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The Scottish Government is committed to providing financial support for bereaved people on a low-income.

Funeral Support Payment has provided £51.1 million of support to over 26,000 people since launching in September 2019. The average award for 2024-25, up to 30 June 2024, is £2,065. There is a statutory duty to uprate the payment and in 2024/25 we increased the flat rate payment by 6.7%.

We are committed to continually reviewing and improving Funeral Support Payment; we substantially widened eligibility compared to the UK Government’s Funeral Expenses Payment at launch and have recently introduced legislation to make further improvements.

As I made clear in the Chamber on 18 September during Portfolio Questions in reply to Katy Clark MSP, Police Scotland does not recognise those figures. Indeed Assistant Chief Constable Emma Bond said:

"It is misleading and inaccurate to suggest that non-emergency 101 calls are being left unanswered, missed, or are disconnected by our call handlers.”

This position was reinforced by DCC Bex Smith at the Scottish Police Authority Policing Performance Committee meeting of 18 September.

Many discontinued 101 calls will be cases where callers have been instructed to hang up and dial 999, they have decided to redial and select another option from a pre-recorded menu, or they have realised they should be calling another agency.

I am very grateful for the hard work of Police Scotland’s call handlers to ensure all calls to the service are answered as quickly and as safely as possible.

Under the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act VisitScotland have a duty to prepare and publish guidance for local authorities on the introduction and administration of a visitor levy. Whilst that guidance is for local authorities, it will be of interest to businesses and other organisations. Scottish Ministers are currently considering that guidance, as required under section 23 of the Act. Local authorities are best placed to provide guidance to businesses in their area on the specific visitor levy schemes they decide to put in place.

Creating Hope Together, our 10 year joint suicide prevention strategy with COSLA, adopts a whole of government and society approach to reducing suicide in Scotland. This allows us to focus on tackling the social determinants of suicide such as poverty, which also presents increased risk for alcohol addiction; and we are taking forward work to join up mental health and addiction support. For example, Healthcare Improvement Scotland has recently produced an exemplar joint working protocol for mental health and substance use services, which draws on best practice from across the country and internationally. We are also prioritising suicide prevention training for the workforce supporting people with addictions.

In developing the Creating Hope Together strategy, and the associated 3 year action plan, we reviewed all available evidence on suicide, including risk factors such as alcohol addiction. This was complemented by extensive engagement with communities and partners across Scotland. The delivery of our strategy continues to be evidence informed and guided by our suicide prevention Academic Advisory Group whose most recent research on the risk and protective factors associated with suicide includes analysis of alcohol related factors. Insights from such research, along with those from our suicide prevention lived experience panels, are informing the design and delivery of interventions which meet the needs of different groups and communities, including those with addiction issues.

The full suite of Academic Advisory Group reports on suicide prevention research can be accessed through the Suicide Behaviour Research Lab site.

I wrote to the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee on 13 September 2024 to give the Scottish Government’s response to the latest progress update on the delivery of MV Glen Sannox.

Since then, liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuel has been successfully loaded on to MV Glen Sannox and sea trails to test those systems commenced on 20 September. Work on the vessel will continue in the coming weeks, with a further set of sea trials planned for the end of September.

There are no statutory deadlines or timescales for Scottish Ministers to consider reports from the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division.

There are three specialist endometriosis centres which accept patients from across Scotland when specialist surgery for complex endometriosis is required.

This was recommended as the optimal approach for effective treatment by a specialist working group of clinicians and representatives from patient groups and Endometriosis UK. There are no plans to establish a specialist centre within every NHS Board.

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.

The responsibility for development and delivery of flood protection schemes rests with individual local authorities, who are best placed to respond to local resilience needs.

The Scottish Government provides funding to local authorities to enable delivery of these important projects. £570million will be invested in flood resilience in the period 2016-2026. 40 of 42 have received funding to support development. 2 are not eligible because they have previously received funding.

15 of the cycle 1 flood schemes have now been completed. The status of those that remain is as follows:

The Scottish Government maintains regular and ongoing communication with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on shared priorities. The Scottish Government and UKHSA do this through formal meetings, working groups, and collaborative efforts on public health issues such as disease surveillance, pandemic preparedness, emerging health threats and emergency response. UKHSA also provides expert advice and support to Public Health Scotland and other relevant bodies to ensure a coordinated approach to health security across the UK.

This collaboration plays a vital role in ensuring robust public health surveillance, managing health risks effectively and protecting Scotland’s population.