Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government continues to work with the sector, stakeholders and the scientific community to explore practical ways to address interactions between salmon and seals in rivers.

In spring 2021 Scottish Government in partnership with Crown Estate Scotland published a report which reviewed measures that have been adopted globally and which could assist in developing non-lethal strategies to address seal predation on salmonids in Scottish rivers, as well as setting out a number of assessments and recommendations for use of, or further development of, specific measures - Review of non-lethal seal control options to limit seal predation on salmonids in rivers and at finfish farms | Marine Scotland Data Publications .

Building on the recommendations of the report, the Scottish Government continues to support practical work to investigate and develop non-lethal deterrent tools for use by wild salmonid fisheries. This is an ongoing work programme and, progress reports can be found on the Sea Mammal Research Unit’s Marine Mammal Scientific Support to Scottish Government | SMRU (st-andrews.ac.uk) .

There are 3652 waterbodies in total in Scotland, as defined by SEPA in the third River Basin Management Plan. A waterbody can relate to whole or parts of rivers, canals, lochs, estuaries, ground or coastal waters of a particular size as defined by the Water Framework Directive (WFD).

The Scottish monitoring network was designed within the framework of the WFD with EU monitoring guidance and principles laid down by the UK Technical Advisory Group (UKTAG). In order to monitor and report classification efficiently SEPA utilises modelling and risk assessment to group some surface waters and groundwaters, taking account of factors such as size, altitude and the challenges they face. One waterbody from that group is then monitored, and the classification produced is used for the other waterbodies in the group. This means over 1/3 of the total number of waterbodies have been regularly monitored for water quality.

Approximately 1/10 of all waterbodies are included in SEPA’s long term surveillance monitoring programme, which provides a representative overview of the overall state of the water environment. This is supplemented by additional targeted monitoring at higher risk sites, covering approximately 1/5 of all water bodies.

The frequency of water quality monitoring varies depending on the level of environmental risk, to ensure that resources are targeted at areas where evidence is most needed. Annual assessments at most of the monitored water bodies involves monitoring between 1 and 12 times in the year. The remainder of the water bodies are assessed on every two to six years.

SEPA has also adopted a risk-based approach to the monitoring of Water Framework Directive priority substances. This means that the extent and type of monitoring is targeted to the relevant substance in question. This monitoring is targeted at relevant sectors, where emissions of these substances to the environment occur and is focused on small numbers of waterbodies linked with the locations of these sectors. River Basin Management Planning classification is published annually and includes an assessment of priority substances, which are in general monitored on a quarterly to monthly frequency over the year.

As part of a suite of measures introduced on 1 February 2022, dentists now receive an enhanced examination fee for seeing patients, including a new additional child examination fee. These changes also included the extension of Childsmile fees for children and young people up to 17 years of age (before up to 5 years of age), and fluoride varnish application between 2 and 12 years of age (before between 2 and 5 years of age). Childsmile fees are weighted so that NHS dental teams receive three times the payment for children from SIMD areas 1 and 2.

The Childsmile Programme has an emphasis on prevention, rather than treatment, and has resulted in significant improvements in children's oral health through being delivered via nursery schools, primary schools, and dental practices, and includes free, daily, supervised toothbrushing, the application of fluoride varnish, and dietary and oral hygiene advice.

Grants towards the cost of flood resilient repairs and/or protection measures for individual homes are available from some local authorities. For example, the Scottish Borders Council make flood protection products available through a discount scheme. Further details are available through the attached link FINAL_Subsidised_Flood_Protection_Products_June_2021 (1).pdf or from the Council.

The Scottish Flood Forum, a charity funded by the Scottish Government, can provide households with informed impartial help and guidance in making the best choice of property flood protection. They can arrange a community Property Flood Protection Exhibition to show householders what options are available to help them reduce flood risks at homes and can arrange to carry out assessments of individual homes on request.

In recognition of the importance of reducing flood risk the Scottish Government has provided, since 2008, a total of £42 million a year through the General Capital Grant to local authorities to allow them to invest in flood protection measures. In addition the 2020 Programme for Government committed an additional £150 million over the course of this Parliament for flood risk management actions.

The Scottish Government publishes quarterly National Statistics on crimes recorded by the police. This includes recorded crimes of 'Theft of a motor vehicle' which covers both cars and other motor vehicle types. These have fallen substantially over the longer term, with a 69% reduction from 15,000 in 2006-07 to 4,691 in the year ending June 2022. In terms of the last five years, levels have remained fairly constant, except for a significant fall in the year ending June 2021, that may have been a consequence of pandemic-related restrictions. The number of crimes recorded in each of the last five years for the year ending in June is set out in the following table.

There are no plans to discontinue national standardised assessments for P1 learners. The Scottish Government commissioned David Reedy to conduct an independent review of the assessments for P1 children in response to motion S5M-13945. The Reedy review (2019) concluded that the P1 SNSA was compatible with a play-based approach to learning, had valuable potential and should continue. The report further identified “scant evidence of children becoming upset when taking the P1 SNSA” – a finding which is borne out by pupil survey responses from P1 learners in 2021/22, which indicate 92% of children felt happy completing their assessments.

The Scottish Government remains committed to achieving elimination of Hepatitis C (HCV) in Scotland by 2024. We are pleased that excellent progress has been made to date, despite the additional challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. An update on the progress of this work has recently been published by Public Health Scotland, and the report can be found here: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/media/15549/surveillance-of-hepatitis-c-in-scotland-oct22.pdf

Clinicians and carers across Scotland are encouraged to identify those with risk factors for HCV and test them. To support this activity, the Hepatitis C Clinical Leads Group of the Scottish Health Protection Network (SHPN) published Recommendations on Hepatitis C Virus Case-finding and Access to Care in 2019, and this can be found at: https://hps.scot.nhs.uk/web-resources-container/recommendations-on-hepatitis-c-virus-case-finding-and-access-to-care/

In 2019, NHS Tayside were world-leading in eliminating HCV within their Health Board area, a key part of their strategy involved innovative testing models using community pharmacy. Officials are exploring what a national roll out of that approach requires.

The Scottish Government remains committed to reaching its target of eliminating Hepatitis C (HCV) in Scotland by 2024, whilst recognising the impact that the covid-19 pandemic has had across all our health services.

In 2019, the Scottish Health Protection Network established the Hepatitis C Elimination Implementation Group to oversee and monitor the implementation of the Scottish Government’s Hepatitis C Elimination Strategy. Including hard to reach populations in efforts to eliminate Hepatitis C is fundamental to the Elimination Strategy, and this issue is therefore regularly considered by the Group, which meets four times per year. Along with representatives from Scottish Government, the Group is made up of clinicians, representatives from NHS health boards, and primary care and prevention leads.

In addition, in 2021 the Scottish Government provided funding to NHS Tayside to deliver the Cocoon project, which provided point of care BBV testing and treatment to people who inject drugs, whilst integrating wound care, naloxone provision and other harm reducing measures.

As the Edinburgh International Film Festival and Edinburgh Filmhouse were both part of the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI), any meetings and correspondence would have been with the CMI. The last meeting the First Minister had with the CMI was as part of the All Festivals Reception at Bute House on 8 August 2022. The last meeting the Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture had with the CMI was as part of the Closing Gala of the EIFF 2022 on 20 August 2022. At both meetings, the 2022 EIFF programme and the value of the screen industry to Scotland were discussed.

In the last year, there has been no correspondence between the First Minister and the CMI. The CMI last wrote to the Cabinet Secretary on 26 September 2022, outlining the financial challenges it was facing. This correspondence also highlighted that the CMI had highlighted the matter to officials at the Scottish Government and with Creative Scotland and Edinburgh City Council.

Students in further or higher education currently experiencing financial hardship should apply to their college or university for support from Discretionary Funds. We have provided £16.8m in hardship funding for the current academic year to support higher education students experiencing financial hardship, in addition to free tuition in Scotland and a range of bursary support.

I have urged college and university principals to continue to prioritise hardship funds to students most in need, taking account the impact of rising energy bills.