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The Scottish Government wants to ensure families affected by Huntington’s Disease are given the best possible care, information and support and I was pleased to meet with the Scottish Huntington’s Association recently to discuss services in Scotland.

The Scottish Government provides funding to Health Boards and Local Authorities, and it is ultimately for local partners to agree a joint, integrated budget which will enable them to meet the needs of local people in line with their Strategic Objectives.

While agreeing budgets is the responsibility of partnerships, we expect that these decisions be made in consultation with people who use services.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving health and reducing health inequalities, and supporting our more vulnerable communities, which can include our former coalfield communities.

We know that poverty and unemployment are key drivers of ill health and health inequalities. That is why, we continue to support the health of Scotland’s population through a number of measures including:

• allocating around £3 billion a year since 2022-23 to tackle poverty;
• initiatives to promote healthy lifestyles through tobacco control, preventing alcohol related harm, promoting healthy eating and physical activity; and
• the creation of a Population Health Framework to take a preventative approach in which we address health problems at the root as well as build a Scotland in which our places and communities can positively support health and wellbeing.

In addition, we deliver significant investment through a range programmes to support economic growth and regenerate communities, which contribute to addressing underlying poverty by creating jobs and employment opportunities. Our regeneration programmes are delivered through established relationships with local government and communities, focussing investment in areas of priority need including former coalfield communities. These programmes include our Investing in Communities Fund, which is being delivered over 2023-24 to 2025-26 with an annual budget of circa £9m. It is currently supporting 20 projects in coalfield communities investing nearly £3.5 million to date.

I was pleased to meet with the Scottish Huntington’s Association (SHA) recently to discuss the provision of Huntington’s Disease services.

The Scottish Government is currently supporting the SHA’s youth services through the Children, Young People, Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund, to improve the resilience and confidence of young people with Huntington’s and support young carers.

Through the Neurological Care & Support Framework 2020-25, we have been working to ensure that everyone with a neurological condition, including Huntington’s Disease, can access the care and support they need. As the formal Framework strategy concludes, we have been engaging with clinicians, patients, carers and third sector organisations to explore a joined-up policy approach to long-term conditions. A full public consultation will commence shortly, following which a strategy will be developed and published later in 2025.

We have recently established a Neurological Conditions Improvement Network and are working with providers across Scotland to consider ways of ensuring statutory and third sector organisations collaborate on decision-making around the provision of care. This aims to ensure the best use of resources while encouraging person-centred support for people with neurological conditions.

The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to improving healthy life expectancy and addressing the underlying inequalities that contribute to health disparities across Scotland – and as part of that recognises the importance of addressing the wider determinants of health that are set out under Sir Michael Marmot’s eight principles.

We are currently working with local, regional and national level partners to develop a Population Health Framework, which will be co-published with COSLA in Spring 2025. The Framework will set out a cross-government and cross-sector approach improve the key building blocks of health which include: good early years and education; good work and income; healthy places; and equitable health care. It will have an overarching aim to accelerate the recovery and improvement of population health in Scotland.

In addition, Professor Sir Michael Marmot is currently working with Public Health Scotland, with councils and health boards (over the next two years), through the Collaboration for Health Equity in Scotland, in three ‘Marmot Places’: North Ayrshire, Aberdeen City and South Lanarkshire.

The Collaboration is intended to help these local areas reduce health inequalities and improve wellbeing in their communities. It will gather, integrate and share learning from all parts of the system (the NHS, local government, community and voluntary sectors, and businesses) about what is and isn’t working, towards improving health equity across the whole country.

Of the 700,000 reported homes that failed the tolerable standard in 2023, 244,000 were social homes. This means that 8% of social homes failed the tolerable standard.

Social landlords are required, under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001, to keep houses they let fit for human habitation and ensure that any repairs are carried out when they are needed.

We work closely with social landlords in our shared ambition to provide quality, affordable social homes and continue to have constructive engagement with them on a range of matters.

A significant amount of work has been undertaken to date, to progress the implementation of the 55 recommendations made as part of the Independent Review of Audiology Services in Scotland, involving a wide range of stakeholders across the public and third sector. We continue to work with the NHS, Third Sector and private providers to identify and cost an appropriate model of community care for any future service reform and ensure that the voices of those with lived experience inform this work.

A report outlining how each of the 55 recommendations set out in the Independent Review have been closed or transitioned, and the rationale for that, will be provided to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee imminently and will be made available on both the Committee website and https://www.all-ears.nhs.scot/

The abundance of fish in Scottish waters means that a varied industry has developed over time, with many different types of fishing vessels operating as part of a mixed fishery. There are different target fish species, depending on the type of fishing vessel and where it operates, and different issues around unwanted catch. Discarding in the nephrops trawl fishery does occur as whitefish it is typically in very small amounts and for very specific reasons. Historically, very small amounts of whitefish may be caught alongside nephrops. Since the introduction of the landing obligation, this unwanted catch can amount to a disproportionate cost for fisherman who have to land and then dispose of it. As such, the Scottish Government have utilised lawful exemptions to the landing obligation for these fish, in order to lessen the financial burden on these small nephrops vessels. These exempted fish are fully accounted for in quota calculations and factored into stock assessments.

Going forward, as part of the policy development of Scotland’s our Future Catching Policy, we have been working with industry to explore pragmatic technical and spatial measures to support fishers to reduce discarding. We also know there are improvements we can make to the implementation of the landing obligation that will make the rules around discarding more effective and will work with industry and others to develop this across Scotland’s diverse fleets in order to minimise instances of unwanted catch in the first place.

This is being supported by the rollout of remote electronic monitoring and vessel tracking technology to enable us to better monitor fishing operations, effort and catch with the aim of ensuring fishing activity remains sustainable, responsible and accountable across all of our waters.

While the management of Scottish waters is an area of devolved competency, the Scottish Government continues to work with the UK Government and other devolved administrations through the delivery of the Marine Wildlife Bycatch Mitigation Initiative (BMI) which is a joint plan for tackling bycatch across the UK to minimise, and where possible eliminate, bycatch of sensitive marine species.

It is important to note that all vessels authorised to operate in Scottish waters do so under the appropriate licences, and are obliged to follow Scottish domestic management rules. This includes a mandatory requirement for all vessels (including EU vessels) operating in UK waters to report all incidences of marine mammal bycatch to the Marine Management Organisation.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) are responsible for the delivery of the Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) audit which was commissioned by Scottish Government in July 2024. PHS has informed Scottish Government that there was a delay in recruitment required for audit development, however this has now been completed. PHS are now working at pace in line with the business case requirements to establish this new audit.

Scottish Fiscal Commission forecasts for income tax include judgements for behavioural responses which are based on evidence from academic literature on how taxpayers have responded to previous changes to income tax policy in Scotland, the UK, and internationally. The SFC applies behavioural responses to policies over the course of their full forecast. More detailed information is available at the following link: How we forecast behavioural responses to income tax policy | Scottish Fiscal Commission.

Further to the explanation in the ICIA, the basis of the charge being a percentage, it would not be expected to have a significantly different effect on island based tourism businesses to those based on the mainland, Nevertheless, the ICIA does include observations and concerns around issues including the prevalence of smaller hospitality businesses on islands, the high numbers of day visitors, the existing costs of transport to islands, and that islands and island residents have a particular reliance on using overnight accommodation when people travel to and from the mainland because of the need to build in consideration for potential ferry disruption.