Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government continues to support local areas provide medication assisted treatment.

The Scottish Government also has overall Drug waiting times in terms of accessing services, for which a target was set that 90% of people accessed treatment within 3 weeks.

Since the introduction of the Medication Assisted Treatment Standards in 2021, as reported in the National Benchmarking Report published in July 2024, the waiting times have dropped and show that 75% of people now wait one day or less to access a form of treatment.

Pilots of a non-statutory support scheme began in spring 2023, with funding provided for distribution by local services to remove the barrier of transport costs for people with substance dependency, when accessing treatment. These Pathfinders, also covering people with multiple and complex needs, are taking place in 11 locations, with full implementation to support a national practice model expected to be complete in Summer 2025.

As part of their work to support implementation of the MAT standards, the 2023 National Benchmarking Report published by Public Health Scotland (PHS), detailed assessments of how areas are trying to overcome the challenges of rurality. Approaches include: high use of self-referral and telephone, ‘tele-health’ technology such as NEAR ME; wide use of bus passes, taxis, and third sector to take people to appointments. Also offering a choice of venues to be seen at, such as a GP practice, home and community hubs, as well as settings to deliver care when weather disrupts usual access.

A strength in many areas is the utilisation of informal local networks and relationships to respond to urgent presentations, even when no formal arrangements are in place. Many areas now also have formal arrangements with other Health Boards to utilise and share expertise.

The Scottish Government is proposing to increase the budget for the Forestry Grant Scheme in 2025-26 to £53m, with much of the increase focussed on native woodland habitats.

Public funding through FGS support measures has been in place since 2015 and were recently enhanced in 2023 to improve the attractiveness to applicants. These measures encourage land managers to intensively manage deer populations with the objective of securing natural regeneration of trees. Targeted support is already paid over more than 60,000 hectares of land, including native woodland and open habitats, in order to create the opportunities for natural regeneration of trees and expansion of native woodland habitats. The funding for these support measures is regularly reviewed to ensure it is able to address demand.

In areas where there has been a high level of uptake of this approach by landowners, such as in the Cairngorms National Park, over half the new woodlands supported by FGS, over 5,000 hectares since 2016, have been through natural regeneration.

Whilst significant public grant support is already targeted at native woodland restoration and expansion we recognise the need to do more to increase levels of activity and Scottish Government and its agencies are committed to working actively with a range of partners in order to achieve this.

Since 2018, the number of education psychologists in training has more than doubled from a total of 29 in 2016-2017 to over 76 in 2023-2024. This is due to the continued investment Scottish Government in partnership with COSLA make to deliver the training programme for educational psychologists which has risen to nearly £2m per year.

The living costs grant for educational psychologist trainees, in addition to tuition fee funding, is not income assessed and does not need to be repaid. Most post-graduate students studying other subjects are eligible for a £6,900 living costs loan for the duration of their course.

Since 2022, work has been undertaken by Scottish Government, COSLA officials, supported by the National Scottish Steering Group for Educational Psychologists (NSSGEP) and Dundee University, to establish a 3-year doctorate model of training. This package equates to £29,000 per student, per annum, for the duration of the 3-year training programme.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on fees set by ports.

Statutory Harbour Authorities are independent bodies governed by their own legislation. A Statutory Harbour Authority’s powers, duties and geographic area of jurisdiction are set out in local Acts of Parliament, or a Harbour Order under the Harbours Act 1964.

All ports are obliged to act in accordance with their local legislation and other relevant laws.

Floral arrangements are supplied via our service partner for Catering Services, Sodexo Limited. Their flower supplier is a small business in Edinburgh established for over 25 years providing fresh flowers and arrangements throughout the year for various events and requests. Sodexo use SME businesses on behalf of the Scottish Parliament prioritising whenever possible using local and Scottish produce.

The Scottish Government agrees that Scotland’s school libraries play a key role in supporting literacy and cultivating a love of reading.

Responsibility for school libraries rests with local authorities, who have a statutory duty to ensure there is adequate provision of library services.

At a national level, the Scottish Government worked with key partners to develop and publish the National Strategy for School Libraries. Over the course of 8 years we have provided over £1.8 million via the School Libraries Improvement Fund to enhance school library provision.

Scottish Ministers have been clear on their desire to ensure greater islander representation on the Boards of David MacBrayne Ltd and CMAL. Previous recruitments have resulted on at least one board member in each organisation who has the skills required for the role and is also an islander. We will continue to work hard with both Boards to fully explore all options that will result in encouraging more island residents to apply for future Board opportunities.

A number of forums exist which provide an opportunity for stakeholders to discuss disabled student and graduate outcomes.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) have regular contact with the College Development Network’s Equality Diversity and Inclusion network, which brings together equality leads from Scotland’s colleges. SFC are also developing a relationship with the Scottish Equality Forum, a network which brings together equality leads from across Scotland’s universities and college to provide support to each other on addressing inequality in the sector.

Additionally, through the development of the proposed Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill, 3 Bill Advisory Panels were established early last year to co-develop proposals. This includes stakeholder and practitioner panels and a lived experience panel. Those panels provide a forum for wider discussion of the challenges and barriers faced by autistic and neurodivergent people, including their experiences of education.

And in September 2024, the Scottish Government published its Student Mental Health Action Plan which sets out, for the first time, a mainstreamed approach to student mental health. The Scottish Government will work in partnership with NHS Boards, CoSLA, Public Health Scotland and community based providers to join up support that is already available, embedding support for students into the wider communities in which they live and study.