Chamber and committees

This data is not centrally available; whilst Public Health Scotland publish the total number of patients waiting for specialist mental health services, detail of the individual types of assessment or diagnosis is not held. The publications for both CAMHS and Psychological Therapies waiting times for the quarter ending December 2021 can be found at Publications - Public Health Scotland .

The Scottish Government is committed to implementing the National Neurodevelopmental Specification: Principles and Standards of Care for Children and Young People, published in September 2021, which specifies service standards that all children’s services should follow, to ensure access to support is effective and consistent across Scotland. Scottish Government have also commissioned Directors of eHealth, working with others including Public Health Scotland, to work to improve digital infrastructure, applications and data to report on all standards within the National Neurodevelopmental Specification.

The Scottish Government have also established the National Autism Implementation Team , in partnership with Queen Margaret University, to support Health and Social Care Partnerships to consider best practice and support improvement through the redesign of autism diagnostic services.

The National Implementation Team is supporting NHS Boards to examine diagnostic pathways for autism and establish regional experts to assist with improving tiered autism specialisms across health boards.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08108 on 3 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08108 on 3 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

The Healthy Working Lives programme, which is delivered on our behalf by the Public Health Scotland, was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Scottish Government is determining how best to take the Healthy Working Lives programme forward in light of the changing needs of the population coming out of the pandemic.

Needs arising from the pandemic, such as support for those suffering from Long Covid and mental health support, will be of particular focus as we adapt to the changed situation we find ourselves in. This will be in line with the commitments outlined in the Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan.

The duty to ensure equality of opportunity rests with employers and so the development and implementation of plans is a matter for Local Authorities. The Scottish Government does not collect this information centrally.

Public sector bodies, including local authorities, are subject to the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) which requires listed public authorities, in all their functions, to have due regard to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic, such as disabled people, and those who do not.

Furthermore, local authorities in Scotland are subject to The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012. This includes a duty to gather and use employee information in relation to their protected characteristics, before using that information to better fulfil their duties under the PSED; as well as a duty to publish statements on equal pay and occupational segregation (within organisations) regarding disabled people. Responsibility for ensuring compliance with these duties lies with the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The Scottish Government is currently reviewing the effectiveness of the PSED in Scotland. This means reviewing the Scottish Specific Duties as well as the implementation environment in which they sit. From December 2021 to April 2022 we ran a public consultation containing ambitious and detailed proposals for changes to the duties, several of which will help to address barriers faced by disabled people in the workforce.

After consultation responses have been analysed, we will continue to work with public bodies and equality advocacy groups with a view to introducing new regulations that will deliver better outcomes for those who experience inequality.

Chronic Pain services in Scotland are currently unable to gather electronic data on return appointments in a consistent manner and one that could support routine national data collection by Public Health Scotland (PHS).

We have published a draft Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery for public consultation in December 2021 which invited ideas and views on a proposed commitment to continue work with Public Health Scotland to increase national reporting and analysis of data to improve services for people with chronic pain.

Responses to the consultation are currently being analysed and we will publish our response to the findings, including how these views have been used to shape the final Framework and actions to improve pain management data collection and reporting, later this year.

SEPA allocated approximately £30.1m of its £88.6m spend in 2021/22 to managing river catchments. This funded work to protect and improve the water environment including permitting, regulating activities, monitoring water environment and producing River Basin Management Plans.

SEPA administered total grant values of £2.353m from the Water Environment Fund to third parties to deliver river restoration and fish barrier removal works. Approximately £0.75m was allocated to regulatory activities as part of SEPA’s diffuse pollution priority catchment work. These include SEPA’s overhead costs. They do not include SEPA work on flood warning and flood risk management.

The Scottish Government do not provide compensation to potato farmers who have been ordered by SASA to destroy their crops to prevent further growth.

Article 4 of The Plant Health (Potatoes) (Scotland) Order 2006 provides an explicit power to require that the grower of a potato crop (seed or ware) takes immediate action (within 72 hours of the service of a notice) to ensure the destruction of the haulm of a potato crop which has been determined by official inspection to present a clear plant health risk to other potato crops due to high levels of virus in the crop.

There is no single definition of a GMO for the agricultural context. Different definitions for GMOs exist in different regulatory regimes, including:

• in relation to deliberate release: section 106 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990,
• in relation to contained use: regulation 2 of the Genetically Modified Organisms (Contained Use) Regulations 2014,
• in relation to food and feed: article 2 of the retained EU Regulation (EC) 1829/2003.

While there is no legal definition of gene editing in Scotland, we recognise that gene editing is typically used to refer to a precise and targeted form of genetic modification. Gene edited organisms are legally considered GMOs.

Our guidance to local authorities on the administration of the cost of living award, available at Local government finance circulars - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) , sets out that councils have discretion to choose how this support is provided to eligible households in order to ensure delivery in April 2022.

All local authorities have now confirmed that most payments are included as a credit in Council Tax Bills for 2022-23.