Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of improving public awareness of the symptoms of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis to support earlier diagnosis and reduce stigma.

We have worked with Crohn’s & Colitis UK and clinicians to update information and guidance on gastrointestinal conditions and symptoms such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. This is widely available to the public via the NHS inform website: Scottish health information you can trust | NHS inform.

Crohn's & Colitis UK - Symptom checker also provides an online tool designed to help people recognise potential symptoms and seek timely medical advice.

We are exploring opportunities to enhance digital tools to provide symptom guidance and signposting to reliable resources through NHS inform. This work will complement our ongoing efforts through the Modernising Patient Pathways Programme and the National Gastroenterology Speciality Delivery Group to improve early diagnosis and care for people with inflammatory bowel disease.

National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) was approved by the Scottish Parliament in February 2023, before the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act commenced. Its implementation reflects children’s rights principles, including participation and wellbeing considerations.

For individual development proposals, including national developments and cases under sections 36 or 37 of the Electricity Act 1989, applicants are not legally required to prepare a CRWIA. However, Ministers must act compatibly with UNCRC requirements.

Scottish Ministers must prepare and publish a CRWIA for strategic decisions affecting children’s rights and wellbeing—high-level decisions that may impact the Government’s ability to respect, protect, and fulfil these rights. These typically include setting policy priorities, allocating resources, and policy delivery, but not routine operational decisions (e.g. many planning or licensing cases).

Strategic decisions are usually made by Ministers but can also be made on their behalf. They generally influence how the Scottish Government implements laws and policies over the long term, though urgent short- or mid-term decisions may also qualify. Strategic decisions may form part of an overarching plan. Ministers also intend to carry out CRWIAs for any changes or reviews of such decisions.

The Scottish Government is providing an additional £500,000 funding in 2025-26 to improve access to neurodevelopmental support for children, young people and their families. In line with the National Neurodevelopmental Specification, such support is not dependent on a diagnosis of a specific neurodevelopmental condition, and is based on support needs.

Regarding FASD specifically, we have provided £216,500 of grant funding to the FASD Hub in Scotland which provides support, training and advice to families, carers and professionals supporting children affected by FASD.

We also provided the Fetal Alcohol Advisory Support and Training Team (FAASTT) with grant funding of £403,500 to allow the delivery of training to improve knowledge, attitudes and confidence in professionals working with individuals with FASD.

Both organisations have been allocated the same amount of funding in 2025-26.

The additional funding of £500,000 is allocated in the current financial year, 2025-26 across a range of projects aimed at improving access to neurodevelopmental support for children, young people and their families. Further details about the projects receiving funding will be published on the Scottish Government website in due course.

In the financial year 2024-25, we provided £216,500 of grant funding to the FASD Hub in Scotland which provides support, training and advice to families, carers and professionals supporting children affected by FASD. This hub is the first of its kind in the UK.

We also provided the Fetal Alcohol Advisory Support and Training Team (FAASTT) with grant funding of £403,500 to allow the delivery of training to improve knowledge, attitudes and confidence in professionals working with individuals with FASD.

Both organisations have been allocated the same amount of funding in 2025-26 to continue to deliver the activity outlined above.

The Energy Consents Unit (ECU) manages all representations through established administrative procedures and does not employ the use of AI.

The ECU is actively working to make the representations process more efficient, including enhancing its website and portal. These changes to the representations process are expected to be implemented next year, with the aim of simplifying administrative procedures and improving transparency for both the public and the ECU.

Processing a public representation requires multiple members of staff in the Energy Consents Unit (ECU) to manually undertake a sequence of detailed administrative tasks. This involves logging the submission in the correct format, reviewing its contents for validation, ensuring it is compliant with data protection obligations and preparation for inclusion in the case record.

Each representation must also be checked for sensitive material and cross-referenced with other submissions, which adds further administrative time. The estimated cost and time taken to process representations is therefore highly dependent on the nature of each submission, and the total number of representations received for an application.

The National Cleft Surgical Service for Scotland (NCSSS) is hosted within NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and provides surgical, psychological and cleft specialist nursing input for the management of children with Cleft Lip and/or Palate.

Cleft Care Scotland (CCS) is part of this, and is NHS Scotland's nationally commissioned cleft service and provides multidisciplinary assessment, surgical treatment and ongoing support via specialist teams. There are specific dental treatment pathways within this ensuring that people are seen regularly for check-ups and reviews, with this service provided by the Public Dental Service in each Health Board.

Anyone at any age affected by cleft can be referred or re-referred to CCS. People who have had corrective surgery, or are not currently under the care of the CCS, can also receive the full range of NHS treatment under the General Dental Service.

The Care Inspectorate takes account of any national policy change, where it is appropriate to do so, when carrying out its regulatory and inspection function. The forthcoming expansion of the Armed Forces Covenant would therefore be considered if it required an expansion of early learning and childcare.

Scottish Ministers are highly supportive of the aims of the Armed Forces Covenant and the commitment of organisations across Scotland to build enhanced support for the Armed Forces community and foster better integration between the community and the Armed Forces.

Officials have been in contact with MOD on the extension of the Covenant Duty and look forward to receiving more detail from UK Ministers and considering further in due course.

As part of the expansion of funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) to 1140 hours, local authorities have a statutory duty to ensure that there is a funded place available for all eligible children in their area.

Under the Additional Support for Learning Act 2004, education authorities are responsible for identifying and meeting the additional support needs of children in ELC settings, which includes children from Armed Forces families.

In line with the National Standard for Early Learning and Childcare Providers we expect local authorities and settings to work together to support to support all children, including those with additional support needs, to access their funded ELC entitlement.

We welcome the UK Government’s announcement to expand the Armed Forces Covenant into further areas of Government activity including criminal justice. We note it is planned by the UK Government to provide for the necessary legislative detail for this approach in their next Armed Forces Bill in 2026. This Bill is not yet published and we will consider carefully the full details once they are available. This further detail will help inform engagement with justice partners including Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service and the Scottish Prison Service.

We have already engaged with criminal justice agencies on how best to meet the need of veterans within custody following the ‘Veterans and Law’ report, which was published in October 2024. This included recommendations relating to identifying and supporting veterans as they move through the criminal justice system, with a coordinated, easy to access approach to support them alongside third sector organisations to help prevent offending and support rehabilitation.

We remain committed to working with criminal justice partners to further explore opportunities to help support veterans in the future, including as part of the forthcoming expansion of the Armed Forces Covenant.