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Combined sewer overflows are an essential part of the sewer system, protecting properties from flooding at times of intense rainfall by allowing highly diluted wastewater to spill to the water environment. CSOs must be licensed by SEPA, and any unsatisfactory discharges will be identified so that Scottish Water can invest to reduce the environmental impact.

Scottish Water has already published a list of high priority CSOs to be upgraded at https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/-/media/ScottishWater/Document-Hub/Key-Publications/Improving-Urban-Waters/150823HighPriorityUIDs.pdf. The prioritisation of future upgrades is under consideration as part of the preparations for the next investment period 2027-33. Ministers commissioned the Strategic Review of Charges process in April 2024 by writing to the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (https://wics.scot/system/files/2024-06/2027-33%20Commissioning%20Letter.pdf).

Scottish Water’s methodology towards prioritisation of investment is available at https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/Your-Home/Your-Waste-Water/Overflows/Prioritisation-of-Sewer-Overflows-in-Scotland.

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.

The draft Scottish budget indicates a £52.6m grant in aid allocation to SEPA for 2025-26 and SEPA may determine how to allocate those resources, setting this out in an Annual Operating Plan each year.

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.

As SEPA are directly responsible for its day-to-day operations, I have asked Nicole Paterson, Chief Executive of SEPA to respond. Her response is as follows:

As part of the early implementation of the enhanced out-of-hours service, SEPA successfully managed 182 calls that were received outside of working hours during the first four weeks of operation. This included 24 emergency service calls and 158 general inquiries, with a total of 21 calls requiring escalation, all of which were resolved promptly.

SEPA will continue to monitor call performance and customer experience through continuous engagement and involvement of the customer hub team and colleagues across the service, and through customer feedback surveys. A customer experience manager with significant experience of managing contact centres has been appointed to ensure the effective planning and performance management of SEPA’s customer service.

There is no change to how the public contact SEPA’s 24-7 service. The public are still able to use the same telephone number or online contact form to report incidents.

SEPA’s external website provides clear information on how to contact SEPA and report an incident Contact us | Beta | SEPA | Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

The Scottish Government have previously published in an FOI response that £519,842.13 inc VAT was spent on investigating the creation of a Scottish public energy company. This information is available in detail at Public money spent on state run energy company: FOI release - gov.scot.