Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government welcomes all initiatives that support our work to tackle social isolation and loneliness, a public health issue which has been exacerbated because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and will continue to be affected by the ongoing cost crisis.

The Social Isolation and Loneliness Strategy, and associated delivery plan that was published in 2023, outlines the strategic actions and priorities we are taking to tackle this issue. This includes funding support to 53 organisations across Scotland delivering community-led activity that responds to local needs by providing opportunities for people to connect. Priority groups targeted by the fund are young people (aged 16-24), disabled people, people with a mental health condition, older people (aged 75+) and people living in areas of deprivation or on a low income.

Since 2021, we have invested £51m in our Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults, with 3,300 grants being made to local organisations across Scotland to tackle issues including social isolation.

The Scottish Government encourages the Big Braw Community campaign to engage with the Social Isolation and Loneliness Advisory Group to explore collaborative working on this issue.

The Scottish Government has a broad range of delivery programmes which make advice and funding support on energy efficiency and low carbon heating available to households and businesses across Scotland. The Home Energy Scotland (HES) and Business Energy Scotland (BES) advice services offer free, bespoke, impartial advice, and also act as the gateway to our flagship fuel poverty scheme, Warmer Homes Scotland, and to other Scottish Government funding schemes such as the HES Grant and Loan and the SME Loan and Cashback.

Scotland’s Heat Network Fund (SHNF) supports the construction of new zero direct emission heat networks and communal heating systems, as well as the expansion and decarbonisation of existing heat networks across Scotland.

Registered Social Landlords are encouraged to make use of available funding sources for retrofit, which includes the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund. This fund supports both the deployment of clean heating and ”fabric first” enhancements, helping landlords deliver warmer and more energy efficient homes.

Communities and local council areas are also supported through Area Based Schemes (ABS), delivered by all local authorities in Scotland, which target fuel poor areas to provide energy efficiency measures to a large number of Scottish households and help reduce fuel poverty, and the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) which provides advice and funding to communities across Scotland looking to develop renewable energy, heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency projects.

We agree with Audit Scotland on the scale of the challenge to decarbonise heat in our buildings. That is why we are consulting just now on proposals to prohibit the use of polluting heating systems in Scotland’s homes and buildings by 2045. This, alongside our proposals for standards for social housing, the development of heat networks and the introduction of a New Build Heat Standard, will transform the way we heat and insulate our buildings.

The Scottish Government’s draft national Good Food Nation Plan sets out six over-arching Outcomes which indicate key areas to further develop our status as a Good Food Nation. These Outcomes have been developed with regard to a range of issues and principles set out in the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022, including the role of the food system in improving animal welfare and the importance of recognising all parts of the supply chain. The consultation on the draft national Good Food Nation Plan launched on 24 January and closes on 22 April ( https://consult.gov.scot/agriculture-and-rural-economy/national-good-food-nation-plan/ ).

We are aiming to increase the consumption, production, and provision of local food. The Scottish Government is using its legislation and policies to maximise the impact procurement can have for public bodies, suppliers and local suppliers and the Scottish economy. To promote local and sustainable produce public bodies have the flexibility to:

• Design menus that include Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) food
• Specify food produced according to recognised assurance schemes, e.g. Quality Meat Scotland, Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), Red Tractor, RSPCA, or equivalent bespoke company systems
• Specify free range and organic food
• Specify requirements based on menu plans that are based on freshness, high nutritional value using food in season and flexible and frequent delivery times
• Divide contracts into small product lots and geographic areas to encourage the active participation of local businesses where it is proportionate to do so
• Introduce a facility on some frameworks to enable small manufacturers who do not have national delivery logistics in place to bid on a supply only basis
• Introduce a secondary price list within tenders to allow framework suppliers the choice to offer Scottish produce

The Scottish Government is committed to continuous improvement in animal welfare: a statutory review into animal welfare legislation is due to be published in 2025. In 2023 there was a Programme for Government commitment to consult on phasing out cage production for laying hens and gamebirds: this will be published in due course.

Officials from the Scottish Government met with North Lanarkshire Council on 25 January 2024 to discuss matters relating to the consultation involving Condorrat and Baird Memorial primary schools. Although the consultation has concluded and these matters are being considered by the Council, including input from statutory consultees, the Scottish Government is aware that final decisions have not yet been taken by the Council and a further meeting will be arranged at an appropriate time.

The Scottish Government’s current focus is on our previously stated objectives to complete the vessels for our island communities, to support the workforce of Ferguson Marine and to ensure a sustainable future for the shipyard.

The spend on the vessels is subject to oversight by the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee and scrutiny by Audit Scotland. This will continue.

Scottish Government officials engage regularly with local authorities and other partners with regard to the Affordable Housing Supply Programme.

One of the most difficult choices we have taken is to reduce the funding for our Affordable Housing Supply Programme. We will, however, still invest £556 million in 2024-25 to increase the delivery of more affordable homes, the majority of which will be for social rent, including supporting the acquisition of existing properties.

We remain focused on our target of delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 and to support that we will bring forward the review scheduled for 2026-27 to 2024, which will concentrate on deliverability.

In addition, we are accelerating work with the financial community in Scotland, and elsewhere, to boost private sector investment and help deliver more homes.

We are investing £752 million in affordable housing in 2023-24 to increase the delivery of more affordable homes, the majority of which will be for social rent, including supporting a £60 million national acquisition programme.

To effectively meet housing need and support affordable housing priorities across different areas we want to support all tenures whilst still prioritising social rented homes.

We remain focused on delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 of which at least 70% will be for social rent and 10% in rural ands island areas.

The Scottish Government is currently undertaking a pilot to introduce a net zero assessment, with the intention of a full roll out later this year. In developing the methodology for the pilot, we have looked at variety of existing approaches from other countries; including New Zealand, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Sweden.

(a) There are a number of published data sets available in Scotland that help us understand bowel cancer. These are facilitated by Public Health Scotland and include data on incidence, mortality, staging, waiting times for cancer organised by tumour type.

Cancer Incidence

Public Health Scotland provides an annual update of cancer incidence statistics in Scotland from January 1997 to December 2021. All cancer types are included. Most recent data can be found here

Cancer Mortality

Public Health Scotland provides interpretations of the risk factors that cause cancer and changes in survival for the most common causes of cancer death. Most recent data can be found here

Cancer Staging

Public Health Scotland provides data examining the impact of COVID-19 on cancer staging distributions, with the focus of the report being on the 2022 data in comparison with the most recent pre-pandemic data (2018 and 2019). Most recent data can be found here

Cancer Waiting Times

Public Health Scotland provides quarterly updates of Cancer Waiting Times statistics, reporting two National Standards on how long patients waited for their first cancer treatment. The 62-day standard applies to patients urgently referred with a suspicion of cancer by a primary care clinician/general dental physician, patients referred by one of the national cancer screening programmes, and direct referrals to hospital where the signs and symptoms are consistent with the cancer diagnosed. The 31-day standard applies to all patients, regardless of the route of referral. The most recent data can be found here

(b) The research conducted by Cancer Research UK, published in the Annals of Oncology journal in January 2024, states that bowel cancer can be linked to diet and alcohol intake. The Scottish Government has introduced strong public health interventions to address these risk factors.

The Scottish Government’s Alcohol Framework sets out our priorities for preventing alcohol-related harm and introduced the Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) to alcohol sales in Scotland. The Scottish Government’s Alcohol Framework, published 20 November 2018, sets out our priorities for preventing alcohol-related harm. It contains 20 actions building on existing measures to change Scotland’s relationship with alcohol, including our world-leading minimum unit pricing policy. The Scottish Government takes a whole population approach to tackling alcohol-related harms, in line with the World Health Organization’s focus on affordability, availability and attractiveness of alcohol.

Prior to the pandemic, the reduction in alcohol sales showed encouraging early signs that the introduction of MUP was having a positive impact. In the 12 months following the introduction of MUP and before the pandemic, there was a 2% decrease in alcohol sales for off premises consumption.

The Scottish Government continue to endorse a healthy balanced diet as represented by the Eatwell Guide . Food Standards Scotland has translated the Eatwell Guide into the Eat Well, Your Way resource. This provides meaningful, practical advice and tips to help people make healthier food and drink choices, whilst acknowledging the social, cultural and environmental influences on food choice.

Our Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan sets out ambitious and wide-ranging action to deliver our vision for a Scotland where everyone eats well and has a healthy weight.

(c) The Scottish Government is committed to detecting cancer as early as possible. A new Detect Cancer Earlier campaign – Be The Early Bird - launched in March 2023, aiming to reduce fear of cancer and empower those with possible symptoms to act early. Following successful independent evaluation, the campaign re-ran in September 2023 to prompt health-seeking behaviour.

The wider Detect Cancer Early Programme works closely with the Scottish Cancer Coalition, including Bowel Cancer UK, to support awareness raising efforts and uses social channels to promote joint content and messages where possible.