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Along with the other large household surveys that rely on face-to-face interviews, the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) was suspended in March 2020 to restrict social contact during the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, no SCJS interviews were conducted during 2020-21 and no report will be published for that year. In recognition of the evidence gap opened up by the suspension, the Scottish Government introduced the Scottish Victimisation Telephone Survey as a discrete and additional collection to the SCJS. This asked people about their experiences and perceptions of crime, safety and policing during the COVID-19 pandemic, with findings available at: Coronavirus (COVID-19): Scottish Victimisation Telephone Survey 2020 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Fieldwork for the SCJS resumed in late 2021, with a full year’s worth of interviews due to be complete by December and findings published in mid-2023.

Scottish Ministers are committed to developing a Scottish school milk scheme to replace current subsidy arrangements. We are working with stakeholders and local authority partners to develop a fully funded universal school milk scheme for primary and special schools, and a pilot in secondary schools within the current parliamentary term.

Somerville: Scottish Ministers are committed to developing a Scottish school milk scheme to replace current subsidy arrangements. We are working with stakeholders and local authority partners to develop a fully funded universal school milk scheme for primary and special schools, and a pilot in secondary schools within the current parliamentary term and stakeholder engagement will form part of that work.

Historic Environment Scotland is a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB). Under Treasury rules, any underspends generated by NDPBs within a financial year forms part of the wider Scottish Government budget position. NDPBs cannot hold their own reserves from Grant in Aid.

Please be assured that the Scottish Government engages in regular financial discussions with Historic Environment Scotland, as we continue to monitor the impacts of the pandemic and to work within the constraints around current public spending.

Annual budgets continue to be set through the annual parliamentary budget Bill process and the annual budget will be based on the latest fiscal information to support our priorities across Scotland.

The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting islands investment and will continue to review this as part of that annual budget process.

As outlined in the response to question S6W-10712 , £300,000 had been allocated to the delivery of the Islands Bond in the 2022-23 Financial Year. This funding will support the delivery of projects that will, in turn, influence the development of our Addressing Depopulation Action Plan.

The Islands Bond was a capital funding commitment. In this context, it is important to highlight that our capital allocations have been significantly restrained as result of the UK Government’s own spending review. The impact of this is that the Scottish Government received £175 million less than we had expected. The capital allocations that Scottish Government are receiving are flat, and will fall over the course of the next few years. As such, we must prioritise as best we can within that context.

However, it is important to understand that the Islands Bond was not the sole intervention aimed at supporting our island communities. This financial year, the Scottish Government has announced a £4.45 million funding package to help improve infrastructure on Scotland’s islands.

This capital investment is supporting all six island local authorities to fund the improvement, creation or safeguarding of locally developed infrastructure projects that align with the Strategic Objectives of the National Islands Plan.

The largest single award for 2022-23 will support a major new nursery development on mainland Orkney, benefitting all of Orkney’s islands. This project is linked to population retention and growth, whilst also addressing child poverty and providing practical training opportunities for employment in an industry facing severe shortages locally.

The Scottish Government allocates a budget of £70,000 per annum to the Ready Scotland campaign, comprising a website, social media, radio and digital advertising. If required spend is likely to exceed this figure, facility exists within the relevant Scottish Government Directorate to increase the available funding.

This £70,000 budget has been in place each year since 2019-20. The actual amount spent on the Ready Scotland campaign in each financial year fluctuates markedly due to the variable number of Amber or Red weather warnings each year which require a campaign activation.

The costs in the table show the actual spend at financial year end. In the case of 2022-23 the total costs is shown as the actual spend at 31 October 2022. 

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10773 on 
23 September 2022.

As committed to in our Programme for Government, the Public Health (Restriction of Promotions) Bill will be introduced to the Scottish Parliament in the 2022-23 parliamentary year.

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

This data is not held centrally by The Scottish Government, National Records of Scotland or Public Health Scotland. 

In September 2022 the Scottish Government and COSLA published Scotland’s 10 year suicide prevention strategy and action plan, ‘Creating Hope Together’. This sets out a comprehensive plan to reduce suicide deaths in Scotland.

The initial 3 year action plan will support continuous improvement in the quality of clinical care and support provided by mental health services for people who are suicidal. This includes embedding the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health (NCISH) guidelines into operating practices. NCISH is the UK’s leading research programme into suicide prevention in clinical services, and is supported by the Scottish Government. Data tables from their 2022 Annual Report are available to view here which provides information on location of suicides, but is not broken down specifically to mental health settings.

The new strategy includes a continued focus on rolling out multi-agency suicide reviews across Scotland, which will provide valuable learning about where service opportunities have been missed in preventing a suicide. The suicide reviews will include information on whether the person who died was a mental health services inpatient. It is expected the system will identify the location of death, including whether the person was an inpatient at the time of death. Along with other types of data and insight, the learning from suicide reviews will produce valuable intelligence to inform ongoing service improvements.

We understand that stigma associated with particular health conditions, including liver disease, can create very specific challenges - it can isolate people from their communities and act as a significant barrier to seeking help and support. This can increase the harms experienced due to delayed presentation especially given the generalised association between liver disease and alcohol misuse and/or drug abuse.

The Scottish Government is committed to tackling this stigma. We are continuing to work on tangible actions that can help reduce stigma experience by people who use drugs and/ or drinking alcohol at hazardous and harmful levels

On 20 June 2022, Public Health Scotland launched the Challenging Weight Stigma Learning Hub. The learning hub aims to raise awareness of the impact weight stigma can have on people living with overweight and obesity and what health professionals can do to mitigate this. It is interactive and has been developed alongside academics, health professionals and those with lived experience of stigma.

Data specific to Years of Working Life Lost (YWLL) for liver disease is not routinely published. Scottish Burden of Disease data published in Sept 2021 showed that for liver disease (cirrhosis and other chronic liver disease) the number of years of life lost (YLL) have fallen from 37,467 in 2016 to 32,279 in 2019. This is around 2.9% of all YLL reported in the 2019 study (1,100,944).

We know that 60 per cent of liver disease is caused by alcohol misuse and we are working on initiatives that will support communities across Scotland to reduce alcohol consumption.