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The Scottish Government published the Core Standards for Mental Health to help improve the quality of mental health services. The standards highlight that people, including those in crisis, should have timely access to mental health services, with clear communication about available services and any alternative support if needed.

Health Boards are expected to place significant emphasis on the quality and safety of all clinical environments, particularly those where individuals need to be assessed and may be admitted where a place of safety orders is in force. Responsibility for designating a healthcare facility a Place of Safety should be agreed by local partners and outlined in their Psychiatric Emergency Plan.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-36648 on 29 April 2025. 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.

In line with the Labour Party Motion, it is for Scottish Enterprise to decide the scope, timescale, and terms of reference of the review. The Scottish Government has remained in close contact with Scottish Enterprise on this work, exchanging relevant advice and views.

This year Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) will commence payments to local authorities to support efficient and effective collection services for household packaging waste. There will be no reduction in the local government finance settlement as a result of extended producer responsibility for packaging payments in the first year of the scheme (2025-26). This additional funding will ensure that local authorities are supported to deliver household collection of packaging waste across Scotland.

The Circular Economy Route map commits Scottish Government to co-design the new Code of Practice to create modern, efficient, and affordable waste and recycling service standards that are deliverable. This includes ensuring the most effective approaches to implementing kerbside collection of plastic film and flexible packaging in Scotland. Individual local authority performance targets and pEPR payments will also help underpin increased collection and aggregation. The Recycling Improvement Fund has already helped two authorities to collect flexible plastic from households across their full authority area (Fife and Perth & Kinross).

The UK Plastic Packaging Tax incentivises the use of recycled plastic by taxing plastic packaging components containing less than 30% recycled plastic. From April 2027 changes to this tax will mean that pre-consumer plastic waste will not count towards this percentage, further acting as a “pull” to increase use of recycled content. The tax has increased from £210.82 per tonne in 2023 to £223.69 per tonne on April 1, 2025.

There is no proposal to transfer neonatal care services to Aberdeen. In July 2023 I announced that three hospitals in Scotland, the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Aberdeen Maternity Hospital would provide neonatal intensive care for the very smallest and sickest babies, based on evidence provided to The Best Start review by expert academics and professionals, that survival and outcomes for these babies is better when they are cared for in a smaller number of specialist units. All Neonatal Units in Scotland will continue to provide care for the vast majority of families locally and only a very small number of families will be affected by the change to the model of care.

The process of determining which units should provide Neonatal Intensive Care was undertaken by the Perinatal Sub Group of the Best Start, comprising NHS clinical leads, senior management and service user representatives.

The Scottish Government has consulted with families on implementation of the proposals so that their concerns and priorities are included when the pathways and processes for the new model of care are designed. A survey was launched on Citizen Space on 21 June 2024. The results of the survey and focus groups will now be shared with the Regional Planners to support implementation.

Our expectation with the new model is that care is delivered as close to home as possible. It would be highly unusual for babies to have to transfer to Aberdeen from the central belt and would only happen in exceptional circumstances when the central belt units reach capacity in intensive care. Currently NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, NHS Lothian and NHS Grampian have plans in place to build additional capacity in their Neonatal Intensive Care units as part of the change process.

Scottish Government is fully aware of the recommendations contained within Public Health Scotland's report into Alcohol Brief Interventions.

The SG response will be incorporated into work currently being done to develop an alcohol specific actions as part of the broader planning being done to design the future direction of alcohol and drug treatment in Scotland following the end of the current National Mission which ends in 2026.

Over the last ten years the Consultant Radiologist workforce has increased by 27.7% (from 304.5 WTE as at March 2015 to 388.9 WTE as at March 2025). Consultant Radiologist vacancies have decreased by 3.4% over the last year to 22.4 WTE as at March 2025, which is a vacancy rate of 5.5%.

The Scottish Government continues to invest heavily in radiology training. We are currently funding around 190 specialty training places in clinical radiology, including 78 extra places which have been added since 2014, based on modelling and future workforce need. This enables doctors to train and enter the workforce following completion of training - which takes a minimum of 5 years. Clinical radiology specialty training programmes have been filled at 100% in Scotland from 2014 to 2024, with 230 resident doctors successfully completing this training in this period.

The Scottish Government’s Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Factors programme aims to reduce avoidable CVD death by 20% in 20 years. The focus is on improving the identification and management of key risk factors which are; high blood pressure, high cholesterol, raised blood sugars, obesity and smoking.

A key principle of the programme is to extend cardiovascular disease prevention efforts to those we know are at highest risk and particularly underserved by existing models of care.

We have also established a new GP enhanced service from the 2025-26 Reform Fund to support 100,000 patients who are at risk of developing CVD.

The Scottish Government values the input of clinicians in informing any recommendations regarding abortion services. The Scottish Government works closely with services through the Scottish Abortion Care Providers network in particular to identify contributors with suitable clinical backgrounds to be involved in any groups convened by the Scottish Government regarding abortion services.