The next phase of the Women’s Health Plan is in the early stages of development.

The ambition of the Women’s Health Plan is that women and girls 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 our next steps for the Women’s Health Plan following the end of this initial three year phase in August 2024.

This next phase will be developed in collaboration with women and girls, including our lived experience stakeholder group, clinical experts, other relevant stakeholders and our Women’s Health Champion, using the most up-to-date evidence base.

Any future priorities will be determined in partnership with our stakeholders, and informed by women and girls, so are yet to be decided.

As Scottish Government sponsor directorate, the Marine Directorate meets regularly throughout the year with Crown Estate Scotland to maintain robust governance, accountability and positive relationships, ensuring the public corporation is effective, invests to grow and maintain the value of its assets, operates in line with Ministerial priorities and contributes to the public good. Discussions include considerations around the governance and operating model of Crown Estate Scotland to optimise the benefits the Scottish Crown Estate provides for Scotland and its communities.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

In the period 2021-2024 there has only been one period of Emergency Release (ER). This took place over 4 tranches during June – July 2024.

SPS have proactively published total numbers released following each tranche. We recently published a summary report which includes breakdown of data at health board and Local Authority level. We are unable to publish data at parliamentary constituency level because some of the data could relate to a small group of individuals, which could lead to inadvertent identification.

This period of ER, saw only those within six months of their original release date released. A range of partnership working took place with local partners to ensure release arrangements were in place for those released under emergency release regulations. SPS did consider the numbers of individuals being released and assessed the impact to local authorities and services to be similar to figures for the 6-month period where these people would be released anyway.

The Scottish Government is committed to continuing its work on preventing, raising awareness and improving our understanding of Lyme disease and ticks.

As part of the Scottish Government Lyme Disease Awareness Campaign, which ran in May to coincide with Lyme Disease Awareness Month , a campaign toolkit is distributed to stakeholders such as NHS24, Public Health Scotland and Visit Scotland. This provides stakeholders and partners with films, social media and print materials to raise awareness of Lyme Disease and ticks and directs the public to NHS Inform page as source of further information which also contains information on safe tick removal.

Tick removal devices are widely available at most pharmacies and outdoor stores as well as some retail shops and online.

Since 2020 Marine Directorate have issued thirty Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) totalling £95,000 in relation to suspected fishing in restricted areas where the fishing method involved was prohibited. Of those thirty incidents, four were specifically within Marine Protected Areas which are protected by a Scottish Statutory Instrument implemented under powers provided by the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 and/or the Inshore Fishing (Scotland) Act 1984.

Fines totalling £20,000 were issued for these four cases, one of which was paid and no further action taken. The remaining three cases, following non-payment, were subsequently reported to Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) for consideration of prosecution. Two of these cases were convicted in court and fined £2,000 and £5,000 respectively. The third case has recently been submitted to COPFS and has not as of yet proceeded to trial.

In addition to these four cases where Fixed Penalty Notices were issued by Marine Directorate, One further case was not offered an FPN and was referred directly to the Procurator Fiscal resulting in a conviction and fine of £2,075.

The Scottish Government has not provided guidance on this matter. It is for Health Boards to ensure that NHS pharmaceutical services are in place to meet the needs of their local population.

For the Scottish Government to meet our commitment of ensuring that at least 1000 people receive public funding for their stay in Residential Rehabilitation, it is largely dependent on capacity in the residential rehabilitation providers who provide the service, rather than the alcohol and drug partnership workforce.

The Scottish Stroke Care Standards are designed to drive effective service delivery and improve patient outcomes. Monitoring of performance against stroke standards through the Scottish Stroke Care Audit allows us to identify where challenges are being faced in the delivery of high-quality stroke care and implement quality improvements.

We recognise the standards are challenging and continue to expect Health Boards to identify aspects of their stroke services which do not meet these standards and to work to improve their standards of care locally.

We continually assess the delivery of evidence-based stroke care, as recommended in the Progressive Stroke Pathway, via the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme Board review process. This allows for an evaluation of Board performance, identification of areas of challenge and the formulation of local action plans to improve the delivery of stroke care.

Since 2021, Scottish Ministers have regularly met with Council Leaders, including Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, to discuss a range of issues of mutual interest.

The First Minister and previous First Minister have also committed to meeting with the COSLA Presidential team biannually to discuss key priorities and issues for local government. The First Minister and previous First Ministers have also delivered keynote speeches at the COSLA Annual Conference since 2021.

The Economic Impact Assessment has been shared with the Economy and Fair Work Committee.