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There are no current plans to extend the provisions of the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 to cover volunteers in the NHS. There is a staff in scope list available on the Scottish Government website which confirms the professions and services that are covered within the Health section of the Act.

Volunteers in health care services are not referred to in the Act and volunteers who do work in clinical roles in health care, for example as community first responders, while performing an important role, have no minimum contractual requirement, are not rostered on shifts and do not replace clinical employees. For these reasons they are not considered to be within the scope of the Act.

The Act commenced in April 2024 and the Scottish Government and Healthcare Improvement Scotland have been engaging extensively with Health Boards to help them prepare to meet the duties of the Act. The Act is in it’s infancy and the Scottish Government will review it only once several years of data is available to inform a coherent review.

The Scottish Government is currently working to publish the Hydrogen Sector Export Plan (HSEP) after Summer recess. The publication of the HSEP had been previously planned to take place in June 2024. However, the timetable for publication was revisited due to the start of the pre-electoral period on the 25 May 2024 which prevented official publications during this period.

The planning system in Scotland has undergone significant reform in recent years with the introduction of new legislation, policy and guidance. The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 made changes to development planning and consenting regimes to strengthen decision making and enable the delivery of high-quality development. National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) was published in February 2023, following extensive public and Parliamentary consultation and scrutiny. NPF4 Policy 16, Quality Homes, takes an all tenure approach to supporting more quality homes, emphasising delivery and the plan-led approach.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Planner and I published a letter to stakeholders on 27 June 2024, providing further clarification on implementation of NPF4 and policy 16 Quality Homes, and emphasising the need for positive and constructive collaboration across sectors to support delivery.

Following our recent public consultation on Investing in Planning, we are working with partners to progress a range of actions to increase the capacity and improve the performance of planning services. Key actions will be set out in due course.

A Scottish Government public consultation has been published today on a proposal to change the release process for long-term prisoners. This is further to my statement to Parliament of 16 May 2024 about actions required to address the rising prison population.

The consultation seeks views on amending the point at which most long-term prisoners are released under supervision in the community ahead of the end of their sentence. The consultation includes a specific proposal for this point of release to be following two thirds of sentence.

This would mean that the affected prisoners spend less time in custody and more time in the community. In the community, they would be subject to licence conditions, supervision, and recall. Public and victim safety would remain an absolute priority, with specific support and supervision in place reflecting the outcomes of individualised risk assessment.

In addition to helping reduce the pressures on the prison estate, this proposal is also intended to better support the reintegration of long-term prisoners by providing those leaving prison with a more managed return to their communities, with access to the community supports and rehabilitation they need for a longer period of time.

This proposal forms part of a range of measures designed to respond to the rising prison population and responses will inform legislation to be introduced later in 2024.

The consultation paper can be found at https://consult.gov.scot/justice/prisoner-release-process-consultation/ .

The Scottish Government has today published its response to the SLARC report and it is available at : https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836014898 .

Today, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) has laid the multidisciplinary team's full report (SG/2024/132) in Parliament. The CMO is also writing to the Convener of the Health, Social Care and Sport committee to set out the findings of the multidisciplinary team. Given the significant interest, the full report and the CMO's letter will also be published on the Scottish Government website later today.

Pre-election guidance prevented this update from being provided in the run-up to the UK General Election, but a commitment was made to Parliament to provide this at the first opportunity after the restricted period ended.

The conclusions of the report will now be considered and used to improve gender identity healthcare for children and young people. The Scottish Government will update Parliament after recess.

SEPA advises that it has issued a total of 255 Section 59 notices between 2005 and 2024. Data from 1996-2004 is not available due to the cyber-attack on SEPA that happened in 2020.

Section 10 notices can be issued to a land occupier by SEPA and local authorities. SEPA advises that it has issued multiple Section 59 notices to 26 individuals between 2005 and 2023 (earlier data is not available due to the cyber attack on SEPA in 2020). It is not possible to identify when a notice has been issued to a land occupier who is also the land owner. Data on Section 10 notices issued by local authorities is not held centrally.

Recruitment and training of registered mental health professionals is a matter for employers such as NHS boards and Local Authorities. These bodies make informed decisions about recruiting counsellors and psychotherapists or training new mental health practitioners, according to the needs of local service providers and working with relevant professional bodies. The Scottish Government expects employers to apply standards and frameworks which are appropriate to the specialism being recruited for.

In September 2023, we published Mental Health Core Standards , initially applying to adult secondary mental health services. These outline national expectations to boards regarding staffing levels and appropriate skills.

We are committed to discharge this report as soon as reasonably practicable once the Scottish Parliament has reconvened after summer recess.