Seòmar agus comataidhean

We remain focused on delivering the next phase of our free school meal expansion programme, which is to Primary 6 & 7 pupils in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment and will deliver this within the parliamentary term. We are committed to universal expansion in primary schools when the financial circumstances allow.

We review the eligibility criteria for free school meals regularly to take account of changes to the national living wage. The eligibility criteria were last updated in April this year.

The Scottish Government, its partners and agencies, have undertaken a range of measures to address the reported decline in capercaillie populations. This includes providing funding through schemes to support capercaillie conservation directly.

Funding has also been awarded to projects that would indirectly benefit capercaillie conservation. This could include supporting new pine wood planting in capercaillie areas, the management and improvement of existing habitat as well as its extension through actions such as controlling deer numbers, fence marking or removal, and thinning to improve light levels. Funding has been awarded to estates as well as eNGOs and individuals and we expect this to continue.

NatureScot is working closely with the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) to support capercaillie conservation in Scotland. Last year NatureScot’s Scientific Advisory Committee provided advice on possible measures that could be taken to save capercaillie.(Measures to save capercaillie)

In June 2023, the Scottish Government requested that the CNPA and NatureScot work with stakeholders to look at ways to improve capercaillie populations. The publication of this work, known as the Capercaillie Emergency Plan 2025-2030, was published on 30 September 2024 and can be found on the CNPA website here .

The plan identifies priority actions that public, private and third sector organisations will take to promote capercaillie numbers within the Cairngorms National Park. These actions include looking at expanding and improving habitat; reducing the impact of predation; removing and marking; reducing disturbance; capercaillie monitoring; and reinforcement feasibility. We will work with NatureScot and the CNPA, as well as other partners, to monitor progress as our efforts to support capercaillie in Scotland continue.

Ensuring individuals have access to Primary Care is a key component in tackling the Drug Crisis we face in Scotland, MAT Standard 7 specifies ‘All people have the option of MAT shared with Primary Care’

The Scottish Government provides funding to the Royal College of General Practitioners to deliver the Certificate in Management of Problem Drug Use. This supports primary care professionals within Scotland to provide care for people who experience problem drug use.

Those who have undertaken the course report improved knowledge of the MAT standards and how to appropriately incorporate these into clinical practice.

The Scottish Government also provides funding to Scottish Recovery Consortium to deliver the Humanising Healthcare Conversation Café project. This is a project which provides medical students across Scotland with the opportunity to engage with people with lived experience of substance use through guided roundtable discussions in medical schools across Scotland.

Scotland’s River Basin Management Plans 2021-2027 (RBMP) set out a range of actions aiming to improve the overall condition of Scotland’s water environment by 2027.

The Scottish Government invested almost £5m last year in the Water Environment Fund, a key element of the RBMP. Work continues this year providing access to rivers for migratory fish and restoring urban rivers providing benefits for biodiversity, climate change adaptation and flood management.

The most up to date RBMP classification information is available at the water classification hub.

Public Health Scotland’s (PHS) MAT Standards Implementation Team (MIST) has a role in working with and supporting Scotland’s Alcohol and Drug Partnerships in collating information from frontline services and partners that are used for Benchmarking on all 10 MAT standards.

Awareness-raising for the MAT standards would be led through the local Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs), the services they commission and Primary Care representatives in health boards.

We outlined our plans to reform and modernise mental health legislation in Scotland in our “Mental Health Capacity Reform: Delivery Plan” published in June 2024 (Mental Health and Capacity Reform: delivery plan October 2023 to April 2025 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)).

The plan sets out the recommendations of the Scottish Mental Health Law Review (SMHLR) that will be considered in the short to medium term. We have sought to prioritise areas of potential change that can be achieved as quickly as possible, within existing resources, as well as starting new work to scope and develop options for future reform. This includes work to consider various aspects of the scope of compulsory care and treatment within the 2003 Act; work around the operation of named persons within the mental health tribunal system; and advance statement safeguards.

We are taking staged approach to mental health law reform due to the scope, complexity, and inter-related nature of the SMHLR recommendations with other significant ongoing policy developments. This approach recognises the pressure on budgets and services and the challenges of delivering further change and reform at a time when there is significant wider transformation across the health and social care sectors.

We outlined our plans to reform and modernise mental health legislation in Scotland in our “Mental Health Capacity Reform: Delivery Plan” published in June 2024 (Mental Health and Capacity Reform: delivery plan October 2023 to April 2025 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)).

The plan lists several actions under the priority of Mental Health Law reform. One of these is that we will consider whether the Mental Health Tribunal should have a role in appointing a named person and in what circumstances that provision might apply. Scoping work for this is well underway but further work is needed to inform that position.

In line with the recommendation made in the Scrutiny and Assurance Review, we have been working with the Care Inspectorate, Mental Welfare Commission and Healthcare Improvement Scotland to develop a framework for scrutiny and assurance in mental health. We are in the process of agreeing this with scrutiny bodies and aim to publish shortly.

The initial Delivery Plan for the Mental Health and Capacity Reform Programme published in June 2024 set out a range of actions being taken forward under Adults with Incapacity (AWI) and mental health law reform.

In terms of reforming capacity legislation, the AWI Amendment Act consultation was published in July and will run to October 2024 (Adults with Incapacity Amendment Act: consultation - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space). This builds on previous consultation work undertaken in this area and takes account of the targeted discussions that have taken place over the past year with stakeholders around specific policy proposals.

The Programme for Government 2024-25 which was published in September confirms that the Adults with Incapacity Bill will form part of the Year 4 Legislative Programme and officials have been working to progress this.

As part of work to progress mental health legislative reform, we have undertaken extensive engagement with partners to consider various aspects of the scope of compulsory care and treatment within the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003, with a view to developing potential options for change. We have also begun scoping work to consider recommendations around named persons and advanced statements.