Chamber and committees

The then Minister for Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing issued a letter to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) supporting the release of Alcohol Focus Scotland’s guidance on undertaking alcohol death reviews on 24 September 2020. The letter asked that ADPs undertake an alcohol death review every three years.

We are currently working with both Alcohol Focus Scotland and Public Health Scotland to review how alcohol death reviews are being delivered in Scotland and also what learning can be taken from the delivery of drugs death reviews.

These findings will feature in the national specification for treatment of drug and alcohol misuse in Scotland which is currently in development and will build on the recommendations of the forthcoming UK Clinical Guidelines for Alcohol Treatment.

It is our expectation that future Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) funding letters will ask ADPs to undertake local alcohol death reviews .

Public Health Scotland’s report, published on 18 June 2024, presents a high-level overview of the number of statutory-funded residential rehabilitation placements between April 2021 and March 2024. This includes statutory-funded placements approved by:

• local Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs)
• the Scottish Government, using funds that are managed centrally for some residential rehabilitation placements (e.g. under the Prison-to-Rehab pathway). These placements are reported as National Mission-funded in this report.
• Ward 5 of the Woodland View mental health facility and community hospital in NHS Ayrshire and Arran. Ward 5 is a residential unit for Ayrshire and Arran residents who have an alcohol or drug problem and mental health 5 issues. Ward 5 offers detoxification followed by a four-week residential programme.

We recognise that the current situation in respect of disabled young people's transitions must improve, and remain fully committed to developing a strategy which recognises the urgency of the improvements we have heard are required whilst also allowing sufficient time to support the meaningful engagement and participation of those impacted by the strategy.

We are currently analysing our recent engagement with over 500 people, including disabled young people themselves. Following this, we will further develop the timeline for the strategy to ensure that it can be published alongside a range accessible formats. I commit to writing to the Member in due course to provide a further update on this.

The Circular Economy Act does not provide a timescale for the completion of the new Household Recycling Code of Practice. However, the Scottish Government’s draft Circular Economy and Waste Route Map sets out the aim to complete the co-design process by March 2026.

The first stage of co-design engagement took place on 24 September 2024, with a workshop with local authorities to develop the methodology. The co-design methodology will enable engagement with local authorities, the waste sector, businesses, civil society, citizens and other stakeholders.

Following the UK Chancellor's July statement, the Scottish Government continues to face the most challenging financial situation since devolution.

Whilst any reduction is regrettable, we remain committed to taking forward our work across mental health, working closely with key partners. Our collective focus has to be on making as much difference as possible with our funding.

No elements of the Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) programme will be discontinued in 2024-25. Savings were realised through pre-agreed changes in funding to the original pilots, which from 2024-25 will be funded by local areas rather than centrally by the Scottish Government. There is no anticipated impact on the number of people able to access the DBI programme.

The cessation of funding in relation to student mental health was extensively discussed with the sector, including when transition funding was put in place for Academic Year 2023-24 at the conclusion of our previous four year Programme for Government commitment in relation to counsellor provision. Our five year investment of over £19 million sought to support student mental health and wellbeing and help institutions to transition to a more sustainable means of providing mental health support for students.

Our new Student Mental Health Action Plan, published on 13 September, seeks to move to a mainstreamed approach to student mental health. The Government will work with NHS Boards, CoSLA, Public Health Scotland and community based providers to join up support that is already available, embedding students’ mental health needs into the wider communities in which they live and study.

The Action Plan recognises the importance of each college and university having a Student Mental Health Agreement in place. To enable this we continue to support NUS Think Positive with £130,000 in 2024-25.

We continue to work closely with Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) to develop and implement a plan that is informed by the lived experience of disabled people and will deliver actions to help with the challenges they are currently facing. Venues should be familiar with and address their broader duties under UK health and safety, and equalities legislation including, for people with a visual impairment, the requirement for service providers to make reasonable adjustments in circumstances where disabled people are placed at a substantial disadvantage compared with non-disabled people. The Scottish Government expects all relevant organisations to comply with the requirement of the Equality Act 2010. We welcome the report’s recommendations which will support venues in meeting these requirements.

Creative Scotland’s regularly funded organisations, which include a number of venues across Scotland, are contractually obliged to develop and implement Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plans. Creative Scotland provide their own guidance on how to best achieve this edi-toolkit-dec-2019.pdf (creativescotland.com). This covers all aspects of the work for these organisations, including audience development activities. Facilitating access and participation to culture, is central to the artistic purpose of all Scottish Government funded culture bodies and they all share a desire to communicate with as large and diverse an audience as possible.

There are 107 entries in the pilot of the Cladding Remediation Programme.

Pilot assessments have been undertaken for 30 of the entries. A pilot assessment includes those carried out prior to the publication of the Single Building Assessment (SBA) specification on 21 June 2024. This number relates to known pilot assessments only; developers, homeowners or other organisations could have commissioned assessments without informing the Scottish Government. Therefore, the true number may be higher and could increase as further information becomes available.

Works to mitigate or remediate risks have started for five of the entries. Works in this context refers to any action taken to address known cladding-related risks, including Urgent Interim Measures. This number relates to known works on a pilot entry only; developers or other organisations could have carried out works without informing the Scottish Government. Again, this means the true number may be higher and could increase as further information becomes available.

Works to remediate risks have not been completed for any of the entries. Although work on the external wall cladding system has been undertaken on one building, an SBA – carried out to the standard to be specified by Scottish Ministers under section 32 of the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act 2024 – is required to ensure that all works required have been identified and completed ahead of the remediation being designated as complete.

Within the National Electricity Supply Framework no power is procured from community – owned energy providers.

The framework has been set up to supply electricity to all of the Scottish Public sector. The supplier on the framework is required to purchase power on the futures market through a risk managed hedging strategy. The strategy is owned by a Risk Management Committee who represent all of the main Public Sector bodies.

The framework supplier needs to ensure it has the capacity to secure forward purchases on behalf of all framework customers. The supplier also needs to account manage each individual customer organisation including billing, invoicing, meter reading queries, complaints, energy efficiency queries, and social value programmes within the framework. As well as managing the consumption for over 30,000 meters for electricity that are part of the portfolio. Therefore, the supplier needs to have capacity to trade large volumes and achieve Value For Money for the whole Scottish public sector.

There are 107 entries in the pilot phase of the Cladding Remediation Programme. Entries in the pilot can comprise a single block or building, or a development, or part of a development consisting of multiple blocks or buildings.

Only a Single Building Assessment meeting the Scottish Standards can identify what cladding if any, a building has and further identify whether the cladding is unsafe.

Developers, homeowners or other organisations could have commissioned assessments without informing the Scottish Government. Therefore, the true number may be higher and could increase as further information becomes available.

The Scottish Government has provided Scottish Agritourism with £60k funding in 2024-2025 to support with preparations for Scotland hosting the 2026 World Agritourism Conference.