Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government works collaboratively with Justice and other stakeholders in taking forward a significant programme of legislative, policy and delivery commitments, consistent with the Vision for Justice in Scotland.

There are currently 13 active working groups which fall under the remit of (a) Justice and (b) Community Safety.

For completeness, there are further boards, taskforces and advisory panels that fall under the remit of justice and community safety which have also been included in the following table.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the mental health and wellbeing of Scotland’s population and to ensuring everyone receives the best possible care and support from our health and care services. Delivering this can only be achieved with the right workforce capacity and capability. This is why we have committed to developing a long-term Mental Health Workforce Plan in the first half of this Parliament.

While each NHS Board rightly has individual responsibility for staffing and recruitment, we recognise the scale of the challenge and seek to provide support at a national level as appropriate. Under this Government, CAMHS staffing has almost doubled (+572.9 WTE) and we are taking several steps to grow the mental health workforce further.

NHS Education for Scotland CAMHS Workforce data, published 6 December 2022, showed there were 124 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) CAMHS workforce staff in post In NHS Lanarkshire as at September 2022 compared to 96 WTE as at September 2021, an increase of 29% [1] This CAMHS workforce data includes Neurodevelopmental staffing.

We are working with all NHS Boards to support them to implement the National Neurodevelopmental Specification: Principles and Standards of Care , including working with NHS Lanarkshire through regular Board engagement meetings to discuss ongoing challenges and pressures. This engagement captures ongoing developments around workforce capacity with the most recent update confirming that NHS Lanarkshire have successfully recruited for this area, with only a few posts still to be filled. This activity will continue into early 2023.

[1] Dashboards | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot)

The recent Covid 19 pandemic highlighted the need for a national medical equipment management system in Scotland that provides an NHS Scotland-wide overview and visibility of critical medical equipment. To deliver this requirement, a National Medical Equipment Management System (NMEMS) is currently being developed by NHS National Services Scotland, NHS Scotland, and the Scottish Government. Once in place the system will also allow for improved strategic planning of medical equipment replacement and will aid the response to medical equipment related safety notices.

The system will be launched in 2 phases: Phase 1 commenced in October 2022 and aims to install medical equipment management systems in all the NHS Boards that currently do not have one. Work for phase 1 is currently underway with a provisional completion date of Spring 2023.

Phase 2 aims to link all the NHS Board medical equipment management systems centrally and is currently on track to commence in early 2023, with completion projected for summer 2023.

Scottish Water is currently progressing over £23 million of investment in the Highlands and Islands to improve wastewater treatment, enable growth and to maintain its wastewater assets throughout the area. This is primarily to upgrade and improve existing assets as previous investment periods were focused on building new treatment works in many areas across this region to ensure a high standard of treatment and improve environmental water quality.

Scottish Water continues to work with developers that require new sewerage infrastructure in order to extend the public sewer network, with Scottish Water making a financial contribution to a reasonable contribution level established in regulatory guidance.

Section 53 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 provides that local authorities must provide, or secure the provision of, a school lunch free of charge to pupils who meet the eligibility criteria set out within that Act. The national eligibility criteria for free school meals is available through the following web link: School meals - mygov.scot.

In addition to this, free school lunches are available to all children in primaries 1 to 5 and in special schools. This applies to all schools either run by a local authority or which are directly funded through a Scottish Government grant. This policy is not set out in legislation and is delivered through a joint agreement between the Scottish Government and local authorities.

Local authorities also have the flexibility to make discretionary offers of free school meals to children and young people from families who do not meet the national eligibility criteria where they are experiencing financial hardship due to exceptional circumstances. There is nothing within legislation to say when such discretionary offers should be made, since we believe that local authorities should be given the maximum flexibility to consider each approach based upon its own individual circumstances.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to delivering a world class health service for the people of Scotland in a sustainable model that remains fully aligned with the founding principles of the NHS. This will deliver high quality, safe, effective and person-centred care to all patients as they access services. Our Progress Update on the NHS Recovery Plan outlines the actions that are underway as services remobilise from the pandemic. We regularly work with Healthcare Improvement Scotland Community Engagement through their Citizen’s Panel work to understand more clearly views across Scotland regarding their health service.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12950 on 21 December 2022. 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
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The Scottish Government intends to achieve the required Aberdeen to Central Belt project outputs by the end of 2026.

Local Authorities and other public bodies who operate return points will need to decide on a case by case basis whether or not to purchase Reverse Vending Machines. The Scheme Administrator, Circularity Scotland Ltd, can provide advice on this matter.

The most recent official statistics published by SEPA and available at [ Waste data for Scotland | Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) ] show that in 2018 the amount of total waste going to landfill in Scotland has reduced by nearly a third over the past decade, with 32% of all waste landfilled, and that Scotland recycled 61% of all waste. Please note data for 2019/2020 is not available due to a cyber attack on SEPA, but further statistics will be published in 2023.

Our proposals for a Circular Economy Bill and Waste Route Map, published earlier this year, set out actions that Scottish Government and others could take to accelerate progress towards Scotland’s 2025 waste and recycling targets and deliver a circular economy in Scotland in a way that maximises carbon saving potential.