Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to tackling the barriers that prevent people from accessing treatment and services and ensuring that people are able to access the treatment and support they need, when they need it.

We know that for many people, problematic substance use co-occurs with mental health problems and we are committed to improving integration between mental health and addiction recovery services.

The Scottish Government is also considering options that could improve access to drug and alcohol services, such as supporting people to travel to services and addressing digital exclusion.

NCT002 forms are used for mental health applications for concessionary travel and better integration between mental health and drug and alcohol services is an important part of ensuring that those who are eligible under existing concessionary travel scheme criteria are accessing the support they are entitled to.

The Scottish Government is committed to tackling the barriers that prevent people from accessing treatment and services, including travelling to those services. We will consider all options in how we can best support people to access the treatment and support they need, when they need it.

We know that for many people, problematic substance use co-occurs with mental health problems and we are committed to improving integration between mental health and addiction recovery services.

The decision on which organisations can sign off eligibility certificates for the national concessionary travel scheme is taken at a local level, by local authorities. Any extension to the existing eligibility criteria of the National Concessionary Travel Scheme may require amending legislation.

The Scottish Government is considering options that could improve access to drug and alcohol services through supporting people to travel to those services.

The Scottish Government continues to be committed to improving the lives of autistic people in Scotland. We work closely with autism organisations in the third sector and the public sector and actively seek the views of people with lived experience on autism services. This is reflected in our “Towards Transformation” plan and in specific pieces of nationally funded work, such as the National Post Diagnostic Support pilot for Autistic People.

While the Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland, it is for the regional health & social care partnerships to determine the level of services that are required to meet local needs and to arrange an appropriate and suitable range of services to meet these local needs, as mandated under statute in the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act.

Local Authorities are distinct corporate bodies whose powers are set out in statute and as such are entirely separate from the Scottish Government, however it is also the expectation of the Scottish Government that Local Public Bodies will engage with the third sector regarding local autism services.

While the Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland, it is for the regional health & social care partnerships to determine the level of services that are required to meet local needs and to arrange an appropriate and suitable range of services to meet these local needs, as mandated under statute in the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act.

Local Authorities are distinct corporate bodies whose powers are set out in statute and as such are entirely separate from the Scottish Government, however it is the expectation of the Scottish Government that Local Public Bodies will engage with autistic people and children, including their families where appropriate, in relation to decisions regarding the allocation of funding for autism services.

In addition, the Scottish Government works closely with COSLA and HSCPs in relation to the aims and objectives of our national autism strategies. Those strategies and the delivery of them is shared jointly between the Scottish Government and COSLA. We are currently looking at monitoring and engagement arrangements for the “Towards Transformation” plan involving a range of key stakeholders, including people with learning disabilities and autistic people.

The Scottish Government continues to promote testing in its communications and public messaging. To raise awareness of how individuals can access testing at walk-through test centres and mobile testing units, the Scottish Government has:

• supported local authorities and health boards to promote new sites by creating a communications toolkit, which includes templates for news releases, social media content and signage,
• engaged with local authorities and health boards to inform them of upcoming Test and Protect communications campaigns and new site openings, and,
• promoted new sites online with the public and health journalists, broadcasters and bloggers with a Ministerial quote and UK Government news release.

While the Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland, it is for the regional health & social care partnerships to determine the level of services that are required to meet local needs and to arrange an appropriate and suitable range of services to meet these local needs, as mandated under statute in the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act.

Local Authorities are distinct corporate bodies whose powers are set out in statute and as such are entirely separate from the Scottish Government, however it is the expectation of the Scottish Government that Local Public Bodies will operate their own autism strategies which will involve engaging with Autistic people in relation to decisions that affect them in an accessible way.

a) This is not monitored nationally.

b) This is a matter for local public bodies. The information requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government has an annual dedicated budget for our autism strategy programme of work supplemented by additional support provided throughout the pandemic. (£3.1m for financial year 2021-2022) However, a much wider range of Scottish Government and Local Authority funding helps to support autistic people through education and employment initiatives, for example, as well as social care funding.

a) Strategy funding is currently directly supporting autistic people through:

-The Increasing Understanding of Autism Programme - we are aiming to make Scotland a more accessible, inclusive, and understanding place for autistic people to learn, work and live. As part of this Programme, Inspiring Scotland, in partnership with the Scottish Government has distributed £470,709 of funding from December 2019 to date. Funding decisions include input from the autistic people on the autism advisory forums.

-A new National Post Diagnostic Support Service pilot launched on 1 December 2020. Following a diagnosis of autism, individuals, parents and carers living across Scotland are routed to appropriate support to understand and embrace their identity as an autistic person. So far, £394,645 has been allocated to various autism organisations to provide direct support to autistic people.

b) Sportscotland has agreed £572,500 of investment for 2021-22 for Scottish Disability Sport (SDS). SDS has the lead role for developing the quality of disability sport for disabled people in Scotland; this includes supporting autistic people. Sportscotland also invests in and supports a number of programmes and projects that deliver wider benefits to autistic people in their communities through sport. This includes £30,000 to Strathmore Rugby Club to support Scotland’s first autism-friendly rugby sessions, and £51,600 to the Changing Lives Fund project , delivered through a partnership with Forth Valley College and Falkirk Community Football Foundation, which focussed on young people with learning needs (including autistic young people.),

c) The information requested is not held or monitored centrally.

Transport Scotland has recently attended a meeting with Glasgow City Council on 26 May to discuss the maintenance and financing of the repairs for the Clyde Tunnel. My officials are willing to continue to engage with the Council on this matter in order to aid them in trying to find a solution, however maintenance of the local road network is the responsibility of local authorities.

The vast majority of funding to local authorities from the Scottish Government is provided via a block grant and we do not stipulate how local authorities should utilise their individual allocations. It is therefore the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budget and to allocate the financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Glasgow City Council will receive a total funding package of almost £1.5 billion in 2021-22 to support local services, which includes an extra £29.8 million to support vital day to day services, equivalent to an increase of 2.2 per cent compared to 2020-21.

To date, the council has been allocated an additional £221.7 million to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, through the local government settlement - over and above their regular grant payments.

By way of an update against the progress of the Aberdeen to Central belt rail project:-

(a) £1.68 million has been spent on this project to date.

(b) This funding has been used i) to identify the signalling and infrastructure interventions that enable the required capacity enhancements and journey time savings, and ii) on commencing the sifting process to select the options that, within the budget, will achieve the maximum benefits.

(c) the remaining amount of £198.32 million will be spent on delivering the enhancements that are identified at the option selection stage as providing the maximum benefits for the north east.

and (d) journey times savings achieved between Dundee and Aberdeen up to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic equated to an average of three minutes northbound and four minutes southbound.

The development of the Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan (CESAP) published in December 2020 by Skills Development Scotland and the Scottish Government involved close engagement with Industry Leadership Groups and associated skills groups to identify skills requirements and activity underway in support of the transition to net zero.

The CESAP Implementation Steering Group meets quarterly to drive forward progress and is attended by industry representation bodies such as Scottish Renewables and Scottish Engineering as well as trade unions who feed in their expertise.

As outlined in CESAP and our 100 Day Commitment Manifesto, we will shortly launch the Green Jobs Workforce Academy, a national long term programme to support the retraining and upskilling needed for the transition to net zero.

Sectoral discussions between the Scottish Government and industry regarding training for workers transitioning to net zero is ongoing. Some recent examples include:

• Last year Transport Scotland worked with the Scottish Motor Trade Association, and the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) to research the skills required for mass uptake of Ultra Low Emission Vehicles.
• The Scottish Government has discussed skills required to deliver a just transition to net zero with industry representatives through its manufacturing recovery plan, delivered via a public and private sector partnership.
• In December 2020 the Implementation Steering Group for the Skills Action Plan for Rural Scotland discussed alignment to CESAP. Its membership includes Confor (forestry and timber industry), Seafood Scotland, tourism bodies and business organisations.
• The Energy Skills Alliance, which includes industry membership bodies and government agencies discussed the delivery of a work programme to ensure industry is prepared to meet the future demand for skills in oil and gas, and other related energy industries.