Chamber and committees

In Scotland it is illegal to ride an electric scooter on a public road, pavement, cycle paths, shared paths or any public place. Enforcement of this is an operational matter for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland, with oversight provided by the Scottish Police Authority.

More broadly, the Scottish Government is committed to making Scotland’s road travel safe for everyone. The Scottish Government published a Road Safety Framework to 2030 in 2021. The framework sets out a vision for Scotland to have the best road safety performance in the world by 2030 and an ambitious long term goal where no one is seriously injured or killed on our roads by 2050.

Island and rural carers will benefit from the introduction of Carer Support Payment, which will replace Carer’s Allowance in Scotland, including through support from Social Security Scotland’s local delivery service and better signposting to wider support available to carers. Island communities will also continue to benefit from the extra support only available in Scotland from the Carer’s Allowance Supplement. By the end of this year, carers in Scotland continuously in receipt of the Carer's Allowance Supplement since its introduction in 2018 will have received over £3,300. The Carer Support Payment is being delivered in the context of wider cross-governmental work to positively impact rural and island communities, such as the commitments in the National Islands Plan to tackle the higher costs of fuel, transport and housing as well as to drive inclusive and sustainable economic growth.

Further planned improvements for Carer Support Payment are set out in the Scottish Government’s response to the consultation published on 24 March 2023. We will continue to engage with rural and island carers and organisations in developing Carer Support Payment and to ensure our plans to join carers to wider carer support services, such as income maximisation, meet the needs of island and rural carers.

The Scottish Government is working closely with Public Health Scotland (PHS), territorial Health Boards and other key partners to promote uptake of immunisation against vaccine-preventable disease in young people, including our student population.

PHS has targeted new students through a range of communications, highlighting the importance of ensuring that their vaccinations, particularly MMR and MenACWY, are up to date prior to arrival at college or university. These complement specific resources for new entrants arriving in Scotland, including new international students. Information about vaccines for new students can be found at Vaccines for students | NHS inform

( https://www.nhsinform.scot/campaigns/vaccines-for-students/ ).

Uptake of vaccinations among young people in Scotland remains high and is delivering lifesaving benefits.

The Scottish Government has been actively engaging with local authority partners, who have statutory responsibility for school buildings in Scotland, for some time.

Those schools where RAAC has been identified are taking mitigation steps in line with guidance from the Institute of Structural Engineers which has not changed. Any local authority which deems it necessary to close a school in their authority, in whole or in part, is empowered to do so. For example, Riverside Primary School in West Lothian fully closed its building over the summer holidays and moved pupils in to alternative provision.

COSLA have confirmed that safety is the central consideration and there is robust guidance which is followed by every local authority to ensure these settings are safe for the pupils, staff and the public to be in.

The Scottish Government has not purchased any properties for the purpose of housing people seeking asylum.

Asylum is reserved to the UK Parliament and handled by the Home Office. This includes responsibility for providing accommodation to people seeking asylum who would otherwise be destitute while awaiting a decision on their asylum application from the Home Office. The Scottish Government has no control of these processes.

The Scottish Government released a statement responding to and welcoming Lord Etherton’s LGBT Veterans Independent Review on the day it was published. We said that the report made clear that from the many personal accounts within the review, that a grave injustice was done. Lord Etherton’s recommendations and suggestions will go some way to addressing that.

While the Armed Forces are a reserved matter, and the recommendations within the independent review are all for the UK Government to deliver, it did contain two suggestions for Scotland. These were around diversity and inclusivity policies and training for healthcare and housing providers, to ensure that veterans do not face any repeat of the homophobic policies they suffered whilst in the Armed Forces. The Scottish Government is committed to supporting LGBT veterans and is considering how to deliver on these suggestions.

It is vital that Police Scotland continues to inspire public trust and maintains relationships with local communities. These principles are clearly set out in both the Scottish Government’s Strategic Police Priorities and in the Police Scotland/Scottish Police Authority Joint Strategy for Policing . While the decision to conduct a pilot is an operational matter for the Chief Constable, it will be crucial when the results of this pilot are examined, to confirm that local priorities continue to be met with no detriment to communities.

Officers in the North East are not stopping the investigation of minor crimes. Members of the public should continue to report all crimes. Police Scotland has stated that, as part of the pilot, on occasions where crimes are reported without an associated threat, harm, risk or vulnerability and there are no proportionate lines of enquiry, staff will inform the caller that their report has been filed and supply a crime reference number but no further action will be taken. Should thereafter any evidence become available that open up a line of enquiry the incident will be appropriately investigated. Police Scotland has stated that the new approach will ensure that individuals receive faster updates on their incident reports.

Policing remains a priority for the Scottish Government. Despite financial challenges due to UK Government austerity, we have increased police funding year-on-year since 2016-17, investing more than £11.6 billion since the creation of Police Scotland in 2013.

Minimum unit price (MUP) is one of a range of population and individual level interventions set out in the Scottish Government Alcohol Framework that together are intended to improve the prevention and treatment of alcohol related harm in Scotland. MUP is a whole population policy with a particular focus on hazardous and harmful drinkers. People with alcohol dependency are a diverse group with complex needs, who fall within the extreme end of the harmful drinking category.

Given the clinical needs of people with alcohol dependence, MUP is not intended to be the key intervention for this cohort – treatment and care services are critical for this group. In 2022-23, £106.8 million was made available to support local and national initiatives overseen by Alcohol and Drugs Partnerships - ensuring that local services can respond to local needs. This includes activities like signposting those receiving treatment for alcohol dependence to local services to meet wider social and financial needs where they arise.

I recognise the need for urgent action in Inverclyde following the publication of the National Records of Scotland data on alcohol-specific deaths during 2022. It shows that with 28 deaths Inverclyde had the highest age standardised mortality rate for alcohol-specific deaths in Scotland – at 33 per 100,000 of population.

We are providing and will continue to provide funding to statutory and community services operating in Inverclyde as part of the Government’s plan to help tackle this public health emergency. We have committed to continue our financial support to the Inverclyde Alcohol and Drug Recovery Service as well as supporting the contributions made by community Link Workers and others working in the local area. We will also continue to provide support through accessible community Funds to local initiatives such as Moving On, which I visited earlier this month, to hear from people impacted by alcohol and drugs.

I am fully committed to do everything in my power to tackle alcohol-related deaths in Scotland, working with partners including Alcohol and Drugs Partnerships and third sector organisations to ensure that local needs are met, and that funding is making the maximum impact in all local areas.