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The Scottish Government recognises the value of social care support to all who require additional support in living independently at home or in the community.

Under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 local authorities and Health and Social Care Partnerships have a duty to assess the social care support needs of people and decide, in light of that assessment, whether to arrange any services, and if so, which services.

We know that the system needs to work better for everyone in Scotland and we are continuing to work with partners and people with lived experience on ongoing improvement and reform.

These statistics show the fewest amount of people waiting for a social care support assessment this year – a reduction of 12% since January.

We are working closely with all NHS Boards to support implementation of the CAMHS specification to improve the service provided to children, young people and families, as well as improve performance across CAMHS. We remain committed to supporting all Boards to meet the standard that 90% of patients start treatment within 18 weeks of referral.

Local CAMHS teams continue to respond well to demand, with 1 in 2 children and young people referred to CAMHS starting treatment within 6 weeks, compared to 12 weeks pre-pandemic. In the first half of this year, we have seen the best national performance against CAMHS waiting times since the 18 week standard was introduced in 2014.

Recognising that performance does still vary across Health Boards, we continue to provide enhanced support to those Boards not on track to meet the standard. This includes providing access to professional advice, ensuring they have robust improvement plans in place and monitoring their implementation. This is in addition to a programme of routine engagement with all 14 territorial Health Boards.

We have directly allocated £120 million to NHS Boards and Integrated Joint Boards for a new Enhanced Mental Health Outcomes Framework in 2024-25. The Framework provides a single, flexible funding stream to support continued improvements and better outcomes across a range of mental health and psychological services in line with the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, including CAMHS and implementation of the CAMHS Specification.

We continue to work with NHS Boards to monitor the Service Specification’s implementation, to improve services and enhance support for children and young people and their families.

The National Specification includes requirements for Boards to fully engage with children, young people and families and to gather outcome data against these standards, including experience of service, and to report performance, quality and governance.

While there are no current plans to carry out a specific evaluation, we are working closely with all NHS Boards to support implementation of the CAMHS specification and to improve the service provided to children, young people and families, as well as improve performance across CAMHS. We remain committed to supporting all Boards to meet the standard that 90% of patients start treatment within 18 weeks of referral. We continue to provide enhanced support to those Boards not on track to meet the standard, providing access to professional advice, ensuring they have robust improvement plans in place and monitoring their implementation.

The Scottish Government does not have any role to play in operational matters that fall to Police Scotland and Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) when considering allegations of criminal offences under dangerous dogs legislation. In addition, the Scottish Government does not have any role in the decision making of the independent court when it considers how to dispose of cases.

Within this context, the information requested is not held by the Scottish Government.

Scottish Government officials are continuing to engage with Police Scotland, COPFS, local authorities and Scottish SPCA about the impact of enforcing and implementation of the new safeguards on XL Bully dogs.

Dogs need to be over 8 weeks old to be microchipped.

Where an XL Bully dog was too young – under 8 weeks – as at the date of application for exemption to be microchipped, the owner was given additional time to provide evidence of microchipping having occurred.

There are also exemptions for those dogs deemed unfit for a microchip to be fitted. A dog is unfit to be microchipped if a veterinary surgeon has issued a certificate indicating a dog is unfit to be microchipped under the Microchipping of Dogs (Scotland) Regulations 2016.

Further information about microchipping can be found on the mygov.scot website:

Exemptions - mygov.scot.

There is no provision for the interim liberation of a prohibited type dog in Scotland as there is no interim exemption scheme available that would permit such dogs to be released pending the consideration and outcome of court proceedings.

The Scottish Government committed to publishing a summary of discussions and action points from the working groups which can be found in the published minutes of the group on https://www.gov.scot/groups/creative-industries-leadership-group/ However, due to the interest from the member, the reports, and the Scottish Government response, will be published in full as soon as possible.

The Scottish Government already has a well established partnership with the Crown Estate that was fundamental to the Scotwind and INTOG licensing rounds for offshore wind. Our current focus is not on new leasing opportunities but delivering Scotland’s strong pipeline of clean energy and supply chain opportunities.

To support this the Scottish Government and UK Government Department of Energy Security and Net Zero developed a shared objective for Great British Energy to maximise the benefits of its activities in Scotland. Through developing partnerships with existing Scottish public bodies active within the clean energy sector (Crown Estate Scotland, the Enterprise Agencies and the Scottish National Investment Bank) organisations will work together to deliver joint objectives to maximise impact and value for money from Scottish projects.

Work is continuing on this consultation. It covers a wide range of areas: the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership; extending simplified divorce and dissolution procedures; qualifying requirements for religious and belief bodies when they solemnise marriage or register civil partnership; a Scottish Law Commission report on cohabitant's rights following separation; and points arising on financial provision when one cohabitant dies.

We are also preparing impact assessments in relation to this consultation. We are planning to issue it within the next few months.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-31145 on 19 November 2024. 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.