Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is currently in the process of developing three sectoral Just Transition Plans, on Transport, Buildings and Construction, and Land Use and Agriculture, following our commitment to deliver Just Transition Plans for high-emitting sectors. We will also be taking account of consultation responses to revise the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan.

We have shared preliminary discussion material for each Plan with the Just Transition Commission, who continue to advise on current progress and next steps. As advised by the Commission, discussion papers for each Plan are due to be shared publicly in the coming weeks. These will support extensive public and stakeholder engagement over the summer, to inform the drafting of full Plans over the course of the next year.

Professor Anna Glasier OBE was appointed as the first Women’s Health Champion for Scotland on 26 January 2023.

Professor Glasier has been contracted to work four days a month, with her tenure coming to an end in June 2024.

Professor Glasier recently published her first Women’s Health Champion update blog which can be found here: Health and Social Care My first update as Women's Health Champion - Health and Social Care (blogs.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government is tackling marine litter with actions detailed in our Marine Litter Strategy, which aims to address the amount of litter entering the marine environment, to achieve ecological, economic and social benefits. Our Strategy and action plan was refreshed in September 2022 and focuses on the most problematic types of marine litter including fishing and aquaculture gear, sewage-related debris, and plastic pellets. The Strategy will drive forward our work over the next five years and co-ordinate the efforts of our stakeholders and partners, working at a national and international level to help tackle this global problem.

The many actions include: improving the management of end of life fishing and aquaculture gear to reduce litter and improve recycling rates, contributing to our circular economy; working across the UK administrations to put an end to pollution caused by wet wipes containing plastic; and developing international solutions to prevent spills of plastic pellets (nurdles), which can be found on our beaches and risk the health of our marine wildlife. In addition to preventative actions, we are also supporting litter removal, whether off shore through the funding of KIMO’s Fishing for Litter scheme, or at our rivers, with Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Upstream Battle project.

Scotland is in a global competition to attract talent. By taking us out of the EU and ending free movement, the UK Government has recklessly hindered our ability to attract people to Scotland. We want to build Scotland’s reputation as a career destination, promoting our growth sectors to students and workers across the UK and beyond.

The Scottish Government will launch a Talent Attraction and Migration Service in 2023. The service will support people who are thinking of moving to Scotland or who have just moved here. It will provide good quality information and advice to help people and their dependents settle into their communities. The service will also support employers based in Scotland to use the immigration system to help meet their skills needs. We are conducting research to understand users' needs and the barriers they face. Once we have concluded this discovery work, we will identify suppliers to deliver the service.

Furthermore, our Rural Visa Pilot proposal, published in September 2022, offers settlement support to migrants to promote integration within pilot communities.

The Scottish Government commissioned The Scottish Health Technologies Group (SHTG) to adapt the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) diagnostics guidance, to inform a Scotland-specific approach on placental growth factor (PlGF) based testing which was published on Thursday 23 March 2023. The report highlights the potential benefits to pregnant women and their families and demonstrates the cost-effectiveness of testing.

On the day of the SHTG report’s publication, the Scottish Government wrote to NHS Boards asking all NHS Boards in Scotland to take note of the SHTG Recommendations and work to ensure that all pregnant women who need PlGF testing are able to access it as part of their routine maternity care. My officials will continue to work with The Scottish Perinatal Network as it takes forward its work to support NHS Boards in implementing PlGF testing locally.

The bay at Arrochar was chosen as the location of a marine litter case study in Loch Long in 2017. Since then, a total of £183,827.78 has been spent on litter removal at the site. This includes the cost of heavy machinery contracting, haulage, and the disposal of the mixed debris. Costs have varied annually according the amount of material washed ashore requiring removal.

Inclusion Health Action in General Practice is a new programme, which will be evaluated. In the first instance funding will be targeted to practices in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde due to it having the most widespread blanket deprivation in Scotland. 81 of the 100 practices serving Scotland’s most deprived communities are within greater Glasgow and Clyde.

We are greatly concerned by reports of children and under-age young people obtaining nicotine vaping products (NVPs). NVPs are an age restricted product and should not be sold to anyone under the age of 18. Laws are also in place which ban the purchase of vaping products for under-18s (proxy purchase), and stores need to have an age verification policy for the sale of tobacco and NVPs.

In October 2022, we wrote to all registered retailers of these products to remind them of their duty of sale and we regularly meet with Trading Standards on enforcement activity.

There are already regulations in place which restrict the marketing and promotion of vaping products to under 18s. Our recent consultation proposed additional restrictions and we are considering next steps. Any action we seek to take will build on the regulations already in place.

We will also publish our refreshed Tobacco Action Plan this year, which will include actions to reduce vaping among young people. We are reviewing vaping education for young people in schools and have also funded ASH Scotland to work with a range of youth organisations on the risks associated with vaping.

The Blue Flag programme in Scotland was discontinued at the end of 2016 and replaced with the Scottish Beach Awards scheme. Keep Scotland Beautiful will announce the 2023 beach awards winners before the start of the bathing season. In order for a beach to achieve an award there is a criteria for local environmental quality, which includes consideration of the bathing water quality standards.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is responsible for monitoring, classifying protecting and improving water quality at designated bathing waters. 98% of bathing waters currently meet the bathing water standards with more beaches being classified as excellent than ever before.

Spend on our trunk road improvement projects is managed within the Capital Land and Works allocation of £121.9 million as part of the Motorway and Trunk Roads Spending Plans set out in the Scottish Budget: 2023-24. This covers preparation and delivery of a range of projects and programmes including A9 Dualling Perth to Inverness, the medium and long term solutions at the A83 Rest and Be Thankful and improvements to the A96 corridor as well as a number of other projects and programmes. Spend on each individual project is managed with the Capital Land and Works allocation budget line which reflects the scope of work anticipated to be taken forward within the financial year.