Chamber and committees

All planning applications must be determined in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise.

Currently, Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) outlines that development plans should set out the criteria that will be considered in deciding all applications for wind farms of different scales – taking account of the considerations set out at paragraph 169 of SPP which include landscape and visual impacts.

The Revised Draft National Planning Framework (NPF4) makes clear the Scottish Government’s support for onshore wind energy other than in National Parks and National Scenic Areas. Criteria for assessing proposals are included in draft policy 11, and impacts on communities, nature and other receptors, including significant landscape and visual impacts, remain important considerations in the decision-making process.

I published and laid the Revised Draft NPF4 in the Scottish Parliament on 8 November 2022 for Parliament’s consideration and approval. If approved and adopted, NPF4 will form part of the statutory development plan and will replace SPP.

We continue to engage with Crown Estate Scotland on this matter and consideration is ongoing. Timescales are dependent on the 2023-24 Budget process, which will not conclude until the 2023-24 Budget Bill is passed.

£10.3million a year has been made available to ADPs for the implementation of the 10 MAT Standards. This is the specific funding for MAT implementation, and is in addition to the general funding for specific MAT-related activities such as outreach and near-fatal overdose pathways.

Published information on drug-related (or drug-misuse) deaths can be obtained from the National Records Of Scotland website - Drug-related Deaths in Scotland in 2021 | National Records of Scotland (nrscotland.gov.uk). Information on Local Authority Wards is information that is not held.

The following tables provide the information by Local Authority.

All drug misuse deaths by Local Authority

The number of drug-related deaths by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) data zone quintile is not information that is held, but the following table provides the rate.

Drug misuse deaths in Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) Quintiles, age-standardised death rates per 100,000 population, 2010-2021

According to Supplementary Report to the Benchmarking Report published on 2 August 2022 the following areas are yet to fully implemented MAT 3:

NHS Shetland - Shetland ADP area

NHS Grampian - Moray ADP area

NHS Highland - Argyll & Bute ADP area

MAT 3 states that ‘Each service within the drug treatment system should have a documented procedure to identify and follow-up people at high risk of severe drug-related harm, including death’. These areas are as follows:

In January 2023 the Scottish Government will be publishing a formal response to the Taskforce report – Changing Lives – which includes an action to address inconsistencies in implementing near-fatal overdose (NFO) pathways under MAT standard 3.

Additionally, local areas have been directed by Ministers to have standards 1-5 implemented by April 2023. The Government continues working with identified areas to support them to progress the implementation in line with this timeframe.

The National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 Act places a broad general duty on the Scottish Ministers to improve health in Scotland and confers functions which assist in performing that duty. However, that duty and those functions cannot be viewed in isolation. Per the Scotland Act 1998, the Scottish Ministers cannot exercise their functions in a manner which would be outside of devolved competence.

Although the Scottish Government is taking a public health approach to drug dependence, if the Scottish Ministers were to exercise their functions (including functions which relate to health improvement) in a way which conflicts with the subject matter of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 then that would be outside competence.

The work being done by Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership to explore the possibility of a Safer Drug Consumption Facility in Scotland, within the current legal framework, has been done carefully with the benefit of their independent legal advice. In the event of a positive outcome to work carried out by partners, we will quickly establish a Safer Drug Consumption Facility in Glasgow.

The external costs associated with the production and publication of the Building a new Scotland paper, A stronger economy with independence , are set out in the following table.

The latest estimates from the Farm Business Survey suggest that in the accounting year 2020-21, the average Farm Business Income (FBI) for businesses in the survey was £39,347. This represented an increase of 20 per cent (£6,517) in real terms from 2016-17, when the average income was £32,830. FBI includes income from grants and subsidies; when these are excluded farms are, on average, not profitable. Figures for other years are shown in the following table.

The Scottish Government meets regularly with NHS Lothian in relation to their current status on the NHS board performance escalation framework, this involves the Board working through and reporting progress against a formal Recovery Plan that covers all the BAA recommended actions.

Of the 36 BAA recommendations that NHS Lothian are progressing 81% have been completed. The remaining recommendations are well in progress with NHS Lothian ensuring that these are fully embedded with the evidence to support that prior to considering them as completed. All of the urgent recommendations are complete, over 70% of the high status recommendations are complete and almost 80% of the medium status recommendations are complete.

The Scottish Government continue to work to support and monitor the progress towards the completion of the remaining recommendations.

The information you have requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all children and young people receive at least two hours of physical education per school week in primary schools, and at least two 50-minute periods of physical education per school week in secondary schools - between secondaries 1 and 4.

Under the provisions of Curriculum for Excellence schools and education authorities have the flexibility to decide upon the content of their lessons at the local level by taking into account the needs and circumstances of all children and young people in attendance. This includes taking decisions locally about the content of their PE lessons, where they can offer swimming lessons to their pupils if they wish to do so.