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Alcohol death reviews are a valuable practice for Alcohol and Drug Partnerships to undertake in order to gain a deeper and more detailed understanding of the circumstances surrounding alcohol-specific deaths. To assess to what extent the people who have died were in touch with local services, what interventions had taken place, whether there is an identifiable profile of the people who are suffering an alcohol-specific death and whether there are lessons that can be learned, changes or improvements that can be made to services to prevent future deaths in the local area.

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.

A delayed discharge occurs when a hospital patient (aged 18 or over) who is clinically ready for discharge from inpatient hospital care continues to occupy a hospital bed beyond the date they are ready for discharge. Public Health Scotland hold data relating to people aged 18 and over affected by delayed discharge.

Data for August 2024 is not yet available as it is due to be published on 1 October 2024. Therefore Table 1 presents the total number of people aged 18 or over who faced a period of delay, for any reason, in NHS Western Isles between 1 January and 31 July 2024.

Table 1: Number of people1 who faced a period of delay in NHS Western Isles hospitals in the period 1 January 2024 to 31 July 2024, by age group.

We are aware of two alcohol death reviews that have been conducted since 2020. These were completed by the Borders Alcohol and Drug Partnership and NHS Fife.

The National Mission was established to improve and save lives of people impacted by drugs. However, given that many of the improvements to services, such as residential rehabilitation, included as part of the Mission are integrated for both alcohol and drugs, the work of the Mission has always been helping save and improve the lives of people impacted by alcohol as well. There is also a significant cohort of people whose lives have been impacted by both alcohol and drugs.

Seven improvement works were re-scheduled in the Highland Council Area. One set of repair works was re-scheduled in the Highland Council Area. All programmed works for the period in question have been completed.

We have asked Public Health Scotland (PHS) to investigate the reasons behind the apparent 40% reduction in the number of people accessing specialist alcohol treatment services. We will use this information to better understand the reasons for treatment number decline and how we can improve and better support alcohol treatment services in Scotland.

Under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 (LRSA) there is a right of responsible non-motorised access to land throughout Scotland with few exceptions. The rights and responsibilities of land managers and those exercising access rights are set out in the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, also approved by the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish Government is clear that the countryside is a living and working environment and that there is a need to balance the right of the land manager to conduct their activities with the upholding of access rights. I will continue to co-develop future support with our industry and partners to ensure that together we deliver on the outcomes of the Vision for Agriculture.

As part of the development of the measures outlined in the Pre-budget Fiscal Update, all Portfolios assessed the impact of specific measures relevant to their portfolios. The Scottish Government approach to impact assessments is guided by meeting our statutory duties whilst ensuring our approach is proportionate, noting that a full analysis will continue to be provided annually as part of the Scottish Budget process.

The savings realised from the Health Improvement and Protection budget do not have any impact on, or reduction to, planned spending on diet & healthy weight or effective prescribing and therapeutics.