Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29341 on 25 September 2024. 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/written-questions-and-answers.

The Scottish Government remains committed to reducing the significant impact of alcohol harm on the nation’s health through a range of measures including the forthcoming increase to Minimum Unit Pricing. However, we also recognise the calls for football fans to have the same opportunities as fans at other sports and events and we will continue to engage with the football authorities, supporters groups and clubs on ways to enhance the fan experience.

The Scottish Government recognises the incredible contribution that Scotland’s unpaid carers, including our young carers, make to our communities as well as the pressures many carers are under.

The Young Carers Package, delivered by Young Scot, was put in place to provide additional benefits and opportunities for young carers. The Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 defines a young carer as someone who provides (or intends to provide) care who is under 18 (or over 18 and still at school). The package is designed to support children and young people who are not eligible for social security benefits and other support available to young adults.

In recognition of the fact that transitioning from being a young carer to an adult carer can be difficult, as young people look towards work or further or higher education, the package includes a transition bundle to provide extra benefits before young carers turn 19. There is a Young Scot webpage with further information on the transition bundle and young carers transitions more generally at: www.young.scot/get-informed/young-carers-transitions

I would encourage anyone providing unpaid care to contact their social work department or local carer centre to find out what support they may be able to offer.

The Scottish Government continues to fund the charity, Health in Mind, to deliver a specialist peer service to those affected by historic forced adoption. This is in direct response to feedback from people with lived experience for this type of support.

Funding has totalled over £73,000 to date, (£23,389 in 2022-2023 and £49,276 in 2023-2024). Health in Mind continues to promote the service across Scotland and raise awareness of the impact of historic forced adoption practices. Further details of the service are available at: https://health-in-mind.org.uk/how-we-can-help/national-services/historic-adoption-trauma-support-service/

Funding allocated to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) is for both alcohol and drug treatment services. In 2024-25, £112.9 million has been made available to ADPs. ADPs decide how this money is spent in their local areas to meet the needs of those who live there and experience drug and/or alcohol harms.

The then Minister for Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing issued a letter to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) supporting the release of Alcohol Focus Scotland’s guidance on undertaking alcohol death reviews on 24 September 2020. The letter asked that ADPs undertake an alcohol death review every three years.

We are currently working with both Alcohol Focus Scotland and Public Health Scotland to review how alcohol death reviews are being delivered in Scotland and also what learning can be taken from the delivery of drugs death reviews.

These findings will feature in the national specification for treatment of drug and alcohol misuse in Scotland which is currently in development and will build on the recommendations of the forthcoming UK Clinical Guidelines for Alcohol Treatment.

It is our expectation that future Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) funding letters will ask ADPs to undertake local alcohol death reviews .

Ethical commissioning was defined in the Bill, as introduced, as making arrangements for services in ways which were consistent with the NCS Principles. As a consequence of the agreement reached on shared accountability for the NCS these specific provisions were removed. There will be other requirements placed on relevant bodies to comply with the NCS Principles more widely which will achieve the same intent for ethical considerations to be embedded in commissioning and procurement of NCS services. Therefore the intent within the Bill remains unchanged.

We will carefully consider the responses to the Scottish Parliament’s call for views.

We recognise that the current situation in respect of disabled young people's transitions must improve, and remain fully committed to developing a strategy which recognises the urgency of the improvements we have heard are required whilst also allowing sufficient time to support the meaningful engagement and participation of those impacted by the strategy.

We are currently analysing our recent engagement with over 500 people, including disabled young people themselves. Following this, we will further develop the timeline for the strategy to ensure that it can be published alongside a range accessible formats. I commit to writing to the Member in due course to provide a further update on this.

The Scottish Government faces a very challenging situation as we continue to manage our finances through the current financial year and look to set the Scottish Budget for 2025-26.

Notwithstanding the very difficult financial situation, we are delivering a range of actions which contribute to improving transitions for disabled young people. This includes:

• Providing almost £400k in grant funding between 2023-25 to ARC Scotland to continue the work of the Scottish Transitions Forum and to support the wider implementation of Principles into Practice and Compass.
• Investing nearly £19m since opening at the end of 2017 in the Independent Living Fund Scotland’s Transition Fund to support young disabled people to make a smoother transition from childhood into adulthood.
• Providing £361k in 2024-25 for Enable Scotland (Leading the Way)’s ‘Stepping Up’ transitions programme, which connects disabled young people to fair work, education and productive activities designed to support a successful transition into adult life and work.

We are currently undertaking analysis of our recent engagement with over 500 people to identify what currently works well and what could be even better, in order to consider possible actions for the strategy. The costs of the final strategy will be determined by the actions which are ultimately included in it.

In addition to the £600 million announced in December 2017, the Scottish Government has invested an additional £20 million with the UK Government's Project Gigabit programme contributing a further £31 million. This further investment has been deployed via the R100 contracts to extend and enhance the coverage footprint.

The R100 contracts form only one part of the overall R100 programme. The R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) is demand-led and, as such, there is no pre-determined amount of funding allocated for delivering connections via SBVS. As of 31st August 2024, £10 million has been paid to suppliers to deliver connections via SBVS.

These figures are rounded to the nearest million pounds.