Chamber and committees

While the Scottish Government remains committed to its vision for an integrated and community-based hearing service in Scotland, currently there is no community audiology service in place, with services provided either in hospital settings or, if patients choose to self-refer for treatment privately on the high street. There has therefore been no assessment of private provision made.

The Scottish Government do not hold information if individual Boards have engaged with private companies in support of waiting lists.

While our response to the Independent Review of Audiology is implemented, we continue to work with the NHS, Third Sector and private providers to identify an appropriate model of community care for any future service reform, and ensure that the voices of those with lived experience inform this work.

The Scottish Government does not hold any information relating to individual NHS Board delivery of audiology services.

The Scottish Government does not currently hold data on the number of physical items of ministerial correspondence received so we are unable to provide this.

However when correspondence is received, by email or by post, these are uploaded onto our correspondence management system, MiCase.

Please see below the volume data recorded on MiCase for Ministerial Correspondence received each year since 2020, split by Ministerial Portfolio.

All Ministerial Portfolios from the past five years have been included. Over this period, the names of portfolios have changed, with some similarly titled portfolios existing within the same year period. The data supplied reflects these changes.

It should be noted that there are a small number of correspondence cases that are not uploaded and managed through MiCase. These are instead handled by Private Office outside of MiCase, before being saved to the Official Record. These cases are therefore not captured in the following figures.

Food Standards Scotland has undertaken two major public health campaigns on reducing foodborne illness in Scotland. Evaluations that were commissioned to assess the impact of these campaigns were positive in terms of visibility, reach and impacts on reported behaviours.

• The Pink Chicken campaign ran during the Summer of 2016 and aimed to increase awareness of, and reduce complacency about, the risks of food poisoning when cooking chicken outdoors over the summer season, particularly when barbecuing with family and friends. The key results and evaluation of this campaign can be read here Case_study-_Summer_Food_Safety_campaign.pdf.
• The Kitchen Crimes campaign in 2018 focussed on food safety behaviours and how consumers can make small changes in the kitchen to keep them and their family safe from the food they prepare and eat. The key results and evaluation of this campaign can be read here FSS 'Kitchen crimes' Food Safety Campaign 2018 - Evaluation | Food Standards Scotland.

In addition we have run smaller, more targeted campaigns to promote awareness of the risks of foodborne illness to the over 65 age group and good food safety practices when preparing and serving food over the Christmas period.

• In 2023, we ran a targeted campaign to raise awareness of the risks associated with Campylobacter infection for those aged 65+. This campaign encouraged consumers who may be particularly vulnerable to campylobacter infection (the most commonly occurring cause of foodborne illness) to adopt safer food safety practices, particularly when it comes to the handling and cooking of chicken. This campaign tested the dissemination of information on Campylobacter on posters displayed in supermarket settings, and leaflets which provided food safety messaging alongside chicken recipes. We also engaged with people in this age group in assisted living premises, and ran focus groups to assess levels of understanding and get a better understanding of the format and channels of advice and information that is preferred by this age group and likely to have the most positive impact on food hygiene behaviours in the home. The evaluation of this campaign was not published but the findings are being used alongside outputs from our social research programme which will support the development of our future campaigns to communicate food safety messaging to segments of the population in Scotland which may be more vulnerable to foodborne illness.
• For Christmas 2021 we ran a food safety campaign reminding people about the risks of food poisoning over the festive period – focussing on the different food behaviours that people tend to adopt during the holiday e.g. over-stocking their fridges, catering for larger groups than usual, eating leftovers, and serving buffet style meals (with food left at room temperature for prolonged periods) . The campaign evaluation found that the it was well received, with good brand cut through and 82% of consumers questioned about the impact of our adverts saying that they took action to change their behaviour after seeing them-particularly around ensuring their turkey was cooked thoroughly and using leftovers safely.

Under the Food Information to Consumers Regulation, food information must be accurate and not mislead the consumer. This applies to both mandatory information such as ingredients lists and nutrition declarations as well as any voluntary information for example a general claim about a food being a healthy option. Local Authority Environmental Health Departments have powers under the Food Information (Scotland) Regulations 2014 to enforce these requirements and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) encourages businesses to work with enforcement officers to ensure compliance with the law.

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) is responsible for advising the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Ministers and other stakeholders in relation to food safety and compositional standards matters in Scotland – this includes the provision of food safety advice in areas that were previously regulated at an EU level when the UK was an EU Member State. FSS consults extensively with the Food Standards Agency before advising Ministers of the need to amend or introduce any food safety legislation in Scotland. This is undertaken in line with the provisionally agreed Common Framework for Food Safety and Hygiene.

A joint UK wide public consultation on fairer food labelling ran for 8 weeks from 12 March 2024 to 7 May 2024. The purpose of this consultation was to seek opinion on specific options in respect of method of production labelling, but it also provided an opportunity to gather evidence and opinions in respect of country-of-origin labelling. Food Standards Scotland (FSS) are continuing to engage on this work alongside Scottish Government policy colleagues and on a four-country basis to determine next steps.

Food Standards Scotland has a statutory duty to improve the extent to which the Scottish population have diets conducive to good health. Their unique position, independent from government, allows them to report and publish evidence to inform policy across a wide range of actions in diet and nutrition.

In 2024 FSS published the Public Health Nutrition strategy which was developed to complement delivery of Scottish Government policy on diet as described in the Healthier Futures Delivery Plan and Out of Home Action Plan. This strategy outlines how improvements to diet in Scotland will be supported, including efforts to reduce levels of overweight and obesity.

FSS collaborates routinely with all Scottish local authorities (LA) to identify and prevent food fraud, which is formalised through various fora, including:

• MOU in relation to the investigation of food crime in Scotland
• FSS acting as intelligence hub for all LA food teams
• authorised LA staff having access to FSS intelligence database
• representation at various LA/FSS liaison groups pertaining to food crime
• use of an FSS QR code to facilitate input of intelligence at source by LA Food officers
• SFELC Food Crime representative attendance at the FSS Food Crime TTCG

Local Authorities check for compliance with allergen law during food law interventions at food businesses. It is not possible for Food Standards Scotland (FSS) to determine the number of breaches. However, 127 allergen incidents have been reported to FSS Incidents team since 1st April 2019. Since 1st April 2019, FSS has issued 455 allergy alerts (26 were drafted and issued by FSS), most of these alerts were drafted and issued by Food Standards Agency but were mirrored by FSS as there was distribution of implicated products to Scotland.