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The Scottish Government provides funding annually to Health Boards for smoking cessation and prevention services. The funding is provided as part of a wider Outcomes Framework allocation, whereby budget is provided to Health Boards to cover a range of outcomes. It is up to Health Boards to decide how much of this funding to allocate to each outcome. The published Scottish Budget for 2025-2026 includes £72.2 million for the Outcomes Framework.

The Scottish Government provides funding annually to Health Boards for smoking cessation and prevention services. The funding is provided as part of a wider Outcomes Framework allocation, whereby budget is provided to Health Boards to cover a range of outcomes. It is up to Health Boards to decide how much of this funding to allocate to each outcome. The published Scottish Budget for 2025-2026 includes £72.2 million for the Outcomes Framework.

We have made £3 million available this year for Police Scotland specifically to work alongside retailers to tackle crime affecting their sector, which costs businesses millions each year and has a knock-on effect on the prices we pay in the shops. This forms part of a record investment of £1.64 billion for policing this year – an increase of £90 million on 2024-25.

Police Scotland’s action plan aims to tackle retail crime through a number of specific actions on how to prevent such incidents and pursue those responsible. The newly-established Retail Crime Taskforce will target repeat offenders of retail crime by using analytical data and intelligence to carry out proactive enforcement activities in areas most heavily impacted.

The team will also engage with retailers to identify ways in which they can enhance security and crime prevention measures in place and reduce incidents occurring.

The Scottish Government’s investment will also be used to develop diversionary programmes aimed at reducing reoffending and youth offending, with a focus on the role of organised crime.

We have also provided over £6 million to implement actions within the Violence Prevention Framework for Scotland, since 2023, which specifically seeks to prevent violence from happening and if and when it does occur, to reduce the harm.

The Scottish Government welcomes the Lancet Commission’s research, which highlights that up to 60% of liver cancer cases are preventable through reducing alcohol consumption, tackling obesity, and increasing hepatitis vaccination.

Preventing more cancers is a key ambition of our 10 year Cancer Strategy for Scotland 2023-2033 and Cancer Action Plan for Scotland 2023 – 2026. We are taking actions to reduce the consumption of alcohol, to promote healthy weight, increase hepatitis vaccinations and to address health inequalities – all key contributors to liver cancer risk.

These include delivering on the 20 actions within our Alcohol Framework which sets out our priorities for preventing alcohol-related harm, developing an implementation plan of preventative actions to improve Scotland’s food environment and continuing to target support for babies born to hepatitis B positive mothers. Encouragingly, Public Health Scotland (PHS) published data shows strong uptake of the hepatitis B vaccine in children (over 94%).

We are also working with PHS and NHS Boards to strengthen adult vaccination uptake, improve data systems, and reduce inequalities in access to vaccination.

Cancer remains a national priority, within the Scottish Government and across NHS Scotland. Our 10 year Cancer Strategy for Scotland 2023-2033 and Cancer Action Plan for Scotland 2023 – 2026 set out a comprehensive approach to improving cancer outcomes, with earlier and fast diagnosis a key ambition.

We are working in partnership with Alcohol and Drug Partnerships and NHS Boards to increase awareness of liver disease and support for early detection and treatment. This includes developing a nationwide model for the early detection of alcohol-related liver disease, building on learning from the innovative intelligent Liver Function Testing (iLFT) pilot pioneered by NHS Tayside and the Scottish Government through the National Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD).

We are working with Food Standards Scotland (FSS) and Public Health Scotland (PHS) to develop our Eating Out Eating Well Framework, one of the actions from our Out Of Home Action Plan https://www.gov.scot/publications/diet-and-healthy-weight-out-of-home-action-plan/. The new Framework is designed to help businesses serving food Out Of Home, such as restaurants and cafes, to provide healthier options for customers, and includes developing a Code of Practice for children’s menus.

PHS has recently completed a pilot for our new Eating Out Eating Well Framework. Papers for the pilot and more detail about the Framework have already been published and can be found at: https://eatingouteatingwell.publichealthscotland.scot/

We are also currently working with PHS and FSS to review learnings from the pilot. Once this review has been concluded and its recommendations considered, the Framework will be finalised and published.

The food environment, including promotions, significantly influences the food choices people make, both in and out of home. This report adds further to (the evidence base and) our understanding that promotions can encourage impulse spend and can lead to people buying more than they need, overlooking cheaper and healthier alternatives.

The Scottish Government is taking forward wide ranging action to support people make healthier choices in the out of home sector.

On 17 June, the Scottish Government confirmed that it will introduce regulations to restrict the promotion of food and drink high in fat, sugar or salt to the Scottish Parliament this autumn. These regulations will, amongst other things, restrict unlimited refills for a fixed charge of non-prepacked soft drinks with added sugar in qualifying out of home businesses. Further detail on the final scope of the policy is available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/restricting-promotion-food-drink-high-fat-sugar-salt-hfss-consultation-detail-proposed-regulations-scottish-government-response/.

We are working with Food Standards Scotland and Public Health Scotland to develop our Eating Out Eating Well Framework https://eatingouteatingwell.publichealthscotland.scot/, one of the actions from our Out Of Home Action Plan https://www.gov.scot/publications/diet-and-healthy-weight-out-of-home-action-plan/. The new Framework is designed to help businesses serving food out of home, such as restaurants and cafes, to provide healthier options for customers, and includes developing a Code of Practice for children’s menus. Further detail is set out in the answer to question S6W-39402 on 8 August 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/questions-and-answers.

The Scottish Government will consider further action to improve the food environment, including in out of home settings, under the Population Health Framework.

We plan to introduce amended regulations for charities accounts by the end of 2025. These will raise the audit income threshold for charities registered in Scotland from £500,000 to £1 million. The amended regulations will also include changes to UK accounting standards following a new Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP), which is due to be published in the Autumn.

We acknowledge the recent research findings, which highlight the disproportionate health impacts experienced by women in relation to the covid pandemic. Addressing these inequalities is a core ambition of the Scottish Government.

In August 2021, Scotland was the first country in the UK to publish a Women's Health Plan (https://www.gov.scot/publications/womens-health-plan/documents/). Developed with women and girls, the Plan articulates the commitment that all women and girls enjoy the best possible health, throughout their lives. The next phase of the Plan is currently under development.

Improving health outcomes for women and girls requires the consideration of their specific health needs to address avoidable inequalities. The Women’s Health Plan is a key element within a wider, ongoing programme of work to improve the health and wellbeing of women and girls across Scotland.

Women are also prioritised as one of the at-risk groups within the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund, which has received £81 million in investment since 2021. A further £15 million has been committed for 2026-27 as part of the Scottish Government’s Fairer Funding Pilot, demonstrating our ongoing dedication to supporting those facing the greatest challenges.

On 17 June 2025, the Scottish Government and COSLA co-published a ten-year Scotland's Population Health Framework (PHF) (https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-population-health-framework/), setting out a refreshed cross-government and cross-sector approach to improve Scotland’s population health and reduce inequalities, with a focus on prevention.

While the PHF was developed with a population-wide perspective, it is deliberately designed to enable targeted implementation of its 30 actions. This ensures that priority groups including those with protected characteristics receive tailored support to address their specific needs including women and girls.

The Scottish Government recognises the cumulative impacts of economic shocks including COVID-19 and the subsequent cost-of-living crisis have worsened health inequalities, and understands the impact that debt and money worries can have on mental health and wellbeing across the population.

Improving health and reducing health inequalities across Scotland remains a clear ambition for the Scottish Government. It is progressing a range of work to support the health and wellbeing of people across Scotland, with a focus on supporting groups most at risk of poorer health, including women and those facing socio-economic disadvantage.

In recognition of the continued pressure on household budgets, the Scottish Government will maintain investment of over £3 billion in 2025–26 to support policies focused on tackling poverty and alleviating the rising cost of living.

The Scottish Government’s Population Health Framework, published in June, sets out a refreshed, cross-government and cross-sector approach to improving population health and tackling health inequalities, with a strong emphasis on prevention. The Framework outlines actions across the whole system to improve socio-economic conditions through improving workforce participation, strengthening financial security and increasing local economic resilience.