Chamber and committees

Where individuals have left a coercive and abusive relationship, it is important that protections for their safety are available where needed. As such, there are a range of protective orders available to help ensure the safety of individuals.

Where a partner or ex-partner has been convicted of a domestic abuse criminal offence against their partner or ex-partner, when dealing with the offender the court is required to consider whether to impose a non-harassment order (NHO). If a NHO is not imposed, the court must explain the reasons why. The NHO can have a range of conditions included within it such as refraining from contacting the person against whom the offence has been committed. NHOs are also available for a wider range of offences upon application by the prosecutor. Changes made in the recently passed Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Act 2025 will, when brought into force, require the court to consider NHOs upon conviction in sexual offence, stalking and intimate images cases.

In addition, a person can take action through the courts to protect themselves against abuse and harassment, and there are a number of civil court orders available. These include an interdict, which is a court order prohibiting someone from doing something. It can cover things such as contacting a particular person or coming within a certain distance of their home. In some cases, breach of an interdict is an offence. A civil NHO can prohibit conduct which causes alarm or distress and again breach is a criminal offence. An exclusion order can provide protection to a spouse or a civil partner (and, in certain circumstances, a cohabitant) where they or a child of the family is at risk of physical or mental injury because of the conduct of the other spouse, civil partner (or cohabitant). The order suspends an individual's rights to occupy the family home, and will come to an end if the court divorce or their civil partnership is dissolved.

Some data on the use of these various orders is available. Under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 and the requirement for the court to always consider imposition of an NHO following conviction for a domestic abuse offence came into force in April 2019, there has been a near quadrupling of the proportion of cases in which NHOs are made (from 10.8% of cases in 2018-19 to 41.8% of cases in 2024-25).

Separately from the availability of protective orders, the Caledonian System is an integrated approach to address the safety of women and children and to improve the lives of women, children and men. The system comprises of a programme for men who have been convicted of domestic abuse related offences with integrated support services for women and children. The men's programme is two years in duration, with a focus on helping men be accountable for their abusive behaviour and reduce the risk of continuing to be abusive. For 2025-26, the total ring-fenced budget allocation to 23 local authorities who operate the Caledonian System was £4,467,666.

These measures are intended to help protect victims of domestic abuse from further offending behaviour.

In the absence of powers over employment law, the Scottish Government is committed to using the levers we do have to embed Fair Work across the Scottish labour market.

This is a matter for Public Health Scotland who collate and manage this data.

We use the annual statistics published by Public Health Scotland for Infant Feeding to evidence our progress towards our stretch aim to reduce drop off in breastfeeding at 6-8 weeks by 10% by 2025. The last published statistics are for 2023-24 and show that drop-off at 6-8 weeks was at 27.3%. The commitment is for a relative drop-off in any breastfeeding, beginning with the baseline position in 2017-18 of 34.5%. We will formally update on our progress after the 2024-25 infant feeding statistics are published in November this year.

We have set out how we intend on delivering against the six strategic goals, over the next five years, in the road map within the Breastfeeding and infant feeding: strategic framework 2025-2030 and we will continue to work with Health Boards and partners to do so. Much of this work is already underway, including our commitment to Unicef UK Babyfriendly Achieving Sustainability across maternity, neonatal and community settings. A delivery plan for 2025-26 was also set out and we will report on progress of that and share our 2026-27 delivery plan by Summer 2026.

In Scotland, there are a range of data centres serving public and private sector requirements. There has been no overall assessment of the carbon footprint of these facilities in Scotland.

On 24 January 2023, Scottish Government provided a summary update on progress towards implementing the recommendations in the 2019 Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly (BBF) report to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee. At that time, a commitment was made to provide a more detailed report on progress in 2024.

Subsequently, it was decided to incorporate the BBF recommendations within the Breastfeeding and Infant Feeding Strategic Framework 2025-2030 through the overarching strategic goals, and to provide a further update on progress throughout that document. The Health, Social Care and Sport Committee has been informed of this approach.

We are engaging with NHS boards and COSLA to understand the cost impact caused by the UK Government’s hike in employer National Insurance.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) implemented the changes to the national data mart to ensure consistency in reporting of Accredited Official Statistics across all health board data for Stage of Treatment waiting times, aligned with the Waiting Times Guidance 2023.

For local reporting of Stage of Treatment waiting times, the implementation of the new reporting methodology requires a software update, which Boards are gradually implementing. All NHS Boards are working closely with their software suppliers to agree a suitable switchover date. To date, one Board has successfully enabled the updated functionality, and further Boards are expected to apply the guidance through software updates over the coming months.

PHS has undertaken a comprehensive assessment of the impact of moving from the previous reporting methodology to the new approach, ensuring that any differences are fully understood and managed. Original PHS estimates are in line with the impact on official statistics, however PHS is unable to verify how system upgrades have impacted the calculations on local systems.

The Scottish Government, along with all other UK nations, relies on advice about screening programmes from the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an independent expert advisory group. The UK NSC does not currently recommend prostate screening, and therefore there are no plans at present to introduce a national prostate cancer screening programme.

In its November 2020 review, the committee concluded that the available evidence did not support the introduction of prostate cancer screening, primarily due to the absence of a sufficiently accurate test and single effective treatment for early-stage cases. The UK NSC is currently reviewing the evidence. Should screening be recommended as a result, the organisations that oversee screening will advise Scottish Ministers on how to take that recommendation forward.

In the meantime, following a roundtable discussion with Sir Chris Hoy in August this year, the First Minister has commissioned the Chief Medical Officer for Scotland to chair a clinician-led short life working group to explore how we can support those with prostate cancer in Scotland.

It remains important that men and those with a prostate should speak to their GP if they are concerned they have possible symptoms. There is a list of symptoms available on the NHS website: Prostate cancer - About Prostate Cancer | NHS inform

The Scottish Government does not collect cost information in relation to Glasgow City Council use of hotel accommodation in line with their housing duties.