Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government expects to issue the 2023-24 Letter of Guidance to the Scottish Funding Council in April this year.

The Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010 provided powers for local authorities to respond to incidents of dog owners allowing their dogs to be out of control in public places by imposing Dog Control Notices (DCNs).

The Scottish Government updated operational guidance for the 2010 Act in December 2020. This reflected the first decade of use of the 2010 Act and built on best practice to assist local authorities in discharging their responsibilities. This guidance is available at: Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010: guidance - updated - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

A further review of this aspect of the 2010 Act is not planned at this time.

The Scottish Government has also introduced a national DCN database which is helping independent enforcement agencies (local authorities and Police Scotland) access information on dog owners who allow their dogs to be out of control.

The Scottish Government carried out a marketing campaign on dog control with the Scottish SPCA in 2021. This campaign has since been re-run on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram on a number of occasions and directs the public to information about ‘The law on controlling your dog’ on the mygov.scot website at: Controlling your dog in public - mygov.scot

This website makes clear that dog owners are responsible for the actions of their dog, and the sets out potential penalties for failing to control dogs.

Local authorities can also consider byelaw making powers to address a specific problem.

Scottish Government’s Palliative and End of Life Strategy is being developed with an overarching aim that everyone in Scotland receives well-coordinated, timely and high-quality palliative care, care around death and bereavement support based on their needs and preferences including support for families and carers.

We will develop a strategy that reflects what matters to people experiencing serious illness, dying and bereavement. We are reviewing the information and evidence we have about people’s experiences of palliative and end of life care, and bereavement, in order to inform our strategy going forward.

The Scottish Government provides funding to support our local Alcohol and Drug Partnerships who are responsible for the design and delivery of treatment and recovery pathways at the local level. They ensure a full range of recovery services are available such as aftercare, detox, residential rehabilitation and psychosocial treatments.

We acknowledge that alcohol recovery for most people is not a linear process, and for those whose goal is abstinence there is a risk of relapse at various points in their recovery journey, so alcohol services are supportive of people re-engaging after relapse. For others, they may want to consume alcohol but at a lower level. Alcohol services are open to and supportive of these individuals in achieving their goals. Services are also supportive of re-engagement if after meeting a goal an individual relapses into previous drinking patterns or if they want to work towards a new goal regarding their drinking.

The Scottish Government has consulted on restricting alcohol advertising and promotion to protect vulnerable groups, including those in recovery. Evidence suggests that alcohol marketing can be a barrier to successful recovery. Following analysis of responses we will consider possible restrictions.

The Scottish Government has accepted that this statistic relating to Scotland’s offshore wind potential needs revising. In response to the issues raised in the UK Statistics Authority’s letter, dated 7 December 2022, the Scottish Government has engaged directly with the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) setting out the steps that have been taken to ensure the statistic is not used further, and provided an update on the analytical work that is underway to produce a replacement statistic, which will be published in due course.

As set out in the Deposit Return Scheme Regulations, Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) will publish a register of all producers who are registered ahead of the scheme launching.

The Scottish Government is aware of the issues facing Scottish local authorities in relation to secure transport, reflecting many of those matters highlighted by the Hope Instead of Handcuffs campaign.

There are no current plans for Ministers to meet with campaign representatives. However, Scottish Government officials met with representatives of the campaign on 13 March to discuss the ongoing multi-agency work to develop solutions to these issues, including the development of a service specification.

I refer the member to the question S6W-15815 on 23 March 2023. 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 .

This information is not held centrally. It is the responsibility of Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) to plan and commission adult palliative and end of life care services for their areas using the integrated budgets under their control.

The Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022 ("the Act") requires Scottish Ministers to publish a national good food nation plan. Work on the first iteration of the plan is currently underway. The Scottish Government expects to publish a draft of the national good food nation plan for consultation in summer 2023. Our intention is that, following completion and analysis of the consultation, the draft plan will be laid before the Scottish Parliament in spring 2024, with the final version of the plan published in late 2024.

In addition, the Act requires that the Scottish Ministers must, when exercising a specified function or a function falling within a specified description, have regard to the national good food nation plan. These specified functions must be set out in secondary legislation. We expect to consult on the proposals for specified functions in 2023, and to lay the relevant secondary legislation in time for it to come in force around the same time as final publication of the national plan.

The Act also requires that relevant authorities (defined in the Act as health boards and local authorities) must produce their own good food nation plans. We expect that relevant authority plans will be published in 2025. This allows time for relevant authorities to have regard to the content of the national plan when preparing their own plans, and to consult on the content.