Chamber and committees

ScotRail's Smartcard has been introduced on all routes and is available for most ticket types.

There a number of advantages for passengers using a ScotRail smartcard (saltirecard). Some special promotional fares are only available on Smart. Super Off Peak Day Return and Club 50 are exclusive to Smart which provide discount travel. For Smart season ticket holders, exclusive online benefits are also offered, including discounts and deals on the high street. Smart also offers more convenience for passengers as tickets can be purchased online making it faster and easier with no need to queue at the ticket office as well as providing more security against lost and stolen cards. Smartcard also brings the rail industry in line with other transport operators and it provides the opportunity for Transport Scotland to expand and create new ways of making Scotland's public transport interoperable.

ScotRail will be piloting Account Based Ticketing in 2018, which will allow payment to be added to Smartcards and offer passengers daily and weekly best fares without having to purchase tickets before traveling (similar to that which is offered on Oyster in London).

Passengers can currently purchase tickets using contactless bank cards (EMV) from ticket offices and on the train on all ScotRail services. We are working with ScotRail to enable contactless payments to be accepted at ticket vending machines.

Our immediate priority is to focus on delivery of our Programme for Government commitment to provide access to free sanitary products in schools, colleges and universities, and we will consider further action in light of the findings of our Aberdeen pilot which will conclude in March next year.

This is a ground-breaking commitment to tackle this gender injustice and we are proud to be the first nation in the world to take this action.

We continue to work towards our vision that all journeys on Scotland’s bus, rail, ferry, subway and tram can be made using some form of smart ticket or payment. For some time now this has focused on creating an infrastructure across all of Scotland that can support saltirecards (ITSO secure smartcard) and – particularly for bus - contactless bank cards (EMV).

To make using public transport around Scotland a simpler experience for the public, and having now largely put the infrastructure in place, we are now working to improve smart ticketing interoperability by persuading over 200 transport operators across all modes to accept products on each others’ cards.

Over the last few months many of the major operators have also launched EMV on their services, benefitting the travelling public with an additional, easy and convenient way to pay. As technology moves apace we are also looking to take advantage of ITSO’s emerging options for using a mobile phone rather than a smartcard.

Lastly, we have just closed our “Future of Smart Ticketing” consultation (December 5^th) which considers whether legislation and governance requirements are needed to enable further, quicker progress with this consistent and standardised approach.

Government recognises that children who live with substance–misusing parents are among the most vulnerable in society and require particular care and support. We have an Alcohol Framework in place which contains a package of measures to tackle alcohol misuse. A key measure is the introduction of a minimum price for alcohol which we believe is the most effective and efficient way of reducing overall alcohol consumption and harm. We have confirmed an additional £20m for alcohol and drugs services as part of our Programme for Government 2017.

Improving outcomes for children affected by parental substance and alcohol misuse is a priority for the Scottish Government. That is why we currently provide funding of £600,000 per year to the CORRA Foundation who support Scottish voluntary organisations to deliver vital on the ground support largely to children and families across Scotland affected by substance and alcohol misuse. The CORRA Foundation receive a further £160,000 for the delivery of the recommendations contained in "Everyone Has A Story", an action learning project that aims to hear the voices and experiences of children and young people whose parents are in recovery from drugs and alcohol.

We also provide £269,000 to Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs for support to families across Scotland affected by a loved one’s substance and alcohol misuse, raising awareness of their needs and the issues affecting them and ensuring that these are recognised and addressed.

We have shaped our policies to tackle health inequalities in key areas, such as minimum unit pricing, which would have the greatest impact in our most deprived communities.

The new drinking guidelines were revised by the UK Chief Medical Officers in February 2016, and advise that both men and women consume no more than 14 units per week, spread evenly over 3 or more days, and that alcohol should be avoided if you are pregnant or trying to conceive.

We have been clear to the industry that we expect the UK Chief Medical Officers’ guidance to be reflected on alcohol labels, and clear advice has been provided along with examples of how best to display the message (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/602132/Communicating_2016_CMO_guidelines_Mar_17.pdf.)

We are aware that a number of responsible organisations, such as the British Retail Consortium, the Scottish Retail Consortium and Tennent’s, are already implementing, or in the process of implementing, this guidance.

The Scottish Health Survey 2016 reports that 15% of adults exhibited signs of a possible psychiatric disorder (GHQ-12 score of four or more). The reported rate is 17% for women and 13% for men. It is important to note that the rate for women has consistently been 3 to 6 percentage points higher than for men since 2003. It should also be noted that the World Health Organisation reports that anxiety and depression are more common in women than in men worldwide.

Nonetheless, these statistics show the importance of achieving the vision laid out by the Mental Health Strategy 2017-27. Our aspirations include that we will see, and be able to measure, the following for mental health compared to physical health:

• Equal access to the most effective and safest care and treatment

• Equal efforts to improve the quality of care

• Allocation of time, effort and resources on a basis commensurate with need

• Equal status within healthcare education and practice:

• Equally high aspirations for service users

• Equal status in the measurement of health outcomes

The Scottish Government’s alcohol strategy, Changing Scotland's Relationship with Alcohol: A Framework for Action, is well regarded internationally and contains over 40 measures to tackle alcohol misuse. The Framework has been shown to have a positive impact including 2.6 per cent reduction in consumption due to the multi-buy discount ban; increased delivery of Alcohol Brief Interventions; legislation to ban irresponsible promotions and the introduction of a lower drink drive limit. However, given the link between affordability and harm, we remain committed to minimum unit pricing which is the most effective pricing measure to tackle the high strength, low cost alcohol that causes so much damage to our communities.

The latest alcohol-related mortality statistics highlight the need for continued action to reduce alcohol-related harm in Scotland. We have seen improvements from historic peaks but we know we need to do more. We are in the process of refreshing our Framework and will consider what further action to take to reduce alcohol-related harm.