Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19744 on‎ 17 July 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19744 on‎ 17 July 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19744 on‎ 17 July 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19744 on‎ 17 July 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

Scottish Ministers have met with the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) on three occasions since May 2021.

On 4 August 2021, Ms Gilruth, then Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development met with SLIC for an introductory meeting. The outcome of the meeting was to update the Minister on progress against the Public Library Covid Relief Fund, the Public Library Improvement Fund (PLIF) for year 2021-22 and Scotland’s Public Library Strategy 2021-2025.

On 15 December 2022, Mr Gray, then Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development, and Minister with special responsibility for Refugees from Ukraine, met with SLIC for an introductory meeting. The outcome of the meeting was to update the Minister on progress against PLIF for year 2022-23 and Scotland's Public Library Strategy 2021-2025.

On 22 February 2022, Mr Gray met with Cllr Kelly Parry (Midlothian) and SLIC. The outcome of the meeting was to seek wider understanding of Midlothian Council’s plans with regards to their public libraries.

As SLIC receive direct funding from the Culture and Education portfolios of the Scottish Government, officials have met SLIC regularly since May 2021 as part of normal grant management processes.

The Scottish Government is providing support to primary care services in their implementation of Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) Standard 7 through three routes:

The first is through our ringfencing £30m as set out in our Cross Government Plan, over the course of 3 years, from the Scottish Government’s Enhanced Services Allocation to NHS territorial Boards, from April 2023, in order to accelerate the adoption of Enhanced Services for drug services across Scotland. Local areas will be asked to prioritise use of this funding to improve outcomes for people who use drugs.

The second is through our commissioning Public Health Scotland to consider and develop a reference suite of best practice models that should provide local areas with guidance on how they might adapt primary care delivery to integrate drugs services in a way that suits local needs. The material will be derived from a critical examination of international and domestic experience of drug service provision in primary care settings, including through direct consultation with delivery partners on the ground and with our Drugs Policy Clinical Advisory Group, providing insight into a breadth of applicable scenarios and solutions.

The third is through targeted support and intervention from Public Health Scotland’s MAT Implementation Support Team (MIST), who work closely with local areas to evaluate and progress implementation across the range of MAT Standards 1-10.

The Scottish Government has not fully assessed the level of awareness of MAT standard 7 among healthcare professionals working in primary care settings. Local services are being supported to implement the MAT standards by the MAT Implementation Support Team (MIST) which includes healthcare professionals with experience in primary care.

The National Mission benefits from the expertise of a Clinical Advisory Group of healthcare professionals and the implementation of the standards is also supported by NHS Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) which has primary care professionals on its MAT team.

Given the involvement of this support for implementing the standards and through their ongoing engagement with services all healthcare professionals working in primary care settings that have contractual arrangements in place to provide medication assisted treatment should be aware of MAT standard 7.

In January 2023, in the Cross-Government Plan published by the Scottish Government included a commitment to ring-fence £30 million of the funding available to General Practice to encourage more primary care providers to take on Enhance Service provision to support people impacted by drugs.

The Local Partnership Forum North last met on 15 June to discuss a range of measures to enhance safety across the north of Scotland. Since then a range of additional targeted safety camera resources have been deployed at locations across the region, including the North Coast 500, to encourage good driver behaviour and enhanced levels of speed limit compliance.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19744 on‎ 17 July 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

The Scottish Government Ministerial team has met with National Museums Scotland (NMS) on several occasions since May 2021. The meetings were as follows:

9 September 2021 Angus Robertson in his role as Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture had a private tour of the Galloway Hoard at National Museum of Scotland.

26 October 2021 Jenny Gilruth as Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development had a meeting with the NMS Chair and Director.

4 March 2022 Neil Gray in his role as Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development and Minister with special responsibility for refugees from Ukraine had a meeting with the NMS Director and Finance Director to discuss the NMS budget.

4 May 2022 Angus Robertson met the NMS Chair and Director.

1 June 2022 Neil Gray visited the National Museum of Flight and met with the NMS Chair and Director.

8 June 2022 Angus Robertson attended an NMS Board meeting.

1 Dec 2022 Angus Robertson had a phone call with the NMS Chair.

6 Dec 2022 Angus Robertson met the Chairs of NMS and NLS at the Scottish Parliament to discuss the future of Scotland's National Collections.

15 Dec 2022 Neil Gray had a budget call with the Chair of NMS budget day.

22 March 2023 Neil Gray met with the NMS Chair and Director to discuss key priorities.

27 June 2023 I, as newly appointed Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development, had an introductory meeting with the NMS Chair and Director.

As a public body in receipt of grant-in-aid officials have met regularly with the National Museums Scotland since May 2021.