Chamber and committees

Although widespread across all ages and demographics, data tells us that disabled people, young people (16-24), people over 75 and those on low incomes are now the most at risk of social isolation and loneliness. The Scottish Government uses the Scottish Household Survey to estimate the number of people who may be socially isolated or experiencing loneliness in Scotland, and local authority areas. The Scottish Household Survey 2022 shows that 28% of people in Aberdeenshire have social contact less than once a week. The survey provides a further breakdown by age and can be found here: Scottish Household Survey 2022: Key Findings - gov.scot.

The Scottish Government published our delivery plan for our social isolation and loneliness strategy, Recovering our Connections, in March 2023. The plan aims to better understand social isolation and loneliness, to reduce the harm caused by it and tackle this public health issue. There are a number of actions within it, including our £3.8m fund that supports 53 organisations across Scotland delivering community-led activity that responds to local needs. Ten of these organisations are tackling social isolation in rural locations, including Mearns and Coastal Healthy Living Network who are based in Aberdeenshire and offer health, wellbeing and social activities for older people.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with the Social Isolation and Loneliness Advisory Group to help us deliver this plan and collaborate on ways to tackle loneliness for those most impacted.

For details of newspapers purchased, I refer the member to the response provided to S6W-33494 on 31 January 2025.

Newspapers are taken for current awareness; to help identify and monitor local and regional issues; and to support policy and operational delivery.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government supports local authorities to deliver infrastructure and behaviour change projects that deliver on modal shift outcomes and a range of benefits for physical and mental wellbeing.

In 2024-25, £35 million has been allocated for the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund (ATIF) Tier 1 funding. This investment, delivered by block grant, gives local authorities the autonomy to support the design, development, and delivery of active travel infrastructure measures across all 32 Local Authorities in Scotland, including in rural locations. £10 million has been allocated for ATIF Tier 2 fund for construction ready projects delivered by Local Authorities and Regional Transport Partnerships.

Also in 2024-25, £46.7 million of funding has been allocated for the Sustrans Places for Everyone programme, delivering high quality infrastructure across Scotland, and £15.85 million for the continued development of the National Cycle Network in both rural and urban areas.

In terms of support provided to local authorities for behaviour change measures that improve the uptake of walking, wheeling, and cycling, £4.5 million has been allocated to the Local Authority Direct Award (LADA) in 2024-25, and £1.7 million for the Bikeability programme.

The Regional Transport Partnership-led People and Place programme is £19m for 2024-25 is designed to build on the partnership working of RTPs and local authorities to work together and identify key priorities for improving the opportunities for more people to make more of their everyday journeys by walking, wheeling or cycling.

The efforts of these programmes and infrastructure delivery will lead to positive health outcomes through increasing the number of people choosing walking, cycling and wheeling in Scotland for everyday journeys. This is why active travel is a key Strategic Delivery Outcome in the Physical Activity for Health Framework published on 4 October 2024. The outcome aims to see multiple sectors working collaboratively on action that prioritises active travel infrastructure and supports and encourages active travel behaviour.

My officials continue to engage with local authorities, Public Health Scotland and Active Scotland to identify synergies and opportunities to strengthen the links between active and sustainable interventons and health outcomes.

A key way in which Scottish Government is looking to expand home healthcare services in rural areas is through the expansion of Hospital at Home.

Hospital at Home is a short-term, targeted intervention that provides a level of acute hospital care in an individual’s own home that is equivalent to that provided within a hospital.

There is strong clinical evidence for Hospital at Home, which has improved patient outcomes such as being able to manage their own care, being more independent and being able to keep their care package whilst receiving care. The service also reduces admissions to nursing homes and reduces the likelihood that patients will be living in residential care in the months after being in hospital.

All hospital at home services capture patient feedback via Care Opinion (www.careopinion.org.uk) as well as locally developed feedback forms. That information is used to understand the impact of their service and inform improvement.

Every Health Board in Scotland operates a Hospital at Home service for adults, including some of the most remote and rural areas of the country. Between April 2023 and March 2024 Hospital at Home Older People’s services treated 14479 patients. Specifically, services in Western Isles treated 383 patients and Oban treated 91.

Further expansion of the service was set out in the 2025-26 draft budget statement where set out plans to expand the number of Hospital at Home beds to at least 2,000 by December 2026.

Current Public Health Campaigns targeting rural communities:

1. Right Care Right Place (increasing awareness of, and encouraging the public to use, appropriate health services).

• Purchased media space for this campaign includes community radio running in a number of rural locations that network radio does not reach, including Argyll FM, Caithness FM, Radio Skye, Radio Wester Ross, Radio Nevis (Fort William) and Shetlands (SIBC). Network radio advertising space has also been purchased for this campaign to ensure reach of the public Scotland wide.
• Campaign paid-for media also includes a print content partnership in a press pack which includes local publications such as Ellon Times, Buchan Observer, East Fife Mail, Berwickshire Advertiser and Ayrshire Post.

The Scottish Government has prioritised improving the collection and recycling of end-of-life fishing and aquaculture gear in our Marine Litter Strategy published in 2022 in order to protect our environment from plastic pollution and support the growth of our circular economy. Earlier research showed that end-of-life gear is in the most part stored or sent to landfill as it is extremely difficult to recycle due to its low-value, bulky, contaminated and degraded nature. There are very few recycling facilities currently, and we have no information on how much been recycled since 2021. It is therefore a focus to improve recycling opportunities for both the fishing and aquaculture sectors.

The Scottish Government is using its legislation and policies to maximise the impact procurement can have for public bodies, 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, MSC, Red Tractor, RSPCA, or equivalent bespoke company systems;

While public bodies are responsible for their own procurement decisions, the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, which came into force on 18 April 2016, proposes a range of opportunities to increase the quality and provenance of food and drink procured. The key opportunity is in relation to the form and content for public bodies’ procurement strategies in which they must set out their policy on the procurement of food. Under the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, a public body with an annual procurement spend of at least £5 million must report each year on how, its procurements improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of an area and facilitate access to procurement for SMEs, the third sector and supported businesses. Statutory Guidance published under the Act, sets out this requirement in more detail.

The Scottish Government is also providing Marine Fund Scotland funding towards Seafood Scotland’s “Market Development Project”, which involves work to ensure Scottish seafood’s profile grows in UK markets. This includes specific activity with various stakeholders throughout the supply chain to look at ways of increasing consumption of Scottish seafood in public procurement settings.

The Scottish Government has no access to information on quotas held by individual vessels, it is therefore not possible for the Scottish Government to provide any information on instances of EU or non-EU vessels landing fish in Scottish waters without sufficient quota coverage.

Individual state’s quota uptake is monitored, where fleets have fished beyond their quota limit, the excess is covered retrospectively through quota exchanges.

The Scottish Government conducted an internal review and mapping exercise of port waste reception facilities relevant to the fishing sector in Scotland in both 2023 and 2024 in order to inform future policy development. Of the nine main ports and harbours which have dedicated collection facilities for the disposal of end-of-life fishing gear, see the answer to question S6W-33889 on 30 January 2025, two apply additional charges for the use of these facilities. The provision of adequate waste facilities available to all vessels, including fishing vessels, encourages responsible disposal behaviour. Information on the individual numbers of fishing vessel owners being charged these additional costs was not collected. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

£14m has been made available each year under the Marine Fund Scotland (MFS).

In some cases, not all the funding made available is drawn down within the financial year by the applicant. Expenditure against awards is as follows;

2021-2022 £12.23m

2022-2023 £11.59m

2023-2024 £12.63m

2024-2025 £2.21m (This isn't for a full year, historically most payments are made in the last quarter of the financial year).