Chamber and committees

I visited China between 22 – 29 November. The programme concentrated on the three pillars of the Scottish Government’s focus with China: tackling climate change and biodiversity loss; encouraging people-to-people links in areas such as education, culture and tourism; and promoting trade and investment links where mutually beneficial and in keeping with our values and national security interests.

As part of the visit, I met with senior government representatives, where I discussed the importance of human rights, emphasising the Scottish Government’s values and the importance of applying them to what we do, including in our relationship with China.

A constructive relationship with China is mutually beneficial, where consistent with our values and overall national security. This includes raising human rights, where appropriate, as I did during my visit.

Historic Environment Scotland is making good progress on its inspection programme which is due to conclude at the end of March next year. The Scottish Government supports Historic Environment Scotland’s approach that continues to put the health and safety of individuals first, reopening sites only when safe to do so.

The information the Scottish Government holds is that of the 70 sites that had access restricted due to High Level Masonry issues, there is now full or partial access at 53 of those sites.

As this is not the full information requested, I have also asked Historic Environment Scotland to respond directly to the member with a full reply to his question in writing . Details of the inspection programme and site re-openings are published on the Historic Environment Scotland website.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of our many varied cultural and historic sites, which includes battlefields. We deliver support for the historic environment through our sponsorship of Scotland’s lead public body for the historic environment, Historic Environment Scotland.

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for protecting sites of national historic significance through designations including listing buildings, scheduled monuments, and maintaining the Inventory of Historic Battlefields.

In 2019, Scottish Ministers issued a Direction which requires notification of any new applications for non-householder development that may affect designated historic battlefields to be given to Scottish Ministers. This allows additional considerations for the significance of the site to be taken into account during decision making and informs a national overview of development in the planning system that affects designated historic battlefields.

Over the past three years, 2020 to 2022, the monthly average sales income per Scottish fishing vessel ranged from £3,000 during 2020 in the under 10 metre fleet, and £295,000 during 2022 in the over 24 metre fleet.

Table 1: Average fishing income per vessel (£’000), Scotland, 2020-2022

Source: Economics of the UK Fishing Fleet 2021 — Seafish and Economics of the Fishing Fleet 2022 — Seafish.

Text messages have been used routinely and positively for many years in NHS Scotland. Scottish Government’s Information and Risk Assurance Team has been working extensively with Health Boards and other NHS delivery partners in assessing the proportionality of using text messages for different purposes, including appointment reminders, medication adherence, health education, and remote monitoring.

The benefits often identified across different NHS organisations include reduction in non-attendance, improved patient engagement, increased adherence to treatment plans, and cost-effectiveness. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) have previously stressed the importance of wording text messages appropriately and advice was given during the COVID-19 pandemic on messages not adding unnecessary confusion and being easy to read. We also recognise that the use of text messages is limited by critical privacy and security requirements and potential for misinterpretation.

The national Connect Me programme has been well received in allowing patients to report information like blood pressure readings via text message to receive feedback based on their condition. Alongside web and mobile app access, this importantly supports public choice in how they engage with NHS services whilst reducing the need for unnecessary appointments.

The Scottish Government is currently working with our partners at COSLA and the Scottish Refugee Council to refresh the New Scots strategy and we are undertaking a series of engagement events to enable both refugees and people seeking asylum to inform the strategy refresh. The first phase of the engagement work began in November and involved refugee leaders and organisations with expertise in supporting people seeking asylum and refugees. A representative from LGBT Health and Wellbeing attended one of these events.

The second phase, focused on those with lived experience, is currently underway and is being coordinated by Scottish Refugee Council on behalf of New Scots partners. It will run until the end of February 2024. This phase includes providing funding to enable local groups to run events which can be tailored to the needs of their specific groups and communities, for example to enable groups to run an event in their community language or to ensure that vulnerable groups have a ‘safe space’ to speak openly. LGBT Health and Wellbeing are liaising with the Scottish Refugee Council to contribute to this lived experience work.

The Scottish Government maintains an ongoing dialogue with all health boards to discuss performance and issues such as workforce arising across the system. The last series of quarterly Biannual Performance reviews with each of the territorial health boards, including NHS Ayrshire and Arran concluded in September 2023.

In addition, the Centre for Workforce Supply (CWS), at NHS Education for Scotland (NES), throughout October and November 2023, attended by Scottish Government officials, held medical insight meetings with each individual health board - including NHS Ayrshire and Arran. Commissioned by the Scottish Government, the aim of these were to better understand medical workforce gaps; scope out whether international recruitment could help with filling vacancies; identify any innovative supply initiatives currently underway; and understand what centralised support from the Scottish Government or the CWS could help Health Boards.

A number of alternative methods of control are available to aid bracken management depending on the intended outcome of a control strategy and the challenges that could be encountered.

The Scottish Government will continue to support stakeholders by working with NatureScot to progress priorities that were identified at the stakeholder roundtable in August. These include delivery of best practice guidance, to be in place for June 2024, and development of a bracken framework which will help land managers consider where bracken control is needed, how it could be undertaken and the intensity of any control.

The Scottish Government takes the use of chemicals very seriously. Pesticide products are only authorised where data demonstrates that the proposed use will not have unacceptable effects on human health or the environment.

The Brush Up campaign has been developed to raise awareness of changes to NHS dentistry from 1 November, and to assure patients that they will still be able to access a full range of treatment on the NHS.

In particular the campaign directs patients to updated NHS Inform webpages which set out key information in relation to NHS dental treatment in Scotland. This includes a plain English explanation of the changes to examination frequency, noting these are now determined with respect to individual risk factors; entitlements to exemptions; and information on accessing a dentist.

Currently, as of 4 December 2023, the Scottish Governments proportion of live contracts, delivered on a multi-year basis, is 65%. Multi-year has been classed as a contract over 12 months. Data on wider public sectors can either be found here: Home - Public Contracts Scotland or by contacting them directly.

Each grant fund is managed locally by a specific policy area within the Scottish Government, currently the Scottish Government does not hold central information at the detailed level of individual scheme operation.