Seòmar agus comataidhean

Scottish Government are provided with unclaimed deposit figures on a monthly basis by the tenancy deposit schemes, and as such cannot provide information from a specific date. However, at the end of April 2024, there were 20,357 unclaimed deposits between the three schemes, totalling to a value of £5,565,899.

Students receive taught modules on mental health and psychiatry in years three and four of their medical degrees with the opportunity for specialist mental health units or clinical placements from year four onwards. There are significant core learning requirements in relation to mental health set out by the GMC and each University ensures these are fulfilled.

The GMC also require all medical schools to provide support for the consideration of postgraduate careers and each school has their own way of doing this. Each of the medical schools have a ‘PsychSoc’ attached to them. These societies are funded by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and work with the medical schools to encourage and support medical students into a career within psychiatric fields.

Given the pace of change and developments in the digital landscape, the SPCB reviews its communications channels on an ongoing basis. Considerations include extent of reach and levels of effective audience engagement, ethical considerations linked to impartiality, and effective use of resources. Content strategies and how channels are managed are reviewed and adapted regularly. Given the need for us to provide impartial services, decisions on whether the Corporate Body remains active on a channel or not are informed by data and evidence. While recent changes to X and developments are being monitored, the Parliament does not have immediate plans to stop using it. Our combined following on this channel is over 245,000, and we still therefore consider it to be a viable channel for us in terms of our ability to reach a mass audience quickly and to raise awareness of the work of the Parliament.

As well as X, the Parliament has a presence on a range of other digital channels including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.  It also has a presence on Threads and is planning to run a 6-month pilot on Bluesky. Bluesky is a relatively new social media channel that looks and feels very much like X but is based on a very different operating model. During the pilot we will be increasing our understanding of this emerging platform and exploring its potential for public engagement. At the same time, we will also be monitoring how the more recent changes introduced at Meta might impact on how we use Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Women’s Health is key priority for this government which is why Scotland was the first country in the UK to publish an ambitious Women’s Health Plan in August 2021. Timely access to gynaecology services will remain a priority as we continue to develop our Women’s Health Plan.

The Budget we set out on 4 December 2024 will throw the weight of the government behind performance improvements with almost £200 million to reduce waiting lists and help support reduction of delayed discharge. By March 2026, we expect no one to be waiting longer than 12 months for a new outpatient, inpatient treatment or day case treatment.

We have already invested £30 million to reduce waiting lists that built up throughout the pandemic. This funding is being targeted at a series of national and local plans to reduce backlogs by maximising the use of local and national resources across Scotland. As part of this, we have allocated additional funding to Gynaecology services which we expect to deliver around 3,500 new outpatient appointments.

Whilst this is an operational matter for CalMac, given the significant reduction in passenger capacity Transport Scotland officials have been updated by CalMac on the timeline for repairs and will be kept appraised of any capacity issues relevant to the routes MV Isle of Mull is operating on.

During this time, during the annual overhaul schedule, as it normally does, the MV Isle of Mull is operating as relief vessel on Lochboisdale service. The MV Loch Frisa continues to operate to Mull to timetable.

With the MV Glen Sannox entering service, CalMac assessed the optimum deployment of the MV Isle of Arran through use of their Route Prioritisation Matrix, and the MV Isle of Arran has been operating on the Oban-Craignure route alongside the MV Loch Frisa since 16 January 2025.

Transport Scotland’s Approach to Climate Change and Resilience (ACCAR) was published in August 2023 setting out a strategic framework to secure a well-adapted future for Scotland’s transport system. It includes an ambitious Vision for “A transport system which is well adapted and prepared for current and future impacts of climate change, is safe for all users, reliable for everyday journeys, and resilient to weather related disruption.” It can be found here: Transport Scotland’s Approach to Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience

The ACCAR provides our current approach to adaptation and Strategic Outcomes for Road, Rail, Aviation and Maritime transport networks, to address the key climate risks affecting Scotland’s transport system. A key deliverable of this work is the development of a Trunk Road Adaptation Plan, which is intended to be published in the first quarter of 2025. The Trunk Road Adaptation Plan is based on a climate vulnerability and risk assessment using the latest UK climate projections. This will compliment work of our Vulnerable Locations Group, who have been providing a number of improvements across Scotland’s trunk road network in response to extreme weather-related disruption.

There are 38.25 miles of street lighting over 150.1 miles of the A90 trunk road and the junctions of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route. There are currently no plans to extend this coverage.

The Scottish Government is working with NHS Boards, community partners, and the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) to improve access to diagnosis, by supporting local health partners to develop, enhance and redesign existing local neurodevelopmental services.

We are working with NAIT to implement Adult Neurodevelopmental Pathways across Scotland. By implementing a single diagnostic pathway for autism and ADHD, and by adopting a stepped care model, we hope to ensure that diagnostic and post-diagnostic support is provided in a timely and effective fashion.

In setting up of the DBI pilot programme in 2017, the Scottish Government created a dedicated DBI Central team to support and monitor implementation of this innovative programme. The Central team works closely with Public Health Scotland to provide monitoring reports to Government (and wider partners), and this evidence has informed the expansion of the programme across Scotland over the last eight years.

In addition to routine monitoring, the Government has commissioned two independent evaluations of the DBI programme to review its impact. The first evaluation relates to the original pilot phase of DBI (for over 18s) Distress Brief Intervention Pilot Programme evaluation: findings report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and the second relates to the NHS24 expansion https://www.gov.scot/publications/evaluation-extended-distress-brief-intervention-programme-summary-findings/

Both evaluations confirmed that DBI is a highly effective model in supporting people in distress, with 90% reporting that their distress levels continued to decrease and that they felt it had given them the tools and skills to manage their distress. Additionally, evaluation suggests that, in around 10% of referrals, DBI support has helped prevent suicidal thoughts, or even suicide. Additionally, feedback from frontline services suggests that DBI helps ensure they can help people to access the support they need, easing pressure on frontline services.

A further independent evaluation, relating to how effective DBI is for under 18s, is underway, and is expected to report to the Scottish Government in June 2025.

To enable a smooth expansion of the DBI programme, we have used improvement science and an active learning approach.

The DBI programme has now supported over 78,000 people across Scotland (as of November 2024).

In total, between June 2020 and May 2024, initial contact was not made within 24 hours for 216 people out of 58,657 referrals (less than 0.4%). The following table breaks this down by percentage due to the small number of cases in each area.