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The Scottish Government reports on progress on its aim to halve childhood obesity by 2030 on an annual basis in the regular Scottish Health Survey Report.

The latest data available is from the 2021 Scottish Health Survey, published in November 2022, which reported 18% of children in Scotland were at risk of obesity. Data for 2022 will be available when the Scottish Health Survey is next published in Autumn 2023.

A range of wider factors are likely to be impacting on childhood obesity levels. The Scottish Government remains committed to the actions contained within the 2018 Diet & Healthy Weight Delivery Plan . We will continue to focus on improving the health of our young people, aiming to reduce childhood obesity and reduce diet-related health inequalities.

There are no plans to privatise or to change the financing arrangements for Scottish Water. Scottish Water is performing well as a publicly owned corporation; evidence of its performance is clearly demonstrated by the fact that Scottish Water is matching the levels of service provided by the companies in England and Wales whilst ensuring that the average household charge remains lower.

Ensuring Scotland is a place where children eat well, have a healthy weight and are physically active is a public health priority. We continue to implement the ambitious and wide-ranging action set out in our 2018 Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan to support our aim to halve childhood obesity by 2030, significantly reducing diet related health inequalities. Our actions emphasise prevention to ensure children have the best start in life.

We are focusing on transforming the food environment because this is more likely to be effective in improving children’s diets and reducing health inequalities than only encouraging individual behaviour change. This includes restricting promotions of less healthy food and drink and we will consult on the detail of proposed regulations this autumn. We are also working with Food Standards Scotland and Public Health Scotland to implement our 2021 Out of Home Action Plan .

We are also ensuring that all children and young people have access to balanced and nutritious food and drink options throughout the school day. All local authorities are required to meet the standards set out in the amended Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations . We are providing local authorities with funding to make free school lunches available to all primary school pupils in primaries one to five, children in funded early learning and childcare and eligible pupils in Primary 6 through to S6. We are committed to a pilot of free school meals in secondary schools to support our consideration of further expansion.

Whole Systems Approaches are increasingly being seen as influential in responding to the complexity of public health problems such as childhood obesity. We have continued to support pilots in eight local areas to develop and champion a whole system approach to diet and healthy weight. An evaluation was published on 6 December 2022, which is informing the development of resources to support national rollout.

Alongside this our Good Food Nation policy provides an over-arching framework for clear, consistent and coherent future Scottish food policy which will help our children eat well. A draft of the national Good Food National Plan will be published for public consultation this summer.

We continue to provide funding to health boards to deliver weight management services for children and young people in line with our national standards , ensuring consistent quality and equity of access to evidence-based support across Scotland.

We are also addressing the underlying causes of poor diet and higher weight. This includes ending poverty, supporting fair wages and families, and improving our physical and social environments through initiatives, such as the Scottish Child Payment , Best Start Foods and Best Start Grants.

In our 2018 Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan we set out ambitious and wide-ranging action to deliver our vision for a Scotland where everyone eats well and has a healthy weight.

We are taking forward a range of action across five key outcomes: giving children the best start in life; creating a healthier food environment; better access to weight management services; leadership and reducing health inequalities.

We continue to make progress. This includes, among other things:

• We will consult on the detail of proposed regulations to restrict promotions of food and drink high in fat, sugar or salt where they are sold to the public this autumn.
• We have updated the Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations to give children more access to nutritious food.
• Continued provision of free vitamin D to infants, and pregnant and breastfeeding women.
• Additional investment to support breastfeeding, particularly in the days immediately following birth. We have provided over £9 million of additional funding since 2018.
• eady Steady Baby , Ready Steady Toddler and Parent Club have all been updated to provide parents practical advice on weaning, and at the ages and stages that follow: toddlers, pre-schoolers, and primary school aged children.
• We continue to provide funding to health boards to deliver weight management services for children and young people in line with our national standards , ensuring consistent quality and equity of access to evidence-based support across Scotland.
• Since 2020-21, we have provided additional funding to health boards and their partners for projects to encourage healthy eating and physical activity in families and communities at risk of diet-related health inequalities. This work has included: specialised training for practitioners, increasing physical activity, and support for those experiencing food insecurity.
• We have continued to support pilots in eight local areas to develop and champion a whole system approach to diet and healthy weight. An evaluation was published on 6 December 2022, which is informing the development of resources to support national rollout.
• We continue to provide funding to improve weight management services for adults, in line with our 2018 Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Framework and Public Health Scotland’s standards for tier 2 and tier 3 weight management services .
• In June 2022, Public Health Scotland launched a Challenging Weight Stigma learning hub to increase awareness of and challenge weight stigma and bias within healthcare settings.
• In 2021 we published our Out of Home Action Plan to support people and business to access to healthier options. This includes Food Standards Scotland and Public Health Scotland developing an Eat Out Eat Well Framework and code of practice for children’s menus.

The purpose of the Scottish Government’s call for evidence was to gather evidence to inform policy development on how to reduce consumption of single-use food containers and other single use items. All responses to the call for evidence have been published, where consent was given to do so, here: https://consult.gov.scot/environment-forestry/single-use-items/consultation/published_select_respondent . The Scottish Government will publish an analysis of the call for evidence this year.

The Scottish Government nor its partners hold information on morphine prescribing at this level of granularity and have no plans to do so.

The Scottish Government has not established a Land Tax Working Group and does not have plans to do so at present. The Medium Term Financial Strategy set out that the Deputy First Minister will establish and chair an external Tax Advisory Group this summer, building on our inclusive approach to tax policymaking. The outcomes of this engagement will feed into the Budget 2024-25 and the development of the Government’s longer-term tax strategy.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to supporting Gillian Mackay MSP's Abortion Services Safe Access Zones (Scotland) Bill. To this end, the First Minister met with Ms Mackay during his first full week in office to recommit his unwavering support.

In addition, I have continued the regular series of meetings with Ms Mackay and her team established by Maree Todd, when Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport. During these meetings, Ms Mackay and I share progress updates and explore any additional areas where Scottish Government support would be useful.

A Safe Access Zones Bill team within Scottish Government has been working closely with Ms Mackay to progress the Bill, including supporting a programme of stakeholder engagement and key aspects of policy development.

It has always been planned for new referrals for Warmer Homes Scotland to close before the contract with the current managing agent ends on 29 September 2023, to exit the contract in a managed way and allow for all customer journeys to be completed.

We must always assume there may be a change in supplier when conducting a fair and open procurement. A similar pause occurred in 2015 when the service moved from Scottish Gas to Warmworks.

While the new contract builds on the existing WHS scheme it will be an entirely separate scheme with a different offer to customers and different requirements of customers, the managing agent and suppliers. The managing agent is required to procure their supply chain post contract award, and therefore will require a 4-6 month mobilisation period. This also factors in any TUPE implications and is used to build their IT system and ensure that all associated scheme documentation is in place before the contract begins.

Improvements will continue to be installed in customers’ homes up until the end of the current Warmer Homes Scotland contract on 29 September 2023. The new contract will launch on 2 October 2023, and Home Energy Scotland are currently accepting applications for this scheme.

This support sits alongside other help, such as our Area Based Schemes which provide local delivery of energy efficiency improvements and our Home Energy Scotland grant scheme.

As stated in the answer to question S6W-17210, the management of the court estate is an operational matter for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS).

Further to that answer, the SCTS is a non-ministerial office established by the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008. The SCTS core purpose is supporting justice and can only consider proposals that enhance the delivery of justice. The SCTS Corporate Plan for 2023-26 and Business Plan for 2023-24 have recently been published. The SCTS is fully committed to the next zero agenda and the SCTS Board has commissioned a revised sustainability strategy and associated action plans that will be developed during 2023.