Chamber and committees

Together with Public Health Scotland, the Scottish Government is developing a consensus statement on substance use prevention for young people. This will provide an agreed expert view and understanding in where our collective efforts should lie in improving practice and associated outcomes for children and young people. It will be used to support planning and delivery at a national and local level, and will include consideration of the specific needs of care experienced children and young people.

The Scottish Government’s whole family approach to drug and alcohol services is supported by our annual investment of £3.5 million through Alcohol and Drug Partnerships. Additional funding, such as the £3 million Children and Families Fund administered through the Corra Foundation, is in place to improve support for children, young people and families impacted by drug use.

The Scottish Government’s National Rail Conversation is focussed on the publicly owned railway, therefore concerns the provision of services by ScotRail. The National Rail Conversation will engage the views of rail users, regional transport partnerships, rail unions, local authorities, equalities groups, businesses, emergency services and rail industry organisations – as well as non-rail users – for their input in to the vision for rail services in Scotland. The Conversation will listen to feedback from passengers and stakeholders and shape a vision for ScotRail which best meets the needs of the people of Scotland.

Charter train operators such as West Coast Railways will be invited to provide input and insight as part of the wider stakeholder engagement process but are not within the scope of the Conversation itself.

The Scottish Government is committed to keeping The Promise and improving the outcomes of care experienced children and young people in education. To achieve this we continue to work with partners, including Education Scotland, COSLA and ADES.

Our national guidance, Included, Engaged and Involved Part 2 , is clear that exclusion should be used as a measure of last resort. The guidance includes particular considerations regarding the exclusion of care experienced young people.

Engagement activity includes with the Scottish Advisory Group for Relationships and Behaviour in Schools (SAGRABIS), to consider exclusion in the context of promoting positive relationships and behaviour in schools.

We have already implemented some measures, such as tightening waste exemptions, and are undertaking work to consider further measures similar to those mentioned in the UK Government’s Environmental Improvement Plan 2023.

In addition, where the necessary powers to tackle opportunities for waste crime are reserved, we are working with UK Government to ensure the interests of Scotland are fully considered. This includes in the development of a ban on exporting plastic waste to non-OECD countries.

The Scottish Government has not carried out an assessment of the impact of NHS staff pay awards on the independent hospice sector, however, Scottish Government Ministers are meeting with representatives from the sector in March 2023 to discuss pressures that hospices are facing.

The Scottish Government’s Serious & Organised Crime Taskforce (SOCTF) has identified environmental crime and in particular Serious Organised Criminal Gangs (SOCG) activity in waste crime as a priority area and supports the broad network of Scottish and UK regulators in working collaboratively to act against waste criminals.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is also a partner in the Joint Unit for Waste Crime set up by the UK Government in 2020, which aspires to reduce the impact of SOCG activity across the UK, on the environment and the economy, by targeting the criminal groups and activities posing the greatest risk, including those operating cross border.

We are working with other UK governments and regulators to implement a UK-wide mandatory digital waste tracking service. Implementation of this service will help SEPA to track regulatory compliance and tackle illegal waste exports and fly-tipping.

Alongside this, the Scottish Government is also currently developing a new National Litter and Flytipping Strategy, which will help to tackle and minimise the instances of flytipping in Scotland. Our consultation proposals set out a range of proposed measures, including strengthening enforcement to deter flytipping behaviour.

That information is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government does not hold estimated yearly costs of waste crime.

The M8 Woodside Viaduct is a vital element of the motorway and road network serving Glasgow, the wider region and country, carrying approximately 150,000 vehicles per day. The decision to restrict traffic lanes on the viaducts was made for safety reasons by Transport Scotland’s Director of Roads, as reducing the live traffic loading on the structure was a key aspect to its management, continued use and repair.

Demolishing the structure was ruled out due to the economic, environmental and social impacts on businesses and communities served by the local and trunk road network, including the costs, durations and traffic volumes involved. The refurbishment option was considered to have less economic, social, traffic and environmental impacts. This decision was supported by stakeholders, who expressed significant concern over the impact of lane closures, let alone full closure of the viaduct.

Angus Campbell, the Chair of the Ferries Community Board, is now engaging with island communities and ferry users regarding the recommendations of the phase oneProject Neptune report. That consultation is due to finish next month and Mr Campbell will provide Ministers with a report on his findings shortly after.

Following industrial action within the college sector in 2019, the then Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science committed to undertaking a further lessons learned exercise to break the cycle of annual disputes within the sector.

The Scottish Government commissioned Strathesk Resolutions in 2021 to take forward a lessons learned exercise. The purpose of the exercise was to attempt to reduce the likelihood of future industrial dispute and industrial action, with a view to identifying factors that have led to dispute in recent years and to create an environment for more productive dialogue in future negotiations.

The final report compiled by Strathesk Resolutions, dated 25 March 2022, provides the findings and recommendations to the Scottish Government from the lessons learned exercise. At present, the Scottish Government is awaiting formal responses to the recommendations from partners in the Collective Bargaining process and will use these to inform the next steps regarding the implementation of the recommendations.

Critically, and as made clear by the Lessons Learned report, the Scottish Government will maintain its position of not intervening directly in the national collective bargaining process.