Chamber and committees

Fife Council have been working with the Levenmouth community since January 2024 and are now finalising their plans for their childcare ‘early adopter community’ projects in line with the First Minister’s announcement in May of £16 million investment over two years in six local authorities.

The Scottish Government remains absolutely committed to doing all it can to reduce harm and deaths caused by drugs through our National Mission.

Whilst drug misuse deaths in Scotland have generally been increasing over the last two decades, the latest figures released for 2023 are the second lowest figure seen in 6 years.

Every life lost to drugs is a tragedy. And I would like to send my heartfelt condolences to all those affected.

Although the decrease in deaths back in 2022 was welcomed at the time, we did also made it clear at that time that it should not, in any way, be seen as a signal to be complacent.

On 4th September 2024 we published the third annual report National Mission on Drugs: annual report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)of the National Mission which summarises activity, progress and achievement in the 23-24 financial year.

Key achievements in 2023-24 include

• Our progress in receiving legal clearance and establishing the UK’s first Safer Drug Consumption Facility. We are now expecting the Glasgow facility to open in the Autumn.
• We are now in the process of establishing drug testing facilities in 3 sites across Scotland. License applications for three drug checking sites, based in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee are currently being assessed by Home Office colleagues and we would hope, once these licenses have been granted, that the sites would be operational by the end of the year.
• Monitoring data from Public Health Scotland also indicates that we are on track to meet our commitment of 1,000 people receiving public funding for Residential Rehab, with data, published showing that in the financial year 2023-24 a total of 938 placements were approved.
• In 2023-24, for MAT standards National benchmarking report on the implementation of the medication assisted treatment (MAT) standards: Scotland 2023/24 revised 30 July 2024 - National benchmarking report on implementation of the medication assisted treatment (MAT) standards - Publications - Public Health Scotland 1–5, 90% have been assessed as fully implemented, and MAT standards 6-10 showed strong early stage progress.

Despite this progress we have seen increased harms with the increased prevalence of new synthetic substances, such as the synthetic opioids nitazenes. The increased toxicity and potency of such substances are of real concern. As such, we are working closely with Public Health Scotland to step up our response to this threat and continue to support the development of their Rapid Action Drug Alert and Response (RADAR) system.

The Scottish Government will continue to follow the evidence of what works and intensify the delivery of the National Mission over the next 2 years, working closely with our key partners to do that, as well as look at its sustainability beyond the end of this parliamentary term.

Since the publication of the 'Transforming Nursing Roles: Advanced Nursing Practice - Phase II' paper in 2021, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) has taken the lead for this work.

The minimum qualification of a PG Dip Advanced Practice is required by NHS Scotland employers for all new Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANPs) and the specific clinical competencies identified for advanced nursing practice in acute, primary care/community, mental health, paediatric acute and neonatal settings are used as the standard for practice. In addition, a final 'sign-off' against these competencies, evidenced by a portfolio is required by most employers.

The introduction of 3.75 hours of non-clinical time per week has been implemented widely and enables ANPs to maintain and progress their knowledge and skills through a variety of continuing professional development activities.

The NES frameworks for clinical supervision were launched in 2023 and 2024 and support the clinical supervision needs of ANPs https://learn.nes.nhs.scot/3580/clinical-supervision.

In addition, the NES Advanced Practice Toolkit was revised in 2023 and provides a repository of relevant resources and weblinks for advanced practice for all professions. https://learn.nes.nhs.scot/63343.

Significant activity is already underway following the £30 million investment to target backlogs, announced in the spring. This will see around 12,000 new outpatient appointments, around 12,000 inpatient procedures and over 40,000 diagnostic procedures delivered.

The Scottish Government remains committed to reducing waiting times year-on-year across the NHS as set out in the Policy Prospectus. We will continue to work with all NHS boards to maximise current resources and productivity.

Future funding for commitments will be considered as part of the 2025-26 budget process that will allocate resources to the Government’s priorities of the day.

It is for Police Scotland to report on, and determine, training procedures for their officers. In August they published an update on hate crime guidance and training. Police Scotland have previously provided assurances that officers are trained, have sufficient capacity to undertake the legislation and have the systems in place to do so.

Any form of human trafficking or exploitation is completely unacceptable. Police Scotland’s National Human Trafficking Unit (NHTU) continues to work closely with partners to monitor the threat, risk and harm posed by those exploiting vulnerable workers in the fishing sector. Police Scotland have collaborated with other law enforcement partners to target those responsible for Modern Slavery in the fishing industry, with several companies subject to both criminal proceedings and also Trafficking Exploitation and Risk Orders (TERO). The first Order of this kind in Scotland related to an investigation in the fishing industry, which is closely monitored by Police Scotland to ensure compliance, mitigate risk and prevent further exploitation. Between 2022 and 2025 we have allocated £480k to the charity Justice and Care who provide specialist Victim Navigators to work alongside the NHTU. Navigators play a vital role in focusing on the victims of human trafficking operations investigations, and are able to offer strategic advice to police officers. This enables our law enforcement organisations to focus on bringing perpetrators to justice in the knowledge that immediate victim support is available. A current fishing industry police investigation is on-going, led by the NHTU, and the services of Victim Navigators are being utilised to fully support the victims.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of job vacancies by sector.

However, the Scottish Government monitors vacancies in the hospitality sector using data and intelligence from a number of sources including the Business Insights and Conditions Survey, the Employer Skills Survey and Sectoral Skills Assessments.

The latest data from the Business Insights and Conditions Survey, published by the Scottish Government, shows that 29% of businesses in the Accommodation and Food Services sector were experiencing recruitment difficulties in July 2024 and 23% were experiencing worker shortages in August 2024. The latest data is available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/bics-weighted-scotland-estimates-data-to-wave-114/documents/.

The latest data from the Employer Skills Survey, published by the Scottish Government, shows that in 2022, 30% of businesses in the Hotels and Restaurants sector had at least one vacancy and 13% had at least one skills-shortage vacancy. The latest data is available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/uk-employer-skills-survey-2022-scotland-report/documents/.

Sectoral Skills Assessments, published by Skills Development Scotland, provide data on the number of online job postings in the wider tourism sector, sourced from Lightcast. The latest data indicates that between January-June 2023, there were 5,000 online job postings for chefs and cooks and 2,300 job postings for waiters and waitresses. The latest sectoral skills assessment for the tourism sector can be found at: https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/media/l55d3jqy/sectoral-skills-assessment-tourism.pdf.

The Scottish Government is taking measures within our powers to address labour and skills shortage issues. These include providing a range of employability support to help people enter the workforce alongside funding for the development of modern apprenticeships, via Skills Development Scotland, to meet the needs of the tourism and hospitality sector.

We are also working to explore solutions to staff shortages in collaboration with the sector, through our Tourism and Hospitality Industry Leadership Group and our Tourism and Hospitality Skills Group.

We are committed to continuing to consult and engage with landlords. There are no current plans to create a nationally representative landlord panel.

Many people find a home in the private rented sector and we recognise the contribution that it makes to housing supply in Scotland.

Our New Deal for Tenants consultation set out our vision for a rented sector where all tenants, whether living in private or social rented homes, can access secure, stable, tenancies, with affordable choices - whilst also benefiting from good quality of homes and professional levels of service and rights.

We will continue to work with stakeholders – including the investment sector – to make sure that we build a system where investment in private rented property is viable and welcomed.

Details of impact assessments in relation to the measures set out in the Fiscal Statement will be published in the coming weeks on the Scottish Government’s website.