Chamber and committees

Substance misuse services (often catering for drugs and alcohol misuse) are accessible either by open access or through GP referral to these services for review and support. These vary across Health boards with regards to support and resource available and mode of initial access.

This information is not held centrally.

We currently provide £42 million annually to local authorities through the flood component of the general capital grant. We are committed to providing an extra £150 million to the flood component over the next five years. This is a 70% increase to the flooding budget from £210 million to £360 million. We are working with SEPA and local authorities to decide the best way of allocating this additional funding.

A portion of the current flood component allocated to the City of Edinburgh Council can already be used for projects to reduce surface water flooding. SEPA prioritise flood risk management actions across Scotland every 6 years. 80% of the current funding is set aside for 40 large scale flood protection schemes, and 20% is divided amongst the 32 local authorities for other actions to reduce flood risk, including from surface water. A number of local authorities are undertaking studies to identify why surface water flooding is a problem in a given location and how it might be resolved.

SEPA are currently prioritising new flood risk management works based on information submitted by local authorities for the period 2022-2027. A number of surface water schemes or works have been put forward as part of this process.

Ministerial decisions will be informed by the recommendations of the joint Scottish Government/COSLA working group that is currently considering these issues.

The Scottish Government first established firm annual peatland restoration targets in 2018 in its report Climate Change Plan: third report on proposals and policies 2018-2032 (RPP3) .

Based on a 1990 baseline, this set a commitment to restore 50,000 hectares of degraded peatland by 2020 (including 10,000 hectares in 2017-18 and 20,000 hectares per year thereafter) as the first phase of a longer target to restore 250,000 hectares by 2030.

This implies a total restoration target of 70,000 hectares between 1990 and April 2021. Against this target, around 60,000 hectares of degraded peatland have been put on the road to recovery since 1990 as shown in the following table. Annual restoration totals are only available from 2012-13 when the Scottish Government began funding Peatland ACTION, the national peatland restoration programme delivered by NatureScot.

A full and accurate report of numbers of people registered as sight impaired and severely sight impaired cannot be produced at this time, but the latest data received shows a snapshot of people registered across 16 local partnerships. In 2020 (1 January to 31 December), 405 people were registered as sight impaired and 382 people were registered as severely sight impaired. In 2021 (1 January to 25 November), 449 people were registered as sight impaired and 456 people were registered as severely sight impaired.

This information is kept by each local authority, but a number of issues have been experienced, including GDPR problems and under-utilisation of the web platform designed to capture this information.

The Scottish Government remains committed to working with Public Health Scotland (PHS) to provide accurate diagnostic and registration data, in order to enable better access to services, support and care for people with sight loss. The GDPR issues relating to the Certificate of Vision Impairment (CVI) (Scotland) form has been resolved, and we are currently working with PHS on the development of a data collection solution that will replace the current web platform.

EventScotland aims to support the Scottish events industry by developing programmes which focus on supporting an exciting portfolio of sporting and cultural events. EventScotland has previously supported a number of motor events including the Scottish Classic Speed Fair, Jim Clark Rally and Bo’Ness Speed Hill Climb. Funding is aligned to specific programme criteria and is subject to a thorough assessment process.

Once they have completed breast cancer treatment and follow-up with the symptomatic breast service, women aged 71 and over are ordinarily able to self-refer into the Scottish Breast Screening Programme for screening every three years. However, self-referrals for women in this age-group are currently suspended due to capacity challenges in the programme associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is important to stress that any woman, regardless of their age, who is concerned about possible symptoms of breast cancer should consult their GP straight away so these can be investigated, rather than wait for their next screening appointment.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04721 on 8 December 2021. 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-04721 on 8 December 2021. 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 .