Chamber and committees

At present the only existing licence condition applied by NatureScot for Schedule 1 species is for disturbance of any such species where the work is to be undertaken on a National Nature Reserve (NNR). This condition requires prior land owner notification before the work is carried out. No work authorised by this licence may be undertaken on a NNR without the prior permission of the NatureScot NNR Manager.

NatureScot intend to introduce a new condition to schedule 1 disturbance licences that will require prior land owner notification on all land for the forthcoming monitoring season.

Ferguson Marine is responsible for its own commercial decision making, including which contract opportunities to pursue. The Scottish Government is working to support the business and secure a sustainable future given the importance of Ferguson Marine to the local economy and commercial shipbuilding on the Clyde.

The information requested is not collected or held centrally by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained from Health Boards.

We are committed to giving every child in Scotland the best start in life. Women affected by substance use should be able to get the help they need, free from judgement and stigma, throughout the perinatal period.

All Health Boards have guidance for health professionals to ensure pregnant women with substance use issues receive the support they need to reduce the risk of adverse effects on their child and we have also asked Health Boards to prioritise continuity of midwifery care for women affected by substance use.

In March 2024, we brought together an expert working group who are developing a good practice guide to support local areas to do more to meet the needs of women affected by substance use and their infants during pregnancy and the first postnatal year.

The third sector plays a key role for families in providing access to perinatal mental health support, and the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Fund offers funding to third sector organisations who provide support services to women, including those affected by substance use, during this period. Many of these services provide emotional and practical support to families throughout pregnancy and create a trauma informed environment where parents are supported to give their babies the best possible start in life. We are investing a further £1.5 million over 18 months through this fund, which will continue until March 2026.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of Scotland’s international connectivity and we want to see it grow at all Scotland’s airports.

Our Aviation Statement commits to working with Scotland’s airports and airlines to help grow connectivity to the international markets that are important for inbound tourism, business connectivity and the economy as a whole. Scotland's International Strategy specifically mentions improving connectivity to North America.

We take a national approach to route development and our work with airlines is carried out strictly on an “airport-neutral” basis, leaving airlines to decide which Scottish airport to use.

In line with Ministerial priorities in the current challenging fiscal context, officials are always considering options and opportunities for Scottish Government's estate that make the best possible use of our existing assets and deliver value for money. The Scottish Minister’s leasehold interest at 5 Atlantic Quay, Glasgow is being considered as part of that strategic estate work. We cannot comment further at this time due to the commercial sensitivities involved.

Social Security Scotland routinely releases information on Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods applications and payments.

Since the introduction of the School Age Payment in June 2019, 123,140 payments with a combined value of £34,086,106 were paid to eligible clients throughout Scotland by 30 September 2024.

Whilst the latest statistics do not contain the number of payments issued broken down by local authority area, the total value of payments issued to clients in Aberdeen City was £1,065,673 over the same period.

The next Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods publication, covering the period to the end of December 2024, will be published on 25 February 2025.

Since the introduction of Best Start Foods, 107,428 Best Start Foods cards have been issued across Scotland. Of these cards, 3,545 have been issued to clients in Aberdeen City area.

These figures include each new card from August 2019 to the 10 January 2025 and include all cards issued. These include re-issues to the same client if required due to lost, damaged, or expired cards.

Best Start Food card volumes are not featured in our regular Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods publication. These figures have been compiled in response to this request and include dates not yet covered in our latest statistics.

The next Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods publication, covering the period to 31 December 2024, will be published on 25 February 2025.

The Women’s Health Plan set out actions which aim to address women’s health inequalities by raising awareness around women’s health, improving access to health care for women across their lives, and reducing inequalities in health outcomes for women and girls.

Through the Plan we have appointed Scotland’s first Women’s Health Champion; created a Women’s Health Platform on NHS Inform, commissioned NHS Education for Scotland to create bespoke training packages on menstrual health for general practice and there is now a menopause and menstrual health workplace policy for NHS Scotland.

In addition we funded the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland to deliver our Women’s Health Plan lived experience programme. This has included webinars, videos, a toolkit and our Lived Experience Stakeholder Group to raise awareness of women’s health topics and ensure women and people with lived experience are meaningfully involved in decision making and priority setting.

Our Women’s Health Plan 2021 - 2024 Final Report on progress provides further details of our work to date.

Our ambition is that ‘women and girls enjoy the best possible health, throughout their lives’. This remains the ambition of the Scottish Government, and will continue to be our guiding principle as we consider the next phase of the Women’s Health Plan.

Within the Scottish Government policy responsibility for Health and Care Research sits with the Chief Scientist Office (CSO)

CSO is engaged with the MESSAGE (Medical Science Sex and Gender Equity) project, a UK-wide initiative which aims to improve the integration of sex and gender considerations across data collection, analysis and reporting in Biomedical, Health and Care research in the UK. MESSAGE brings together stakeholders from across the UK to co-design a sex and gender policy framework for funding and regulatory organisation and supporting policy implementation across the UK research sector. Medical Science Sex & Gender Equity

The co-designed framework was launched at the end of 2024 and introduced new recommendations for scientific practice which aim to enhance the quality of UK science at each stage of the research pipeline. CSO contributed to the development of the framework and is working to align its practices with the MESSAGE recommendations.

Through the Women’s Health Plan 2021- 2024 work has been ongoing to map the data on women’s health in Scotland. We have published a ‘Review of the Data Landscape’ that sets out some of the routinely published data on women’s health currently available in Scotland and highlights key gaps. The Care and Wellbeing Dashboard, which provides access to the latest data on population health outcomes and the wider determinants of health in Scotland, will also include breakdowns by sex where this data is available.

Our ambition is that ‘women and girls enjoy the best possible health, throughout their lives’. This remains the ambition of the Scottish Government, and will continue to be our guiding principle as we consider the next phase of the Women’s Health Plan.