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The Scottish Government is committed to tackling the barriers that prevent people from accessing treatment and services and ensuring that people are able to access the treatment and support they need, when they need it.

We know that for many people, problematic substance use co-occurs with mental health problems and we are committed to improving integration between mental health and addiction recovery services.

The Scottish Government is also considering options that could improve access to drug and alcohol services, such as supporting people to travel to services and addressing digital exclusion.

NCT002 forms are used for mental health applications for concessionary travel and better integration between mental health and drug and alcohol services is an important part of ensuring that those who are eligible under existing concessionary travel scheme criteria are accessing the support they are entitled to.

The Scottish Government is committed to tackling the barriers that prevent people from accessing treatment and services, including travelling to those services. We will consider all options in how we can best support people to access the treatment and support they need, when they need it.

We know that for many people, problematic substance use co-occurs with mental health problems and we are committed to improving integration between mental health and addiction recovery services.

The decision on which organisations can sign off eligibility certificates for the national concessionary travel scheme is taken at a local level, by local authorities. Any extension to the existing eligibility criteria of the National Concessionary Travel Scheme may require amending legislation.

The Scottish Government is considering options that could improve access to drug and alcohol services through supporting people to travel to those services.

The Scottish Government continues to be committed to improving the lives of autistic people in Scotland. We work closely with autism organisations in the third sector and the public sector and actively seek the views of people with lived experience on autism services. This is reflected in our “Towards Transformation” plan and in specific pieces of nationally funded work, such as the National Post Diagnostic Support pilot for Autistic People.

While the Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland, it is for the regional health & social care partnerships to determine the level of services that are required to meet local needs and to arrange an appropriate and suitable range of services to meet these local needs, as mandated under statute in the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act.

Local Authorities are distinct corporate bodies whose powers are set out in statute and as such are entirely separate from the Scottish Government, however it is also the expectation of the Scottish Government that Local Public Bodies will engage with the third sector regarding local autism services.

While the Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland, it is for the regional health & social care partnerships to determine the level of services that are required to meet local needs and to arrange an appropriate and suitable range of services to meet these local needs, as mandated under statute in the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act.

Local Authorities are distinct corporate bodies whose powers are set out in statute and as such are entirely separate from the Scottish Government, however it is the expectation of the Scottish Government that Local Public Bodies will engage with autistic people and children, including their families where appropriate, in relation to decisions regarding the allocation of funding for autism services.

In addition, the Scottish Government works closely with COSLA and HSCPs in relation to the aims and objectives of our national autism strategies. Those strategies and the delivery of them is shared jointly between the Scottish Government and COSLA. We are currently looking at monitoring and engagement arrangements for the “Towards Transformation” plan involving a range of key stakeholders, including people with learning disabilities and autistic people.

The Scottish Government continues to promote testing in its communications and public messaging. To raise awareness of how individuals can access testing at walk-through test centres and mobile testing units, the Scottish Government has:

• supported local authorities and health boards to promote new sites by creating a communications toolkit, which includes templates for news releases, social media content and signage,
• engaged with local authorities and health boards to inform them of upcoming Test and Protect communications campaigns and new site openings, and,
• promoted new sites online with the public and health journalists, broadcasters and bloggers with a Ministerial quote and UK Government news release.

While the Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland, it is for the regional health & social care partnerships to determine the level of services that are required to meet local needs and to arrange an appropriate and suitable range of services to meet these local needs, as mandated under statute in the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act.

Local Authorities are distinct corporate bodies whose powers are set out in statute and as such are entirely separate from the Scottish Government, however it is the expectation of the Scottish Government that Local Public Bodies will operate their own autism strategies which will involve engaging with Autistic people in relation to decisions that affect them in an accessible way.

a) This is not monitored nationally.

b) This is a matter for local public bodies. The information requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government has an annual dedicated budget for our autism strategy programme of work supplemented by additional support provided throughout the pandemic. (£3.1m for financial year 2021-2022) However, a much wider range of Scottish Government and Local Authority funding helps to support autistic people through education and employment initiatives, for example, as well as social care funding.

a) Strategy funding is currently directly supporting autistic people through:

-The Increasing Understanding of Autism Programme - we are aiming to make Scotland a more accessible, inclusive, and understanding place for autistic people to learn, work and live. As part of this Programme, Inspiring Scotland, in partnership with the Scottish Government has distributed £470,709 of funding from December 2019 to date. Funding decisions include input from the autistic people on the autism advisory forums.

-A new National Post Diagnostic Support Service pilot launched on 1 December 2020. Following a diagnosis of autism, individuals, parents and carers living across Scotland are routed to appropriate support to understand and embrace their identity as an autistic person. So far, £394,645 has been allocated to various autism organisations to provide direct support to autistic people.

b) Sportscotland has agreed £572,500 of investment for 2021-22 for Scottish Disability Sport (SDS). SDS has the lead role for developing the quality of disability sport for disabled people in Scotland; this includes supporting autistic people. Sportscotland also invests in and supports a number of programmes and projects that deliver wider benefits to autistic people in their communities through sport. This includes £30,000 to Strathmore Rugby Club to support Scotland’s first autism-friendly rugby sessions, and £51,600 to the Changing Lives Fund project , delivered through a partnership with Forth Valley College and Falkirk Community Football Foundation, which focussed on young people with learning needs (including autistic young people.),

c) The information requested is not held or monitored centrally.

The covered walkway between Exhibition Centre station and Scottish Event Campus (SEC) is owned by Glasgow City Council (GCC). As GCC is an independently elected body, the Scottish Government cannot intervene on matters relating to local responsibilities or decisions.

Notwithstanding this, as part of preparations for the upcoming COP26 Conference, my officials are engaged with SEC, Scotrail, GCC and UK Government, as the event organiser, in regards to transport, including the use of the covered walkway. This decision on such use will ultimately rest with United Nations Security Lead, who will be carrying out an inspection of the premises in the coming weeks.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-01514 on 6 August 2021. 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

The Scottish Government is able to provide details of contracts awarded by itself to third sector organisations however, without disproportionate time, cost and extensive review of many thousands of individual contractual agreements we are unable to provide data for other Public Bodies.

The data provided has been taken from Public Contracts Scotland (PCS), the Scottish Government's advertising portal. The data provided start from 2010 (when PCS was established), and are reliant on suppliers self-selecting their third sector status.

Details of contracts-frameworks awarded by the Scottish Government to third sector organisations are contained in the following table: