Seòmar agus comataidhean

Since 2008 the Scottish Government has made available capital funding of £42 million per year to enable local authorities to invest in flood protection measures. Currently 80% of the available £42 million is allocated to prioritised flood schemes and the other 20% is allocated between all 32 councils to introduce, upgrade and maintain other flood resilience measures set out in Local Flood Risk Management Plans.

The 2020 Programme for Government committed an additional £150 million over the course of this Parliament for flood risk management actions, which is being allocated on an annual basis to support the delivery of flood resilience actions.

The Scottish Government has regular discussions on matters relating to its response to climate change, and has no plans to set per capita carbon budgets. In line with international reporting practice and independent advice from the UK Climate Change Committee, Scotland’s statutory climate change targets are set on the basis of long-term reductions in total net territorial emissions, and also include a share of emissions from international aviation and shipping.

Possible reform to homicide law is currently being considered by the Scottish Law Commission. In paragraph 1.27 of the Scottish Law Commission's Homicide Project Discussion paper , it is indicated corporate homicide is one of a number of topics that the Commission will not be considering as part of their project. As paragraph 1.27 and associated footnotes indicates, this is because a Members' Bill was presented to the Scottish Parliament in 2020 in this area of law and the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament made a statement that the Bill was not within the legislative competence of the Parliament.

Within this context, the Scottish Government is not considering any potential reforms to corporate criminal liability with responsibility for any such reform falling to the UK Government.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested. The data we receive from Police Scotland’s Criminal History System for production of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland National Statistics bulletin includes a prosecuted person’s age and sex, but not their profession or details of the context of their case, aside from the main charge, any aggravation(s), the verdict and (if convicted) the sentence given.

Tackling health inequalities and improving population health remain clear, ongoing aims of the Scottish Government, that directly support our cross cutting missions of Equality, Opportunity and Community. We continue to pursue and promote a “health in all policies” approach as we recognise the building blocks of good health require concentrated action across government to maximise income and address socio-economic factors.

We are making progress and have prioritised tackling key drivers for poor health, including poverty and deprivation through a range of measures. This includes investment of £3bn across a range of programmes to support low income households, delivering the Scottish Child Payment, delivering Best Start Bright Futures to tackle child poverty, free school meals and the council tax reduction scheme. We are also delivering Community Link Workers and Welfare Rights Advisors to offer advice on housing, social security and employability issues within GP practices across our rural and deprived communities.

We are also taking forward work to support and encourage positive health behaviours and assuring the impact of our interventions are appropriately considered. This includes conducting Health Inequality Impact Assessments across our Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan, our Alcohol Framework and any future policy planning as we implement our Tobacco and Vaping Framework.

The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with its partners, including Public Health Scotland, at a national and local level to explore ways to drive improvements in health and embed health considerations within wider future policy making. Over the coming months, we will be working closely with our partners across the health and social care system, local authorities and wider stakeholders to develop long term planning for population health and integrated health and social care services.

We recognise the importance of timely access to speech and language therapy. We have increased the flexibility Health Boards have in reducing waiting times, ensuring those with greatest need are seen first, while maximising prevention and early intervention approaches for those waiting. The number of Speech and Language Therapists working in the NHS has also increased by 1.9% (September 2022 - September 2023), this increased staffing will support reduction of waiting times for this service.

‎Also, Scottish Government's Best Start - strategic early learning and school age childcare plan 2022 to 2026, outlined a commitment to invest in work to support early intervention in speech and language. As part of that work six Full Time Equivalent Regional Leads for Early Years Speech and Language have been recruited – in collaboration with Education Scotland.

The leads are based in each region in Scotland, aligned to Regional Improvement Collaboratives. This will improve outcomes for children’s speech and language across Scotland, by setting up new stakeholder networks, supporting frontline staff, promoting quality improvement and learning from best practice.

While the Scottish Government provides the policies, frameworks and resources for high quality healthcare, it is for each NHS Board to decide best how to utilise funding, facilities and staff while taking account of national and local priorities to meet local health needs. We expect NHS Boards to plan their facilities and workforce to deliver these services, ensuring the provision of safe, effective and high quality patient care, delivered by the right professional at the right time.

The vast majority of spending on mental health is delivered through NHS board budgets – and this is not directly affected by the Path to Balance reprioritisation. Between the Scottish Government and NHS boards we expect spending on Mental Health to be well in excess of £1.3 billion in financial year 2023-24.

The 2023-24 direct mental health budget of £260.3 million is still more than double the 2020-21 mental health budget of £117.1 million and will support delivery of the new ten-year Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and recently published delivery plan. The Delivery Plan has been produced with affordability and deliverability within that financial envelope as a primary consideration.

Throughout the development of the Scottish Government and COSLA’s Mental Health & Wellbeing Strategy, we engaged with NHS Boards, Integration Joint Boards, professional bodies, third sector and equalities organisations, and many other partners and stakeholders covering interests across the whole mental health system. This was invaluable in helping to shape the Strategy and subsequent Delivery and Workforce Action Plans.

As an example of feedback from professional bodies following the Strategy’s publication, the British Psychological Society issued a statement supporting the direction of the Strategy, saying they are encouraged by its focus on a promotion of positive mental health, early intervention and prevention, and provision of support. The BPS have welcomed our ‘mental health in all policies’ approach which recognises that factors such as poverty, housing and employment can all have an impact on people’s mental wellbeing. They state that looking holistically at the whole person, considering not just psychological factors but also the social determinants of health, is the right approach.

We will continue to engage widely with medical professionals and other stakeholder groups on future refreshes of the Delivery Plan. This will ensure that we continue to develop actions that make further progress towards the Strategy’s outcomes.

Due to the interruption of dental studies during the pandemic and the need for students to repeat a year of teaching, student places for academic years 2021-22 and 2022-23 were reduced in order to manage capacity within institutions.

Targets for the 2023-24 academic year reflect the resumption of full intake cohorts, aligned to pre-pandemic intake, and can be found here on the Scottish Funding Council website.

The Scottish Government is currently reviewing demand as part of intake modelling for the 2024-25 academic year, and targets will be published by Scottish Funding Council in June 2024.

We have been supporting Scottish Prison Service (SPS) and other partners in delivering an improvement in the GEOAmey contract which has resulted in early positive signs, with a slowdown in staff attrition and improved staff numbers.

SPS is continuing to monitor the performance of the contract carefully to ensure target thresholds are met and we see a level of service which properly meets the needs of the Scottish Justice system.

We fully recognise the importance of access to justice of all those who come into contact with the justice system. We are considering a range of practical options to support this, including increasing the use of virtual custodies. The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) remain committed to returning business to the island courts and are engaged with their justice partners to achieve this.