Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government’s approach to tackling health inequalities focusses on three key aspects of health inequality: mitigating against the socio-economic drivers of inequalities; ensuring fair opportunities for health improvement for all individuals; and ensuring health services are accessible to all.

Our COVID-19 Recovery Strategy sets out our vision for how we will address the systemic inequalities that lead to health inequalities. This includes making progress towards a wellbeing economy and accelerating inclusive person-centred public services. We are committing £4 billion in social security and welfare payments over the next financial year, including £197 million to double the Scottish Child Payment and extend it to under 16s.

Equity and inclusivity will be at the heart of our place-based approach to health, where we are looking at what more we can do to create the right conditions for health and wellbeing within local communities. In addition to community-led initiatives we’re committed to providing £9 million a year for smoking cessation services and £5.7 million for weight management services.

Additionally, the Scottish Government is taking robust action to address racialised health inequalities. We have published the Race Equality Immediate Priorities (IPP), which includes a range of commitments focused on pursuing health equity for minority ethnic people.

We announced the new capital budget of £11.7 million for coastal change adaptation in the 2020 Programme for Government. Scottish Ministers and COSLA agreed a methodology to distribute the new budget to coastal local authorities based on evidence from Dynamic Coast which identifies assets most at risk from erosion ( https://www.dynamiccoast.com/ ). The budget covers the four-year period from 2022-23 until 2025-26, split as follows:

2022-23 - £1.6 million

2023-24 - £2.6 million

2024-25 - £2.7 million

2025-26 - £5.0 million

Total - £11.7 million

The distribution for 2022-23 and intended distribution for 2023-24 are as follows:

The independent Scottish Environmental Protection Agency lead and coordinate strategic flood risk management planning, provide advice and guidance to planning authorities, and are the flood forecasting and warning authority for Scotland.

SEPA monitors water levels and rainfall in two of the headwaters above Hawick (Slitrig and Teviot) to provide the community with a Flood Warning Service.This information is available for everyone on SEPA’s website.

SEPA work closely with the local planning authority to provide advice on flood risk and respond to flood events at all stages prior to, during and after flooding.

SEPA Water Levels

Scottish Rainfall Data - provided by Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)

We published the Women’s Health Plan in August 2021. The actions in the Plan are divided into short term (one year), medium term (one to three years) and long term (three years or more) timescales.

As set out in the Plan we will be appointing a national Women’s Health Champion. In addition, a Women's Health Lead will be established in every NHS board to drive change and share best practice and innovation. These are medium term actions but scoping work is underway and further announcements will be made in due course.

This Government is committed to broadening the range of people represented in Scotland’s public places, reflecting in particular the contribution of women and ethnic minorities. A specific fund is being considered in the context of the Scottish Government’s longer term spending plans and we will discuss how such a fund might be best deployed with Creative Scotland, whose remit includes public art.

Up until and including the 31 March 2022 Abellio ScotRail had 2,019 outstanding rail passenger compensation claims, representing a claim value of £9,550. Abellio ScotRail will settle all of these claims.

From 1 April 2022, ScotRail Trains Limited is responsible for considering and settling all new compensation claims.

The SASA website hosts a number of pages dedicated to viruses of importance to potatoes, including information on aphid monitoring of seed potato crops, virus epidemiology and varietal propensity to virus infection.

Scottish Government staff participate in the National Potato Virus Forum that was initiated in 2019 in response to the increase in virus pressure. SASA chair the Scottish Aphid- Borne Virus Working Group; the group recently published guidance outlining 6 Steps to Effective Virus Management in Certified or Home Saved Seed. The document was sent to all growers in advance of the 2021 season.

SASA operate a national network of suction traps collecting information about aphid abundance and movement and provide advice on the risk of virus transmission and the need for aphid control. This information is published on the SASA website and can be used as an early warning system for growers.

We are aware of the EU’s policy initiative to propose a new legal framework for plants obtained by targeted mutagenesis and cisgenesis and for their food and feed products.

Should the EU move to change its regulatory framework, we will consider the implications for Scotland as details become available.

The Scottish Government can order a crop haulm to be destroyed at any time during the season. The Scottish Government conducts an annual surveillance programme of testing to ensure potato crops in Scotland remain free from many economically important pests and diseases and, in partnership with the potato industry, ensure that robust measures are in place to maintain Scotland’s high-health status and world-wide reputation for producing high quality seed potatoes.

We use a range of measures to monitor the wellbeing of the workforce taking into account the diverse nature of the workforce operating in a range of roles and geographies, the broad spectrum of wellbeing ‘needs’ at both a professional and personal level and different reporting arrangements across sectors.

Our approach reflects a combination of the following measures; the annual iMatter survey, feedback from local and national staffside and other stakeholder channels, academic research, data collected by regulators and partners and evaluation of nationally-led initiatives.

The Wellbeing Champions Network is now well-established to provide feedback on areas of priority need, and to share best practice across health and social care organisations. It currently has over 100 members drawn from Health Boards, HSCPs, Local Authorities and the independent sector.

We continue to actively listen to colleagues across Health and Social care to understand where the current pressures are, and what actions can be taken to mitigate their impact on staff.