than a diagnosis alone.

Where a school is presenting a candidate with additional support needs for examination, if appropriate, a request can be made to SQA for a reasonable adjustment, such as additional time or a scribe. The requests from centres do not require or provide any detail on the range of additional support needs or disabilities that learners have.