Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07687 on 19 April 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

Long waiting times for treatment are unacceptable and we remain committed to meet the standard that 90% of patients begin treatment within 18 weeks of referral. This is why we have allocated £40 million to NHS Boards to improve CAMHS in the last financial year. £4.25m of that allocation was directly focussed on offering treatment to those already on CAMHS waiting lists, with a view to clearing all backlogs by March 2023. Whilst Boards continue to respond creatively to treat significant numbers of children and young people, their priority is to ensure that emergency and urgent cases are seen, and this has regrettably meant longer waits for some.

Waiting lists are managed locally by individual Health Boards. However, the Scottish Government has issued key principles for Health Boards to shape their policies for managing waiting lists. These set out our expectation that patients on the waiting list, and where appropriate their families, are kept informed of their situation; that those waiting the longest should be contacted first; and that support and personalised, meaningful signposting should also be provided to the patient and their families, with informed consent, to access other services within the children and young people's service network, in cases where families' needs are best met elsewhere.

Additionally, to enhance the support that is available, in the last financial year we provided local authorities with an additional £15 million to fund over 230 new and enhanced community-based mental health supports and services for children and young people. This financial year, we will issue a further £15 million to councils to fund the continuation of these supports.

This funding gives local authorities the flexibility to implement supports on the basis of local priorities and to make services available to children and young people who are awaiting CAMHS treatment or for whom CAMHS is not suitable. Councils have advised us that the community-based supports have started receiving referrals from CAMHS.

The services include mental health support for LGBTQI+ children and young people in Glasgow; family mediation and counselling services in Dundee; online self-directed support and counselling in Aberdeenshire and Bereavement and Loss support in the Scottish Borders. Establishing these services is a significant step forward in supporting the mental health of our children and young people, making sure they receive the help they need when they need it.

Allowances for fuel that are paid to social care workers are a matter for individual employers and are not set by the Scottish Government. We are, however, actively engaged with our partners, including local government, to understand what impact the increase in fuel prices is having across Scotland, and how social care providers can support their staff to ensure they can continue to deliver the invaluable support they provide.

Scottish Government officials have travelled on P&O Ferries between Larne and Cairnryan four times since 2019. All four crossings were single journeys.

No single or return crossings were made by Ministers in 2019, 2020 or 2021. The global COVID-19 pandemic throughout 2020 and 2021 resulted in lockdowns that curtailed Ministerial and official travel.

The Scottish Government does not hold any contracts with P&O Ferries.

Table 1 – deaths from thrombosis-related conditions, 2008-2020

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the level and nature of financial investment from China in universities in Scotland as they are autonomous bodies.

The Scottish Government is clear that bullying of any kind is unacceptable and must be addressed quickly whenever it arises.

Each local authority is responsible for the care, safety and welfare of pupils in school in the authority area. All adults who work in schools have a responsibility to ensure the mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing of the children and young people in their care.

Headteachers, teachers, other school staff and local authorities are best placed to decide how to address bullying in their schools. Individual schools know their context and children and young people best and so it is essential they are able to implement their own anti-bullying policy, specific to the local needs and circumstances of the children and young people in their area.

Our national guidance ‘Respect for All’ provides the overarching framework for all adults working with children and young people to address all types of bullying. It makes clear that bullying is not just the responsibility of schools but all adults involved in the lives of children and young people who have a role in preventing and responding to bullying.

We continue to fully fund respectme, Scotland’s anti-bullying service to build confidence and capacity to address bullying effectively, aligned to ‘Respect for All’.

Our new biodiversity strategy will be published in October 2022. This will set out how we will achieve our goal of preventing further extinctions of wildlife and halting declines by 2030, and making significant progress in restoring Scotland's natural environment by 2045. We will publish a consultation on the strategy in May 2022.

COP 15 in Kunming provides a major opportunity for the world to commit to bold action to restore our natural environment, and, through the Edinburgh Process and Edinburgh Declaration, which is now supported by 235 administrations around the world, we are doing what we can to secure a strong outcome.

The National Flood Risk Assessment published by SEPA in 2018 provided Scotland with the knowledge and tools to assess the causes and consequences of river, coastal and surface water flooding, taking into account the effects of climate change. The Assessment considered the potential impacts of flooding on emergency services and healthcare facilities. The information from this Assessment was used to help identify those areas most at risk of significant flooding impacts.

NHS Scotland Chief Executives have made a commitment that all Health Boards will prepare a Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) and Climate Change Adaptation Plan by the end of the 2021-22 financial year. This includes the identification of any sites at risk of flooding both now, and in the future with projected climate change.

https://www.sepa.org.uk/data-visualisation/nfra2018/ .