Chamber and committees

Data is not held centrally specifically on intentional paracetamol overdose . However, the following table shows the most recent data on inpatient and day-case admissions to hospital as a result of intentional paracetamol poisoning, which includes overdose cases.

Since May 2023 discussion and work has been ongoing with regards to refining the workplan for and membership of the Gender Equality Taskforce to ensure that it is able to enact the long term systemic change that is needed. The next meeting of the Gender Equality Taskforce is scheduled for 18 April 2024. Contributory work on preventing and responding to gender-base violence in schools has been taken forward by the short-life Gender-Based Violence in Schools Working Group, with a framework for schools to be published in the coming weeks.

As of 9 February 2024, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Services have confirmed to Scottish Government that no charges have been reported to them under Section 56 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014 and there are subsequently no convictions.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) is operationally independent of the Scottish Ministers.

The UK Government have established an independent inquiry into the Post Office Horizon IT system and the Scottish Ministers agreed with the UK Government that this inquiry should consider devolved matters relating to Scotland. The prosecution of sub-postmasters in Scotland by COPFS is being considered by the inquiry and COPFS have provided evidence to them.

FSS intend to initiate stakeholder engagement during the 2024 – 25 business year, and will seek early opportunities to gather initial views on braille labelling from relevant business stakeholders where practical.

FSS officials meet with officials in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in Wales and Northern Ireland, lead departments for food labelling in the rest of the UK, on a bimonthly basis. FSS continues to highlight that braille labelling of food products is being considered by the Scottish Parliament Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee, and the importance being placed on this issue in Scotland. Development of any policy proposals would need to be considered on a four-nation basis under the UK Food Compositional Standards and Labelling Common Framework.

Historic Environment Scotland continues to champion traditional skills and is working with stakeholders across the country to address traditional skills gaps to help ensure Scotland’s historic buildings can thrive as part of the country’s sustainable future.

Skills Development Scotland delivers careers information, advice and guidance in all state secondary schools, dedicated centres and community locations nationwide. Its all-age service empowers people from all communities to make their own learning and career decisions, based on the best available career intelligence.

Regarding the cessation of stonemasonry apprenticeship training at Edinburgh College, the then Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development and I met Historic Environment Scotland in recent months to discuss stonemasonry and we await their proposals to address the skills issues in the sector.

The Scottish Government provided a one-off payment to college and university student associations as an exceptional measure to provide additional mental health and wellbeing support to students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

£730,250 was provided to the Scottish Funding Council in financial year 2020-21 to allocate to college and university students’ associations. The University of St Andrews Students’ Association received £16,000 of this funding.

Further details on the purpose and use of this funding can be found at: https://www.sfc.ac.uk/publications-statistics/announcements/2021/SFCAN012021.aspx

The Scottish Government does not hold information about the types or numbers of funeral services in Scotland and does not make an assessment of trends in funeral choices.

Unattended funerals are most often direct cremations where there is no funeral service at a crematorium. Sometimes these are arranged as a preference by the deceased or by their relatives who might arrange a separate wake or celebration of the deceased’s life.

According to the recent Sunlife Cost of Dying report published in January 2024, the cost of a basic funeral rose from £3,953 in 2022 to £4,141 in 2023, an increase of 4.7%. The report shows there has been an increase in direct cremations over the past five years with 3% of funerals described as a direct cremation in 2019, rising to 20% in 2023. Direct cremations are often seen as a more affordable option but according to the Sunlife report there are various other reasons for choosing this option; this is often requested by the deceased or chosen because it is simpler to organise.

Issues relating to pricing and consumer protection are reserved to the UK Government. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) publish an annual review of market outcomes in the UK funerals sector and the most recent is available at: Review of funerals sector - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) . Officials continue to engage with the CMA as required in relation to their Funeral Markets Investigation and the upcoming regulations for inspection of the funeral industry and licensing of funeral directors being made under the Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016.

Health Boards are responsible for delivering abortion services as part of their overall budgets, in a similar way to most other health services. Therefore the Scottish Government does not determine how much is allocated to the provision of abortion services. Health Boards will decide appropriate levels of funding for their requirements within their overall funding.