Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to improving Mental Health services and the Programme for Government commits to ensuring that in future, at least 10% of frontline NHS spend goes towards mental health, with 1% going towards child and adolescent mental health services.

NHS Boards draw funding for mental health services from the overall funds allocated to them by the Scottish Government in the Scottish budget. Local budget decisions should reflect the national mental health priority and NHS Boards are expected to work with Integration Authorities and other partners to plan and deliver person centred, safe and effective mental health services which meet the needs of their populations.

NHS Scotland expenditure on mental health, including children and adolescents, is reported in the Scottish Health Service Costs , published annually by ISD Scotland.

Expenditure in each year since 2016 to 2020, the latest available, in NHS Ayrshire and Arran and NHS Greater Glasgow identified as relating to mental health services delivered in hospitals or in the community aimed specifically at children and adolescents is shown in the table below. Funding towards reducing waiting times is not separately identified.

Scottish Government a) will increase the annual native woodland creation target from 3000 to 4000 hectares and commit to setting evidence-based targets for both native woodlands and natural regeneration as part of the 2022 Biodiversity Strategy.

Scottish Government are supporting this action through provision of SRDP grant for both planting of new woodland, and management of herbivores to encourage natural woodland expansion.

The Scottish Government continues to be deeply concerned by reports of serious, widespread and systemic human rights abuses committed against members of the Uyghur and other minority ethnic communities in Xinjiang, as well as by China’s overall record of human rights violations, including in Tibet and in Hong Kong.

Neither Scottish Ministers nor Scottish Government officials have any plans to attend the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Scottish Enterprise continue to be closely engaged with Peel Ports and are collaborating with them, along with North Ayrshire Council, under a Memorandum of Understanding to advance and secure the delivery at Hunterston of regional and national investment objectives defined in the Scottish Government Inward Investment Strategy and Ayrshire Economic Strategy. Work is progressing across a range of sectors including the Circular Economy to develop a refined position identifying market gaps, industry demand and alignment with the assets of Hunterston PARC. In addition, the Scottish Government is in regular communication with the Clyde Marine Planning Partnership of which Peel Ports is a member.

Due to Covid-19 there have been no visits by senior Scottish Government representatives to the Hunterston industrial site in an official capacity since 1 January 2021. However, the Scottish Government has always taken a keen interest in this development and looks forward to visiting it at some point in 2022.

Scottish Government takes the preservation (protection) and restoration of native and ancient woodlands seriously. Protection for all woodland is in place via felling regulations under the Forestry and Land Management (Scotland) Act 2018, and is also controlled by the Control of Woodland Removal Policy and The Forestry (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017.

Priority for restoration is given to those woodlands that are designated sites in unfavourable condition, and to sites identified by the Native Woodland Survey of Scotland to be in unsatisfactory condition.

Under the Programme for Government we have committed to establishing a National Register of Ancient Woodlands, and will then work with owners and agencies to maintain and protect them.

The £2 million committed to Loss and Damage will be financed through Scottish Government’s Climate Justice Fund. £1 million has been allocated to a grant partnership with the Climate Justice Resilience Fund to help some of the world’s most vulnerable communities adapt to climate change, tackle structural inequalities and recover from climate-induced loss and damage. In this and in programming the remaining £1 million, the Scottish Government will work collaboratively with partners to identify and address the needs of communities suffering the acutest impacts, to establish learning and best practice on Loss and Damage programming and finance, and to create further momentum on loss and damage.

Waiting times statistics for patients requiring injections for pain relief are not held centrally by Public Health Scotland (PHS).

Waiting time statistics on the waits experienced by patients for first chronic pain appointments can be found on the PHS website at the following link: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/chronic-pain-waiting-times/chronic-pain-waiting-times-quarter-ending-30-june-2021/.

The Centre for Integrative Care (CIC) is a facility run by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which offers a range of treatments and therapies for people with a range of long-term conditions, including chronic pain. All NHS Boards in Scotland retain the option of referring people to the CIC for treatment.

Forecasts relating to future requests for award reviews and reassessments are set out by the Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC). The most recently published forecast of 26 August 2021 stated that 8,700 additional people could request that their award be reviewed due to their circumstances changing over the course of case transfer.

On the assumption that around 72% of these individuals could request their mobility award is reviewed, based on the current share of PIP award types, such requests could therefore be around 6,300 people following transfer to ADP from PIP.