Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government are committed to improving outcomes for people living with diabetes in Scotland. Our Diabetes Improvement Plan contains specific commitments to raise awareness of the dangers of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and also has a significant focus on equity of access to care and services. This can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/diabetes-improvement-plan-diabetes-care-scotland-commitments-2021-2026/documents/ .

DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis) happens when there is severe lack of insulin in the body. When this happens, chemicals called ketones are released, and can be extremely serious if left untreated. We are working collaboratively with clinical teams, third sector and people living with diabetes to relaunch the national education campaign: Think, Test, Telephone. This campaign is designed to support people living with Type 1 diabetes to better understand the risks of DKA and how to avoid it. We will continue to capture and track data on SCI-Diabetes to assess the impact of this on DKA rates.

Treatments for diabetes are complex and multifaceted. Many treatments require people to go through a formal education programme in order to self-manage their condition from home. This means there are many barriers facing people living with diabetes and in particular, those living in areas of deprivation or people that have English as a second language.

We are committed to understanding these barriers and are working in partnership with Diabetes Scotland and the Alliance to ensure the needs of people living with diabetes are fully understood. We will take targeted action to ensure equity of access across Scotland and share progress of this using data from SCI-diabetes.

We recognise that the opportunities for physical activity, particularly for organised sport, have been significantly affected by the restrictions. Our approach during the pandemic has been to permit as much sport and physical activity as much as possible in a safe way, in particular prioritising under eighteen sport, recognising the importance to both physical and mental health.

Our Programme for Government commits to doubling investment in sport and active living to £100 million a year by the end of this Parliament. That investment will enable us to rebuild capacity and resilience in the sector following the pandemic, and ensure we address inequalities in access to physical activity and sport.

sportscotland works in partnership with all 32 local authorities to invest in and support the Active Schools Network. Over the coming year, we will also work with sportscotland on the next steps to ensure that Active Schools programmes are free for all children and young people by the end of this Parliament, providing them with more opportunities to take part in sport before, during and after school.

We invested over £20m in our Get into Summer Programme across Local Authorities and 18 National Partners to support the wellbeing and mental health of those children and young people most impacted by Covid. This included funding of £1.4m to sportscotland for Active Schools coordinators, Sports Development officers and Community Sport Hub officers to enhance opportunities for all children and young people to participate in activities and experiences over the summer.

The funding distribution and allocations are provided in the following table:

When a decision is made on the timing of a Crofting Bill, consideration can be given to what other measures might be useful to support that work.

The NHS Scotland already has in place the electronic transfer of prescriptions between general practice and community pharmacy.

Our NHS Recovery Plan and Programme for Government commits to investing in developing new digital solutions such as ePrescribing and eDispensing to make the prescribing process paperless which will free up capacity for healthcare professionals so that they can see more patients and making it easier for patients to access their medicines quickly and safely.

The timeline is a matter for Lord Hardie. Updates on the publication of his Report will be provided on the Inquiry website at the appropriate time, a link to which is included below. 

Home Page - The Edinburgh Tram Inquiry

A number of our existing commitments already contribute towards this goal and will ensure that we deliver a just transition, with economic and social opportunity shared across the country.

For example, the recent Programme for Government outlined our commitment to help three islands become fully carbon neutral by 2040. We are currently engaging with stakeholders to ensure the voices of islanders are heard from outset. This builds on previous commitments, such as the Island Communities Fund, which has supported businesses and community groups to build sustainable island economies.

We are also investing at least £1.8 billion over this Parliament to decarbonise Scotland’s homes and buildings, helping us eradicate poor energy efficiency as a driver of fuel poverty. This commitment will benefit communities across the country, including rural communities where we know fuel poverty is a particular concern.

The Scottish Government work in partnership with COSLA on behalf of all 32 local authorities to negotiate a financial settlement that ensures local authorities can continue to provide the high quality frontline services that the people of Scotland expect and deserve.

The vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets, including those that are influenced by external markets forces, and to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities.

The Scottish Government supports the Scottish Venison Strategy and its ambition for 2030 to make Scottish Venison the premier choice of consumers and commercial buyers, both here in the UK and in international markets. We have provided funding to support a venison promotion campaign earlier this year.

I was delighted to recently support Scottish Venison Day on 4 September and I was pleased that retail sales of Scottish venison have recently increased. As part of the Food and Drink Recovery Plan, the Scotland Food and Drink Partnership has also provided £80,000 to support demonstration sites for locally based chill and processing facilities.

The Scottish Government has no plans to introduce a wild venison marketing board.

The Scottish Government’s Social Enterprise Strategy was launched in 2016 and sets out a wide-ranging, ambitious and long-term programme to develop the potential of Scotland's social enterprise sector.

The latest Social Enterprise Action Plan was published on 24 March 2021 and covers the period 2021-24 and is available at: Social enterprise: action plan - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

To deliver the plan, we will spend over £5 million this financial year supporting Social Enterprises across the country. Some of the projects we have committed to support over the next three years include:

• Doubling our funding for Social Enterprise in Schools to almost £2m to ensure that by 2024 every school child will have the opportunity to engage with a social enterprise project in their school career, introducing the benefits of the social enterprise model to young people across Scotland.
• Investing an additional £1.5m to build on the successful programme of support offered through Adapt and Thrive which helps community organisations wanting to diversify their income streams.
• Investing £1.5 million to create a clear pipeline for social enterprises from conception to the international market, with a focus on ethical opportunities in emerging markets such as Africa and South East Asia.