Chamber and committees

In line with our Green Industrial Strategy, we are continuing to support Scotland’s energy transition. The draft 2025-26 Scottish Budget includes an allocation of £25m to support the development of hydrogen and carbon capture technologies, as well as initiatives to support Scotland’s businesses and industries to decarbonise and innovative projects such as the Energy Transition Zone in Aberdeen.

We recognise the importance of ensuring that everyone understands what a normal period is. We have developed a range of resources that anyone can access to learn more about periods, period symptoms and conditions like endometriosis, PCOS and PMS. More information can be found in the Women’s Health Plan 2021 - 2024 Final Report.

Additionally, in March 2023 we delivered an engagement campaign in partnership with Young Scot to increase young people’s awareness of endometriosis. The campaign is aimed at those aged 11 to 25 in Scotland, including boys and young men. The campaign includes information about endometriosis symptoms, provides information about available support and provides information on how to support a friend in the process of diagnosis or who may have endometriosis.

Menstrual health and wellbeing education is a key part of relationships, sexual health and parenthood (RSHP) education. RSHP education is an integral part of the health and wellbeing area of the Scottish curriculum, Curriculum for Excellence.

An online RSHP teaching resource, (www.rshp.scot) was published in 2019 and provides age and stage appropriate learning activities on RSHP education for use in all education settings and is aligned to Curriculum for Excellence. This resource includes learning activities on menstruation from second level (P5 to P7), with endometriosis introduced at third/fourth level (S1 to S3).

The Women's Health Plan Implementation Programme Board was established to oversee and drive the delivery of the Plan. The Board brought together a range of organisations, including COSLA and Trade Union representation, to ensure that the actions within the Plan are implemented effectively and in partnership, with continued input and influence from women themselves.

The Boards stood down with the close of the first phase of the Plan. Updated governance will be developed alongside the second phase, to be published in 2025.

In NHS Scotland, a national menopause and menstrual health policy was published in October 2023, to seek to better support employees and their line managers.

The Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE) has continued to support the Women’s Health Plan through their dedicated lived experience programme. This has included the development of the conversation café toolkit, available for anyone to use, to encourage information sharing and peer support on areas of women’s health including menstrual health and endometriosis.

More information can be found in the ALLIANCE Final Report on Women’s Health Plan.

Menstrual health and wellbeing education is a key part of relationships, sexual health and parenthood (RSHP) education. RSHP education is an integral part of the health and wellbeing area of the Scottish curriculum, Curriculum for Excellence.

An online RSHP teaching resource, (www.rshp.scot) was published in 2019 and provides age and stage appropriate learning activities on RSHP education for use in all education settings and is aligned to Curriculum for Excellence. This resource includes learning activities on menstruation from second level (P5 to P7), with endometriosis introduced at third/fourth level (S1 to S3).

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) has launched an e-learning module on menstrual health available on Turas Learnand in particular is aimed at those working in primary care. The school nursing workforce and school counsellors can also access this training as required.

Every ‘scheduled’ award review carried out by Social Security Scotland is a light-touch review.

This means that Social Security Scotland do not require clients by default to provide information again that they already provided, that is not relevant to the changes they have reported, or that we can gather through other means.

Instead, Social Security Scotland will consider information they already hold about the client, where still relevant, and make use of appropriate decision-making tools, where needed, to reduce the need for further questions. They only ask for new supporting information in specific scenarios and take their usual supportive approach to gathering this information.

Our approach differs when a client’s circumstances or changes are more complex, or their reported level of need is unexpected. This is not light touch and Social Security Scotland will decide on a case-by-case basis what additional steps are required and appropriate to better understand the client’s needs, and to ensure they have the information needed to make a robust determination on the client’s entitlement.

NHS Boards across Scotland are expected to provide maternity services that are delivered as close to home as practicable; however, this must be balanced with ensuring the safety of all mothers and babies. All decisions about care throughout pregnancy, including around place of birth, should be made by women in discussion with their midwife and obstetrician. These decisions will take account of their individual needs and circumstances.

In support of this, and recognising the importance of the relationship between women and their midwives during the pregnancy, birth and postnatal journey, we continue to implement continuity of carer within maternity services, a key recommendation of The Best Start. The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2024-25 reaffirms our commitment to ensuring that more women receive care and support from the same midwife from pregnancy through birth, prioritising those most likely to benefit, including women with additional social needs.

More broadly, our ambition is for a Scotland where health outcomes are equitable across the population so that all women enjoy the best possible health – throughout their lives. This remains the ambition of the Scottish Government, and will continue to be our guiding principle as we consider the next phase of the Women’s Health Plan.

In our consultation document: Allocation of Scottish Additional Quota from 2024, the Scottish Government set out a wish to explore whether a vessel’s history of compliance with regulatory requirements relating to fishing could be utilised as a criterion for allocating Additional Quota.

As noted in our subsequent outcome of consultation document, there were split views on this proposal. The Scottish Government sees merit in exploring withholding Additional Quota on the basis of non-compliance with regulatory requirements. As we set out in the outcome report, this will be taken forward as part of a review of the penalties system. No date is set for when this work will commence, but it will be delivered in line with our Fisheries Management Strategy (2020-2030).

My answer here is the same as that set out in S5W-23733 on 21 June 2019.

The rules for how the Scottish Government is funded are set out in the Statement of Funding Policy. Changes in Scottish Government funding are determined by applying the Barnett formula to changes in UK government departmental spending, rather than allocating a proportion of revenues raised through the UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy. There is therefore no direct link between the revenue raised by the UK Government through the Soft Drinks Industry Levy and any element of the funding allocated to Scotland. The Scottish Government spends its money in accordance with the published budget as agreed by the Scottish Parliament.

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

Anyone, including students from outside of Scotland, that is a resident of Scotland for the majority of the year and aged 5 to 21 is eligible for the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme.

The Scottish Government do not calculate or hold information on the cost of delivering the scheme on a per person basis.