Scotland has a long-established and functioning register of tobacco and nicotine vapour product retailers. The Tobacco and Vapes Bill, if passed, will expand Scotland’s existing registration scheme to include retailers selling herbal smoking products and nicotine products.

The Scottish Government’s view is that introducing a licensing system at this time would put undue pressure on local authorities and the retail sector. In line with our Tobacco and Vaping Framework, the technical infrastructure of the register is being improved, which has been welcomed by stakeholders.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill, if passed, will ban the advertising, promotion and sponsorship of vapes including non-nicotine vapes and nicotine products that are currently not captured in a similar way to existing restrictions on the advertisement of tobacco products. The Bill, if passed, will also ban the free distribution, nominal pricing and substantial discounting of vapes to anyone of any age. This will ensure that retailers do not use this as an alternative way to promote their products.

The Bill, if passed, will also provide a number of powers to Scottish Ministers to regulate the display of vaping products and their prices, as well as the display of empty retail packaging or anything that represents the products, in retailers in Scotland. Further consultation will be undertaken before making regulations under this power.

Additionally the Bill, if passed, also provides powers for the Secretary of State to make regulations about the quality, safety and product standards to be met for production, sale or importation of vaping products, as well as their packaging, the features, and their flavours. These powers can only be exercised to make regulations containing devolved provision if the Secretary of State obtains the consent of the Scottish Ministers.

The Scottish Government remains committed to progressing work on protecting children and young people from exposure to alcohol marketing. It was clear from our earlier public consultation that there was a wide range of views on alcohol marketing proposals, including uncertainty about the existing evidence base for many proposals.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) are being commissioned to carry out a review of the evidence for the range of options that are available to the Scottish Government under devolved powers. This will ensure that our work is evidence based and will deliver clear public health outcomes. We will consider PHS’ findings, and consider where the evidence supports further action or consultation on alcohol marketing restrictions.

If the evidence supports it, the Scottish Government will return with a further consultation on a range of targeted proposals. No decisions have been taken yet on what these areas may be.

The Scottish Government are working to implement specific recommendations from the Drug Deaths Taskforce relating to the stigma that women very often face when accessing drug and alcohol treatment.

We are working to ensure that a gender-sensitive approach is taken across all new and developing initiatives in the National Drugs Mission, and are taking specific steps to address the particular stigma faced by women who have children.

This includes convening an expert working group to develop a good practice guide to improve the support and care that women and their infants receive during the perinatal period, which will reach across drugs and alcohol, social work and maternity and wider health services.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS)’s Healthcare Staffing Programme monitors NHS Boards’ compliance with the Common Staffing Method. The HIS Healthcare Staffing Operational Framework sets out HIS’s methodology for monitoring compliance. The HIS Healthcare Staffing Programme forms part of the HIS Safe Delivery of Care (SDoC) inspections, both in terms of pre-inspection activity and as part of the onsite inspection team. The SDoC inspection methodology is used for the current acute hospital inspection programme and will therefore also be applied to the maternity inspection programme when it commences from January 2025.

The Scottish Government has made a combined £13.5 million available to Phoenix Futures and Aberlour Childcare Trust to support the creation of three new rehabilitation services specifically designed to support women through recovery from both alcohol and drug use.

Against a challenging economic and financial context, the Scottish Government continues to increase funding for health and social care services.

Providing over £1.9 billion additional investment in frontline health spend since 2021-22 - ahead of trajectory to meet the £2.5 billion target by 2026-27.

Supporting a 20% increase in Primary Care investment over the same time frame – ensuring we remain on track to deliver our commitment to reach 25% by 2026-27.

Mental health remains a priority, with overall increases in spend and total investment now standing at over £1.3 billion across the Scottish Government and NHS Boards - enabling record numbers of staff in providing more varied support and services to a larger number of people than ever before.

We remain committed to making an additional £250 million available for the National Mission on Drugs over the course of the parliament, and we will continue to publish a financial breakdown in the National Mission Annual Reports.

In 2023-24, total Scottish Government funding for Connecting Scotland and Ethical Digital Nation combined was £1.3 million. This was allocated as follows:

• Grant funding to the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) to develop digital training, continue support for existing clients and deliver existing projects. This funding covers support for a wide range of digital inclusion initiatives including:
  • ‘Digital Champion’ training, delivered through Mhor Collective, which equips individuals to support others in engaging safely and meaningfully online, building digital confidence within communities;
  • Offboarding support for existing Connecting Scotland users, including temporary extension of connectivity with further support for users to transition to other means of connectivity;
  • Supporting the delivery of three digital inclusion programmes - lending libraries, social housing, and place-based initiatives - helping more people to get online through access to devices, connectivity, and technical support, and providing public and third-sector organisations and their staff with support in digital inclusion provision;
• £100,000 for the Digital Participation Charter Fund to promote and recognise digital inclusion amongst organisations. Some of the projects funded include:
  • Budding Engineers (£10,000 award) to provide access to digital skills and teaching for people with additional support needs in several areas of Scotland;
  • Deaf Action (£10,000 award) to provide digital and employability support for people experiencing hearing loss across Scotland;
  • Milan Senior Welfare Organisation (£9,850 award) to provide basic digital skills and digital support for older people and their carers from the South Asian community in East Lothian and Edinburgh;
• Programme incidentals (e.g. software licences, training, stakeholder engagement, advertising and marketing);
• Staffing costs to support the ongoing management of both programmes

Our education and skills system is already adapting in response to the transition to net zero with colleges and universities acting as key anchor points for research, innovation, and training.

The Scottish Government has supported four pilot regions in the development of bespoke Regional Land Use Frameworks (RLUFs). This work was taken forward through a co-development approach with a range of stakeholders. It tested a natural capital-led approach to identifying land use opportunities and priorities, whilst maintaining place-based principles to understand the potential for delivering mutual benefits to all land users.

This work covers the South of Scotland (Scottish borders and Dumfries and Galloway) The Cairngorms and Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Parks and the NorthWest 2045 region of the Highlands. More information on the individual RLUFs can be found at the links below:

• South of Scotland region: Delivery & Strategies | South of Scotland Regional Economic Partnership
• North West Highland region: Land+ Project | NORTHWEST2045
• Cairngorms National Park region: Cairngorms National Park Partnership Plan 2022-27
• Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park region: Read The Plan - Here. Now. All of us. - Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park

We are now working with the RLUPS to consolidate this learning in order to refine our understanding of the role that RLUFs could play in supporting/delivering land use change and informing wider Scottish Government policy.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W- 30147 on 11 November 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.