Chamber and committees

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Population Survey (APS) is the main source for Labour Market Indicators for detailed characteristics. The ONS state there are concerns with the quality of the APS estimates for smaller groups of the population. Therefore, it is not possible to produce robust estimates of the number of people aged 16 to 24 who are not in education, employment or training who also report having a disability from this source.

Scotland’s Census 2022 results show that, excluding full-time students, there were around 23,600 people aged 16 to 24 in Scotland who were unemployed or economically inactive and had a disability or health problem that limited their day-to-day activities a lot or a little. This was 28% of all disabled 16 to 24 year olds.

The Annual Participation Measure is published by Skills Development Scotland. This publication began in 2016 and covers those aged 16 to 19 years old. The proportion of disabled people aged 16 to 19 who were not participating in education, employment or training is included in Table 1.4a: https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/media/appbneac/2025-annual-participation-measure-supplementary-tables.xlsx.

These are operational matters for Scottish Enterprise. I am advised by Scottish Enterprise that it employs two specialists advisors within the Cooperative Development Scotland team; one for employee ownership and one for co-operative models.

The Scottish Government has long called for an effective Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Veterinary agreement to achieve some level of return to smoother, pre-Brexit, agri-food trade arrangements.

The Scottish Government welcomed the 19 May 2025 announcements (where the SPS outline agreement was described as part of the wider UK-EU reset summit and in a Common Understanding Document) – with the detail of the agreement yet to be finalized. Scottish Government officials have engaged with UK Government counterparts throughout the process on a range of issues, including animal welfare related matters.

The negotiations had been expected to conclude in advance of the UK-EU Summit, originally scheduled for the end of the month. However, following the resignation of the UK Prime Minister, the Summit has been postponed. Consequently, no further formal rounds of negotiation are expected to take place before September.

The Scottish Government remains committed to this work and the recent roundtable table discussion with industry, animal welfare organisations and academic representatives was the first steps in finding ways to ensure producer’s viability and improving sow welfare.

The Scottish Government will continue to listen and work with the industry and stakeholders to find ways for producers to transition towards implementing improved animal welfare methods and practices.

We are committed to making Scotland the best place in the world for BSL users to live, work, visit and learn and will deliver on this through our BSL National Plan 2023-2029. The current National Plan 2023-2029 is ongoing, and Scottish Government will publish a midpoint Progress Report at the end of this year, which will include an overview of achievements and ongoing work.

Action 28 within the BSL National Plan recognises that hard-of-hearing and deafened people should have tools for them to communicate, including learning BSL.

There is currently no specific financial assistance available for hard of hearing and deafened people, funded directly by Scottish Government, to undertake accredited BSL learning.

Additionally, the Equalities, Human Rights, and Civil Justice Committee’s Report on the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015 made recommendations, which Scottish Government has either fully or partially accepted. One of which was in relation to exploring the establishment of BSL courses. Work is in progress to scope this recommendation further.

We continue to work with and engage with our partners and stakeholders such as the Implementation Advisory Group (IAG) of the BSL National Plan to better understand the issues impacting on BSL users and their families and to address these issues.

Services that provide specialist support to male survivors of domestic abuse, addiction services and mental health services are independent of Scottish Government and as such, responsibility for staff training rests with their boards. As such, the Scottish Government does not hold information on the specific training delivered by individual services.

The Scottish Government provides funding to Men’s Advice Line, SACRO’s FearFree Project, AMIS, The Scottish Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline, ASSIST, and the LGBT Domestic Abuse project. We encourage anyone experiencing domestic abuse to seek help.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-01615 on 5 August 2026. 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 S7W-01615 on 5 August 2026. 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 Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 provides for an offence of abuse of a partner or ex-partner which criminalises psychological, as well as physical, abuse. The Act defines abuse as behaviour which a reasonable person would consider likely to cause the victim to suffer physical or psychological harm where the accused either intends to cause such harm or else is reckless as to whether their behaviour would be likely to result in such harm.

The Act provides an illustrative definition of abusive behaviour which includes behaviour which is abusive and which has as its purpose, or which a reasonable person would think would be likely to have the effect of:

• isolating the victim from friends, relatives or other sources of support;
• frightening, humiliating, degrading or punishment the victim.

As such, depending on the facts and circumstances of the case, the offence can be used to prosecute someone who engages in smear campaigns or reputational abuse of their partner or ex-partner. In other cases, it may be possible to prosecute such behaviour using offences such as threatening or abusive behaviour with a domestic abuse aggravation where the offence is committed by the victim's partner or ex-partner.

Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) are operationally independent of the Scottish Ministers and are responsible for any guidance in place for police and prosecutors.

Victim support organisations have long-standing experience in dealing with victims who have suffered different forms of coercive and controlling behaviour and can tailor their approaches in offering support depending on the specific circumstances of any given case.

The Scottish Government recognises the significant impact of liver disease, which affects at least two million people across the UK and is often associated with harmful alcohol consumption and poor diet. Improving population health, tackling health inequalities and increasing healthy life expectancy remain key priorities, and we are committed to taking forward a range of evidence-based actions to address health harms associated with alcohol and less healthy food products.

Scotland's Alcohol & Drugs Strategic Plan, published in March 2026, included a commitment to publish an Alcohol Harm Prevention Plan, which will set out the next steps to address alcohol-related harm in Scotland.

Alongside preventative measures, the Scottish Government is working with Alcohol and Drug Partnerships and NHS Boards to develop a nationwide model for the early detection of alcohol-related liver disease. This builds on the learning from the innovative intelligent Liver Function Testing (iLFT) pilot pioneered by NHS Tayside. In addition, through the Centre for Sustainable Delivery, we have established a Specialty Delivery Group for Liver Disease to support improvements in care and outcomes.

The Food (Promotion and Placement) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 will come into force on 1 October 2026 to restrict volume price and location promotions of food and drink high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS), both in-store and online. The Regulations deliver a key action under the Population Health Framework and seek to make the balance of products on promotion healthier, reduce overconsumption of HFSS foods, and contribute to reducing population levels of overweight and obesity and their consequent health harms.

Scottish Government also recognises the link between liver disease and an increased risk of liver cancer. Cancer remains a national priority, and the forthcoming ten-year Cancer Strategy will place a strong emphasis on prevention, including action on cancers with poorer survival rates, such as liver cancer. Supported by an initial three-year action plan, the strategy will take a comprehensive approach to improving outcomes, from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care.