Chamber and committees

Local authorities are responsible for the placement of children and young people and decisions that relate to the most suitable options for meeting their needs.

The Promise is clear that there is no place for profiting in how Scotland cares for its children. The Scottish Government is committed to Keeping The Promise and we are working alongside COSLA and local government to consider what further steps could be taken in Scotland.

We recognise the enormous contribution the Murray family has made to tennis in Scotland and we are committed to delivering a tangible and fitting legacy.

sportscotland’s provisional allocation of up to £5m for the development of a potential tennis facility at Park of Keir remains in place to deliver a suitable Murray Legacy in Scotland.

We will work with sportscotland, the Murray family, and wider partners, to ensure that we capitalise on the achievements of one of Scotland's greatest ever athletes.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29676 on 18 September 2024. 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.

It is important to acknowledge that vaccines are medicines and like all medicines they can have side effects and, on rare occasions, cause injury. Thankfully, most side effects are mild and short lived, but the Scottish Government recognises that some are not.

The Scottish Government has corresponded with the Scottish Vaccine Injury Group on several occasions, and has routinely signposted members of the public to the vaccine damage payment scheme when they have raised issues of vaccine–related injury. The safety of medicines, including vaccines, and the subject matter of the Vaccine Damage Payments Scheme are matters which are reserved to the UK Government, therefore we are unable to comment on individual cases.

The Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry is currently underway and the forthcoming Module 4 of the UK COVID-19 Public Inquiry on Vaccines and Therapeutics will consider vaccine safety and other aspects, such as potential reforms to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme.

The Scottish Vaccine Injury Group is a core participant of both the UK and Scottish Inquiries and as such has a central role. Due to the group’s involvement with the Inquiries, it would not be appropriate for Ministers to meet with them at this stage.

I advised through recent correspondence with the Scottish Vaccine Injury Group that I would be open to meeting with representatives of the group once Module 4 of the UK Inquiry has concluded, and after Baroness Hallett has issued my recommendations. This would facilitate a full and open discussion to take place between both parties, where recommendations could be discussed, especially if there were any the group felt weren’t full addressed as part of the inquiry.

After a 20 month independent review, the Hearings System Working Group (HSWG), chaired by Sheriff Mackie, published its report on 25 May 2023.

Following detailed analysis, The Scottish Government published its response to the ‘Hearings for Children’ report in December 2023. Of the 138 ‘Hearings for Children’ recommendations, 63 were accepted in full, 26 were accepted with conditions, 42 were identified as requiring further exploration or consultation, and 7 were not accepted.

In January 2024, a strategic redesign board was then established to drive forward the non-legislative components of system redesign by 2026. Co-chaired by Scottish Government and COSLA, membership comprises the National Convener of Children’s Hearings Scotland, the Principal Reporter of the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration and Social Work Scotland.

In addition, a public consultation on the legislative elements of the redesign of the children’s hearings system launched on 26 July. That will run for 13 weeks and close on 28 October 2024. The Scottish Government intends to introduce legislation later this Parliamentary term. If passed, the legislative elements and the overall system redesign programme, will be introduced by 2030.

The Our Hearings Our Voice Board (OHOV) worked closely with Sheriff David Mackie and The Promise Scotland during the development of the ‘Hearings for Children’ report. Scottish Government officials have continued to build on this relationship and are keen to ensure OHOV members continue to amplify the voice of those with lived and living experience of the hearings system throughout the redesign work. Further engagement with children and young people is also being undertaken through the Children and Young Persons Participation Framework. Who Cares? Scotland and Barnardo’s have been appointed to lead.

No estimations have been made as there are no plans to reintroduce prescription charges.

The ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) operator, SWARCO Smart Charging, introduced the STRIPE payment system in April 2024. Transport Scotland were made aware of technical issues during the introduction period which affected some CPS customers. In line with agreed incident management procedures, the issues were investigated by the CPS operator and actions outlined for their swift resolution. On 27 June 2024, Transport Scotland met with the CPS operator to discuss the effectiveness of the actions and to ensure no other issues had been reported. There have been no further reports of issues relating to the STRIPE implementation. CPS has not been contacted by any customers requesting compensation to-date.

The Residential Rehabilitation Development Working Group defines residential rehab as facilities offering programmes which aim to support individuals to attain an alcohol or drug-free lifestyle and to be re-integrated into society, provide intensive psychosocial support and a structured programme of daily activities, and which residents are required to attend over a fixed period of time.

The Scottish Government recognises that diversity of treatment options is important to empower individuals to have more choice and to meet the needs of individuals seeking different types of recovery, and this includes taking a person-centred approach to the duration of treatment.

It is the responsibility of the bodies responding to Public Health Scotland to ensure that reporting of residential rehabilitation placements meets this definition.

Alcohol death reviews are a valuable practice for Alcohol and Drug Partnerships to undertake in order to gain a deeper and more detailed understanding of the circumstances surrounding alcohol-specific deaths. To assess to what extent the people who have died were in touch with local services, what interventions had taken place, whether there is an identifiable profile of the people who are suffering an alcohol-specific death and whether there are lessons that can be learned, changes or improvements that can be made to services to prevent future deaths in the local area.

We have asked Public Health Scotland (PHS) to investigate the reasons behind the apparent 40% reduction in the number of people accessing specialist alcohol treatment services. We will use this information to better understand the reasons for treatment number decline and how we can improve and better support alcohol treatment services in Scotland.