Chamber and committees

The Bathing Waters (Scotland) Regulations 2008 enable Scottish Ministers to designate a bathing season in a period where they expect a large number of people to bathe at a designated bathing water. The definition of bathers, in this instance, is exclusive to paddlers and swimmers and does not cover other water users.

For all 87 designated bathing waters in Scotland the bathing season runs from 1 June to 15 September each year, in accordance with the traditional period of peak usage. In comparison with the 3.5 month bathing season in Scotland across Europe the season length varies from 2 months in Sweden to 6 months in Cypress.

The aim of the Bathing Waters Regulations is to minimise the risks to human health to swimmers and paddlers from bacteriological impacts whilst bathing. It would be disproportionately costly to monitor bathing waters outwith the current bathing water season when they are not regularly used by large numbers of bathers. General health advice on wild swimming is available from the UK Health Security Agency at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/swim-healthy-leaflet/swim-healthy , which is also applicable to Scotland

The number of bathing waters in Scotland has increased since last year and now stands at 87, with 98% achieving the bathing water quality standards and more rated excellent than ever before.

The Scottish Government aims to answer all ministerial correspondence within 20 working days and regularly reviews and monitors its performance against this target.

Correspondence from MSPs; councillors; third sector organisations and other key stakeholders; or the wider public is not categorised separately, therefore, calculating the percentage of responses sent within 20 working days to MSPs specifically could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost. Between December 2021 and December 2022, the response rate for all ministerial correspondence was approximately 77% (of 43,091 items of ministerial correspondence, 33,173 were responded to within 20 working days).

On Scotland’s national forests and land, Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) constructs roads for use on a multi-purpose basis e.g. timber transport, tree planting, environmental improvement works, recreational access. FLS does not hold data that ascribes a particular use to sections of forest road, nor does it hold specific data as to what lengths of road have been constructed by windfarm developers. Over the past ten years, levels of forest road construction by FLS have been as follows:

2012: 46 Miles

2013: 52 Miles

2014: 43 Miles

2015: 34 Miles

2016: 37 Miles

2017: 37 Miles

2018: 44 Miles

2019: 32 Miles

2020: 27 Miles

2021: 24 Miles

2022: 22 Miles

National Records of Scotland (NRS) are unable to confirm when it will be possible to resume publishing the Migration Statistics Quarterly Summary for Scotland as the data required is not currently available.

The release is a summary of data sources from UK Government departments including the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Home Office.

These departments have temporarily suspended most statistical releases for reasons such as data quality, other underlying data issues, and reviewing the way they produce statistics to make best use of available data.

More information can be found on the NRS, DWP, ONS and Home Office websites.

The consultation analysis report for the Mother and Baby Unit Capacity in Scotland consultation was published in August 2022. This report and other resources are being fed into an options appraisal which is setting out the next steps in improving specialist perinatal mental health care for women and their babies in Scotland. This will consider the geographical need and variation across Scotland. This options appraisal will be undertaken by NHS National Services Scotland and will commence in January 2023 with a view to being completed by the end of September 2023.

The vast majority of funding available to councils is provided by means of a block grant from the Scottish Government. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on maintenance of local roads and bridges, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The Scottish Government has provided an additional £570 million to local government in 2023-24, however it is for locally elected representatives to manage the allocation of resources and the level of services that are delivered to their local communities.

We are supportive of community wealth building, and the opportunities it presents to act as a conduit for supporting our Net Zero ambitions, in particular supporting a just transition. The land and property pillar of community wealth building is particularly relevant to land reform, and is very much in line with both existing land reform mechanisms (such as the Community Right to Buy) and our proposals for the next Land Reform Bill.

Measures put forward for inclusion in the Bill include a requirement for owners of large-scale landholdings to prepare and publish Land Management Plans. In the consultation we propose that one of the purposes of these plans should be to show how the management of the landholding contributes to relevant land use, economic and community development priorities and opportunities, as set out in community plans, regional land use strategies, and national policy. Management plans could be used to identify areas of land suitable for disposal to local community organisations seeking to develop projects that will meet local needs. We sought views in the consultation on whether people agree that the Plans should provide information on developments/activities that will contribute to local and inclusive economic development or community wealth building.

We received over 540 responses to the consultation, and will consider views submitted on how management plans could contribute to community wealth building, as we develop the measures that will be included in the Bill. In addition, to support the development of legislation we have established a CWB Steering Group chaired by the Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth. Representatives across the public, private and third sectors have been invited to provide ideas and insight as we develop legislative proposals. This includes consideration of issues linked to the use of land and property assets in both rural and urban areas.

The Bathing Waters (Scotland) Regulations 2008 aims to minimise the risks to public health at designated locations and during periods when a large number of people bathe. However, it remains the personal responsibility of every individual to assess the risks before entering open water, whether at a designated bathing water within the bathing season or otherwise.

The globally accepted advice is to leave at least 48 hours after heavy rain before bathing whether within or outwith the bathing season. Further general advice on the health risks of open water swimming, which is also applicable to Scotland, is available from the UK Health Security Agency at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/swim-healthy-leaflet/swim-healthy .

The Scottish Government continuously works with SEPA, Scottish Water and other stakeholders on bathing water designations and to protect and improve bathing waters classifications. This has led to the number of bathing waters increasing since last year to 87, with 98% achieving the bathing water quality standards and more rated excellent than ever before.

The Scottish Government has not given consideration to a registration service in Scotland as this is an operational matter for Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service (SCTS). The question relates to functions that are the responsibility of the SCTS of which the Office of the Public Guardian in Scotland (OPG) is a part. The SCTS is an independent body corporate and as such it is not directly answerable to the Scottish Government. Instead, it is directly answerable to its board, chaired by the Lord President.

Mr. Burnett has asked a separate question (S6W-13059) relating to the backlog of power of attorney applications at the OPG since September last year and what support is being offered to the OPG by Scottish Government. SCTS has put a dedicated taskforce in place to reduce the time taken to process Power of Attorney applications and work has begun to introduce a new case management system. This question is being answered by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of providing compassionate, person-centred support for people who have been bereaved by suicide. This is reflected in the Scottish Government and COSLA’s new suicide prevention strategy and action plan, Creating Hope Together, which published in September. The strategy is supported by the Programme for Government commitment to double funding for suicide prevention to £2.8m per annum by the end of this Parliamentary term.

The new action plan includes a commitment to roll out bereavement support across Scotland, drawing on the evaluation of the current Suicide Bereavement Support Service pilot. The Scottish Government funds this pilot in two Health Board areas; Penumbra leads delivery of the pilot in Ayrshire and Arran and Change Mental Health (formerly Support in Mind Scotland) leads delivery in Highland. The total cost of the pilot service is £255,000 per annum, and this funding, split between the two organisations, has been allocated in 2021-22 and 2022-23.

Additionally, we have allocated Cruse Scotland a total of £16,780 for 2021-22 and £33,560 in 2022-23 to provide bereavement support in workplaces which have been affected by the suicide of a colleague.