Chamber and committees

All corporately managed Scottish Government mobile phones are audited monthly for compliance in line with our Cyber Security principals. Any remediation actions identified are investigated and addressed as necessary.

The Scottish Government has robust processes and procedures in place to ensure all corporately managed mobile phones are monitored and continually assessed using industry standard security tooling to ensure compliance with our policies.

In an assessment of ways to overcome the challenges of rurality, submitted by Alcohol and Drug Partnerships in several rural areas to Public Health Scotland, a number of collaborative and innovative actions were described.

These included:

• Increased use of non-statutory services, informal local networks and peers to engage and support people, thus freeing up capacity to deliver rapid access and ensuring that staff can work at highest level within their banding
• Utilising generic primary and secondary care staff and settings to deliver care for example when weather disrupts usual access
• Development of more generic pathways for all drugs and alcohol referrals (given in many places the same staff deal with these issues)
• Some areas now have formal arrangements with other Health Boards to utilise 82 guidelines (Shetland and NHS Grampian), and to share expertise (Western Isles and Borders)

National Records of Scotland publish annual accredited official statistics on drug-related deaths in Scotland. The latest release, covering 2023, is available at https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/publications/drug-related-deaths-in-scotland-in-2023/. The accompanying data file provides a more comprehensive breakdown of the statistics, including by both NHS board area and local authority area.

The Scottish Government publishes a quarterly report to provide an indication of current trends in suspected drug deaths in Scotland. The data in this report is operational information from Police Scotland who compile figures on the basis of reports from police officers attending scenes of death. This is management information and not subject to the same level of validation and quality assurance as Official Statistics. The latest release, covering July to September 2024, is available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/suspected-drug-deaths-scotland-july-september-2024/. The accompanying data file provides a more comprehensive breakdown of the figures, including by Police Division.

The Scottish Government remains fully committed to reducing drug deaths and harms. Through the National Mission we are seeing success across a wide range of actions designed to save lives and reduce harms. The total funding proposed for alcohol and drugs, including health board baseline funding, is over £150 million in 2025-26. This includes maintaining £112 million funding for Alcohol and Drug Partnerships, continuing to fund grassroots organisations through £13m via the Corra Foundation, and supporting a wide range of activity - including supporting residential rehabilitation.

The Scottish Government has not undertaken analysis of time savings for staff in relation to improvements of medical records systems. We encourage NHS Boards to ensure they maximise the transformative opportunities offered by digital and understand the impact and the effect on staff and their roles.

All corporately managed Scottish Government mobile phone communications are secured in line with National Cyber Security Centre standards.

The Scottish Government complies with the General Data Protection Regulation requirements in relation to the use of mobile phones by ensuring where applicable that Data Protection Impact Assessments and Privacy Notices are completed.

Whenever personal data is shared, the processing must comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The UK GDPR requires the careful assessment of compliance with the key principles of the legislation on a case by case basis. This means demonstrating that each instance of data sharing is necessary and proportionate to meet a specific purpose, it has a lawful basis and it is within the expectations of the individuals’ whose data it is. Therefore, the Scottish Government has no over-arching agreement with the UK Government as data sharing agreements are put in place for individual projects that adhere to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) Data Sharing Code of Practice.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. This is a matter for individual NHS Boards.

All Scottish Government mobile phones are securely wiped and disposed of in line with National Cyber Security Centre guidance when they reach end of life.