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The Scottish Government recognises the importance of highlighting the link between alcohol and non-communicable disease. Evidence is clear that alcohol consumption increases the risk of developing non-communicable diseases, including some cancers.

A refreshed cross-government and cross-sectoral approach to population health - focused on prevention - is being progressed. Increasing healthy life expectancy and reducing health inequalities across Scotland remains a clear ambition for this Government. It is clear the reform of health and care services alone will not be enough to stem the current tide of population health decline in Scotland.

The Population Health Framework is being developed jointly by the Scottish Government & COSLA and in collaboration with Public Health Scotland, Directors of Public Health and key local, regional and national partners. The Scottish Government will set out key actions to reduce alcohol harm following the Population Health Framework, including the role of public health messaging and awareness.

There are no mobile community pharmacies providing NHS Pharmaceutical Services in any part of Scotland. There are 1248 community pharmacies with fixed locations across the country.

The following table sets out the number of requests where there has been no disclosure of any information (fully exempted):

COPFS uses a live, operational database to manage the processing of reports submitted to Procurators Fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies throughout Scotland. It is designed to meet business needs in the processing of criminal cases, rather than for statistical analysis. This question as currently framed cannot be readily answered by COPFS.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

As our national skills body Skills Development Scotland (SDS) publish high level statistical information relating to completion of apprenticeships. You can find this information within the following links

• Skills Development Scotland - Modern Apprenticeships statistics
• Skills Development Scotland - Modern Apprenticeships statistics - published 23 May 2023
• Skills Development Scotland - Modern Apprenticeship statistics - published 21 May 2024

Land and nature apprenticeships fall into a range of occupational groupings. I have asked the Chief Executive of SDS, to write to you on this matter.

Prosecutors come into contact on a daily basis with individuals living with alcohol use disorder and its consequences. It is appropriate that COPFS staff are trained in relation to the causes and consequences of addiction, including alcohol use disorder, to allow for informed decision-making in the public interest.

Although the role of COPFS is limited in respect of accused persons, when addiction, including to alcohol, has contributed to offending, Prosecutors can consider diversion from prosecution and this may be offered where that would be in the public interest.

COPFS recently hosted a series of online webinars to inform staff of alcohol use disorder, Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and links between addiction and trauma. There are plans for future events and COPFS is exploring opportunities for further engagement with, and input from, Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP).

In addition COPFS internal resources available to all staff include general information about alcohol consumption, alcohol dependency and mental health and signposting for general awareness.

The Scottish Government recognises the gradual reduction of alcohol-related hospital admissions over the past decade and is working closely with Public Health Scotland, local services and other stakeholders to ensure the reasons behind the gradual reduction are factored in to service provision.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of HPV vaccination and screening.

The latest published HPV vaccination uptake data from Public Health Scotland (PHS) shows that pupils living in the most deprived quintiles had lower coverage of the HPV vaccine compared with pupils from the least deprived quintiles. We are working with PHS and territorial Health Boards to consider what further actions can be taken to increase vaccination uptake, support those eligible for vaccination, and to address any inequalities in accessing immunisation services. Reducing vaccine inequalities is one of the three primary objectives in PHS’s recently published Scotland's 5-Year Vaccination and Immunisation Framework and Delivery Plan.

Completion of consent forms is required to participate in school vaccination programmes. We therefore welcome the return of the PHS marketing campaign, “chat.sign.protect”, which will build on the messages of last year’s campaign to raise awareness of vaccines offered in secondary school and encourage an increase in the numbers of parents and young people giving consent to be vaccinated.

Timed to coincide with the distribution of informed consent materials to young people, the campaign aims to increase understanding of why these vaccines are important, and the seriousness of the diseases they protect against, and encourages parents and carers to take action and sign consent forms to ensure our young people receive the protection offered by immunisation.

Addressing the inequalities in HPV uptake and maximising the opportunities for young people to receive the vaccine will be a primary focus of cervical cancer elimination work.

The Equity in Screening Strategy, combined with an action plan, was published on 27 July 2023. The vision of the strategy is for access for all eligible individuals, across the full screening pathway. The Strategy launched alongside the Equity in Screening Network which supports the strategy by capturing local and third sector research activity and allows individuals that work across screening to share evidence, best practice and learning around screening inequalities.

Several national projects are being supported by the Inequalities Fund of £1 million. This includes changes to national IT systems to improve engagement with participants. Research and learning from past projects has shown some ways to increase access to screening and uptake, including appointment reminders and targeted follow-up with non-responders.

As set out on 22 January 2024 in response to question S6W-24720 on 21 January 2024, the Scottish Government has established an Expert Group to lead on scoping work to consider and provide recommendations on how Scotland will work towards reaching the targets set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to eliminate Cervical Cancer.

As well as the Expert Group itself, three subgroups have been established to support the Expert Group in considering and analysing data on specific topics (vaccination, screening and cancer treatment). This will inform recommendations on how Scotland will progress towards Cervical Cancer elimination and when this could be achieved. These recommendations will be considered by the Scottish Government.

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 remains committed to improved health messaging on alcohol in Scotland, including on labels and packaging. The Scottish Government will continue to engage constructively with the UK Government, along with our colleagues in Wales and Northern Ireland devolved administrations, in relation to progressing work on alcohol labelling.

In July 2024, the Scottish Government published the first annual progress report on the Cancer Action Plan 2023-26. The next progress report of the Cancer Action Plan is due to be published in the summer 2025. Additionally, the Population Health Framework will consider key actions to improve population health, including on alcohol harm prevention, in line with World Health Organisation guidance on reducing the affordability, attractiveness and availability of alcohol.