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Funding allocated to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) is for both alcohol and drug treatment services. In 2024-25, £112.9 million is being made available to ADPs. This funding is used to ensure that local services meet the needs of people who experience alcohol and drugs harms.

On 7 September 2023, the previous Minister for Drugs and Alcohol Policy supported a Member’s Debate Motion calling for investment in alcohol services, outlining the Government’s plan to reduce harm from alcohol misuse.

We have asked Public Health Scotland to investigate the apparent decline in alcohol treatment numbers. This is underway and is expected to be completed in 2024. In 2023-2024, the number of statutory-funded residential rehabilitation placements increased to 938, the majority of which included alcohol use or co-dependency.

We are working with partners and stakeholders to develop a national specification for alcohol and drug treatment in Scotland. The national specification will build on the forthcoming UK Alcohol Treatment Guidelines which will support the improvement of alcohol treatment in Scotland, mirroring the use of the Orange Book Guidelines for drug treatment.

Special Advisers are appointed in accordance with Part 1 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 by the First Minister as a Special Adviser for the purpose of providing assistance to the Scottish Ministers. There are currently 12 Special Advisers.

The Scottish Government has published a list of the Special Advisers and their specific portfolio responsibilities at: Special advisers - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Scottish Government officials are currently undertaking scoping work with a variety of stakeholders including healthcare professionals (representatives from British College of Aesthetic Medicine and British Association of Cosmetic Nurses), hair and beauty industry representatives, Environmental Health Officers, Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS), and other UK Governments in order to bring forward proposals regarding the potential regulation of non-surgical cosmetic procedures.

The scoping work includes consideration of the levels of insurance, training, qualifications and supervision required to safely perform various types of non-surgical cosmetic procedures that pierce and penetrate the skin. This is to ensure that we get any potential future legislation right and that it is robust, flexible and future-proof to maintain pace with any new procedures in this fast changing sector.

We hope to be in a position to update Parliament on this shortly.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) is represented on, and contributes to the discussions at the Scottish Cosmetic Interventions Expert Group, which meets regularly to discuss and advise the Scottish Government on options for the potential regulation of non-surgical cosmetic procedures in Scotland.

However, as a regulator, HIS only regulates independent clinics where services are provided by a medical practitioner, dental practitioner, registered nurse, registered midwife, dental care professional, pharmacist or pharmacy technician.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that we are able to manage more of our own waste within Scotland both for environmental and economic aims. As part of this, Scottish Government officials and Defra continue to engage regularly on matters regarding international waste exports, a reserved policy area. We are currently seeking confirmation from the new UK Government on its priorities for waste exports policy and continue to encourage Defra to build on work already undertaken to ban the export of plastic waste to non-OECD-countries, and will work closely with them on the development of this.

Through our Circular Economy and Waste Route Map consultation, we are actively progressing actions that we can take under devolved powers to boost Scotland's ability domestically to manage its waste and provide greater incentives for domestic reprocessing. This includes new co-designed recycling standards and consulting on a statutory duty on local authorities and others to report on the final destinations of collected material to increase transparency and strengthen public confidence in recycling services. We have also committed to publish a report on Scotland’s existing and planned domestic reprocessing infrastructure. This builds upon existing measures like extended producer responsibility schemes, and the £63 million-worth of investments made via the Recycling Improvement Fund to improve the quality and quantity of recycling collected.

The NHS Scotland Volunteering program promotes the use of the Volunteer Scotland Volunteer Charter principles within its Best Practice Guide . The principles are also endorsed within the NHS Scotland’s Volunteering Programme’s Strategic Vision for 2023-28.

Gillian Martin: Offshore oil and gas licensing is reserved to the UK Government.

The Scottish Government’s focus continues to be on meeting Scotland’s energy security needs, reducing emissions in line with Paris Agreement goals and ensuring a just transition for our oil and gas workforce as North Sea resources decline.

We have, through our draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, called for a robust Climate Compatibility Checkpoint to be applied to licence applications for new North Sea oil and gas developments. The draft set out for consultation a range of proposals on aspects of Checkpoint design and application, including in relation to alignment with Paris Agreement goals Independent analysis commissioned by the Scottish Government in support of the draft Strategy also included consideration of what tests could potentially make up such a Checkpoint which could form the basis for UK wide and international discussion on this issue, despite the Scottish Government having no formal role in the licencing of new offshore oil and gas fields.

As set out in the responses to S6W-28715 and S6W-28717 on 6 August 2024, the Scottish Government has consulted on a range of proposals for aspects of Climate Compatibility Checkpoint design and application and will publish a finalised Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, including further information on these matters, later this Summer.

The proposals consulted on in the draft Strategy include significant differences from the Checkpoint approach introduced in 2022 by the previous UK Government, including in terms of how the climate impact of emissions arising from consumption of oil and gas products should be considered and at which stages of the licensing process such Checkpoints should be applied.

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 number of undergraduate medical school places available since 2015, broken down by domicile, has been provided in the following table. As requested, these reflect the places available, rather than the eventual entrants.

The amount spent by NHS Boards on Family Health Services (FHS), which includes the four primary care contractors, is reported in the annual Cost Book published by Public Health Scotland. This information is publicly available on the PHS website: Costs Book publication - Costs Book - Finance within the NHS - Acute and emergency services - Our areas of work - Public Health Scotland We would expect the 2023-24 data to be published in February 2025 and the 2024-25 data to be published in February 2026. The Scottish budget, including NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care is published on the Scottish Government website: Scottish Budget - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)