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On 24 January 2023, Scottish Government provided a summary update on progress towards implementing the recommendations in the 2019 Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly (BBF) report to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee. At that time, a commitment was made to provide a more detailed report on progress in 2024.

Subsequently, it was decided to incorporate the BBF recommendations within the Breastfeeding and Infant Feeding Strategic Framework 2025-2030 through the overarching strategic goals, and to provide a further update on progress throughout that document. The Health, Social Care and Sport Committee has been informed of this approach.

All NHS Boards employ maternity service staff who are trained to deal with alcohol-related issues.

In June 2025, we published our five-year Breastfeeding and Infant feeding framework 2025-2030, which incorporates recommendations from the Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly (BBF) 2019 report, our longer term aims and sets out our detailed delivery plan over the next year.

This framework sets out our ongoing commitment to the Unicef UK Babyfriendly accreditation, and we continue to fund Achieving Sustainability Assessments, foundational training, and the Scottish Lead post.

In 2023-24 the Scottish Government permanently transferred funding to Health Boards for Maternal and Infant Nutrition as part of the Outcomes Framework funding, which covers a wider range of outcomes. The published Scottish Budget for 2025-2026 includes £72.2m within the NHS Boards budget for the Outcomes Framework. It is up to Health Boards to decide how much of this funding to allocate to each outcome. In 2025-26 territorial Health Boards received an overall cash uplift of 3%.

From 2025-26 the Scottish Government is permanently transferring over £0.8 million further investment into the baseline budgets of NHS Boards to provide a sustainable basis for funding for interventions to support breastfeeding, which can include peer support, following an additional investment of over £11 million since 2018.

In 2023-24 the Scottish Government permanently transferred funding to Health Boards for Maternal and Infant Nutrition as part of the Outcomes Framework funding, which covers a wider range of outcomes. The published Scottish Budget for 2025-2026 includes £72.2m within the NHS Boards budget for the Outcomes Framework. It is up to Health Boards to decide how much of this funding to allocate to each outcome. In 2025-26 territorial Health Boards received an overall cash uplift of 3%.

From 2025-26 the Scottish Government is permanently transferring over £0.8 million further investment into the baseline budgets of NHS Boards to provide a sustainable basis for funding for interventions to support breastfeeding, which can include peer support, following an additional investment of over £11 million since 2018.

The scale and stability of breastfeeding peer support has been strengthened as a result of targeted multi-year funding, optimising breastfeeding peer support in communities through locally driven decision making, strong partnership working and collaborations. In particular localised approaches which are effective in addressing breastfeeding inequalities and accessibility of support, as well as the growth of coverage across the volunteer and peer support landscape to include multiple Third sector organisations and in-house NHS volunteers.

All pre-registration midwifery courses validated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) as meeting the required proficiencies for registration as a midwife include theoretical and practice education in recognising, assessing, planning and responding to pre-existing and emerging complications from alcohol misuse/withdrawal.

The NMC Standards of proficiency for midwives (NMC 2023) are available online at https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/standards/2024/standards-of-proficiency-for-midwives.pdf

Post-registration CPD is a matter for individual NHS Boards. The information requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government’s National Carers Strategy published in December 2022 sets out a cross-government approach to tackling issues that affect carers, including through health and social care policies. The Strategy sets out our intentions regarding carers’ healthcare at chapter 3. We considered whether it was feasible to provide flexible health appointments for carers, including replacement care for appointments as part of the implementation process of the Strategy.

Following comprehensive scoping work and engagement across Scottish Government, we are focusing on strengthening signposting and guidance to ensure carers can make the most of existing provisions, particularly where appointment slots are available within current practice frameworks. This approach will help us deliver practical improvements while continuing to explore longer-term opportunities for collaboration and innovation.

Unpaid carers have rights under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 to an adult carer support plan (or young carer statement) looking at their caring situation and needs for support. That needs to take account of the extent to which they are willing and able to provide care, which would be impacted by a need for medical treatment.

Such plans should include information about whether there are arrangements in place for the provision of care to the cared-for person in an emergency and arrangements for future care planning. Both of these aspects should provide an opportunity for agreeing how care will be provided should the carer need medical treatment. Carers also have rights to have their plan reviewed when there is a material change to their caring situation, such as the need for medical treatment or a hospital stay.

The 2016 Act also places a duty on local authorities and relevant health boards to jointly prepare a local carer strategy which must include their plans for helping carers put arrangements in place for the provision of care in emergencies. Local authorities must also establish an information and advice service for carers, which should offer information and advice about emergency and future care planning for carers in their area.

The Scottish Government published its response to Dr Colin Church’s second and final report of the Independent Review on the Role of Incineration in Scotland’s Waste Hierarchy (the Review) on 5 May 2023, which focused on options to decarbonise the residual waste infrastructure in Scotland.

In its response, the Scottish Government accepted Recommendation 17, that the Scottish Government and SEPA should put in place by 2025 robust arrangements to stop fossil-based plastic from being incinerated in Scotland from the beginning of 2030, except where required for hazardous waste disposal”, in principle. While the Scottish Government agrees that phasing out the incineration of plastic waste is key to decarbonisation, our approach must be balanced, as banning it outright could lead to an increase in inappropriate disposal.

Our Circular Economy and Waste Route Map (published in December 2024) sets out a series of ongoing and future policy commitments to deliver increased reuse and recycling in accordance with our Circular Economy goals and help drive the reduction in fossil-based plastics going to incineration.

This includes policies such as banning single use plastic items (came into force in 2022), the implementation of the packaging extended producer responsibility scheme (first payments in November 2025), the proposal to expand the UK Emissions Trading Scheme to include fossil-based emissions from incineration (from 2028) and a new, statutory household recycling Code of Practice to be co-designed with local authorities and other stakeholders (to be available for public consultation by the end of 2026).

We are also making one of the biggest investments in a generation to modernise recycling in Scotland through the Recycling Improvement Fund. A total of £66.6 million has now been allocated to 27 local authorities for 48 projects to increase the quantity and quality of recycling across Scotland. We are funding a range of improvements, including boosting Scotland’s capacity to recycle problematic materials like plastic films, which must be collected from households and businesses by 31 March 2027.

The Scottish Government published its response to Dr Colin Church’s second and final report of the Independent Review on the Role of Incineration in Scotland’s Waste Hierarchy (the Review) on 5 May 2023, which focused on options to decarbonise the residual waste infrastructure in Scotland.

In its response, the Scottish Government accepted Recommendation 17, that the Scottish Government and SEPA should put in place by 2025 robust arrangements to stop fossil-based plastic from being incinerated in Scotland from the beginning of 2030, except where required for hazardous waste disposal”, in principle. While the Scottish Government agrees that phasing out the incineration of plastic waste is key to decarbonisation, our approach must be balanced, as banning it outright could lead to an increase in inappropriate disposal.

Our Circular Economy and Waste Route Map (published in December 2024) sets out a series of ongoing and future policy commitments to deliver increased reuse and recycling in accordance with our Circular Economy goals and help drive the reduction in fossil-based plastics going to incineration.

This includes policies such as banning single use plastic items (introduced in 2022), the implementation of the packaging extended producer responsibility scheme (first payments in November 2025), the proposal to expand the UK Emissions Trading Scheme to include fossil-based emissions from incineration (from 2028) and a new, statutory household recycling Code of Practice to be co-designed with local authorities and other stakeholders (to be available for public consultation by the end of 2026).

We are also making one of the biggest investments in a generation to modernise recycling in Scotland through the Recycling Improvement Fund. A total of £66.6 million has now been allocated to 27 local authorities for 48 projects to increase the quantity and quality of recycling across Scotland. We are funding a range of improvements, including boosting Scotland’s capacity to recycle problematic materials like plastic films, which must be collected from households and businesses by 31 March 2027.

The Scottish Government’s role is to set the strategic policy direction for the NHS in Scotland. Operational matters relating to the recruitment and retention of allied health professionals are the responsibility of each NHS board as the employer and will depend on individual service needs taking account of national, regional and local priorities as well as the demand for each AHP speciality which will vary by board. It is the expectation that all NHS boards plan and provide safe, effective and high-quality care, in line with their statutory service provision and workforce planning responsibilities considering current turnover, retention, absence rates and budgets.

Public Health Scotland collects data and monitors progress on the Alcohol Brief Intervention (ABI) programme. NHS Boards have the responsibility for collecting information and data on ABIs delivered and for providing PHS with this information. PHS publishes its data, which can be found at the link here.

Alcohol Brief Interventions - Search the datasets - National Datasets - National Data Catalogue - Health intelligence and data management - Resources and tools - Public Health Scotland

PHS published an evaluation of the ABI programme in October 2024 which included recommendations for a refreshed approach and paused its data collection in early 2025. The refreshed programme is being developed for inclusion in our forthcoming Alcohol and Drugs Strategic Plan.