- Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 5 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Care Inspectorate’s report, Guidance for children and young people’s services on the inclusion of transgender including non-binary young people, which states that "a young person aged 12 and over is presumed to have sufficient capacity to make decisions about medical treatment, although we recognise this will not always be the case".
Answer
The Care Inspectorate is an independent public body with a duty to support services to ensure high-quality care for all children and young people experiencing care. This includes transgender and non-binary young people.
The Age of Legal Capacity (Scotland) Act 1991 provides that a person under 16 can consent to medical procedures or treatment where the qualified medical practitioner attending them considers they are capable of understanding the nature and possible consequences of that procedure or treatment.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 5 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how much it costs to install a sewage overflow monitor.
Answer
As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water I have asked them to respond. Their response is as follows:
The cost of providing an overflow monitor can vary between £3,000 and £20,000 per location. Whilst the equipment itself is relatively inexpensive, the associated costs of securing access to the overflow chamber can be expensive with costs for traffic management, safe access and rescue coverage and 3rd party agreements potentially being high for some locations.
- Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 5 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to confirm its timeline for the introduction of the proposed Public Health (Restriction of Promotions) Bill.
Answer
In my statement to Parliament on 30 May 2023, I announced that the Public Health (Restriction of Promotions) Bill will not be introduced. We instead plan to consult on the detail of proposed regulations to restrict promotions of food and drink high in fat, sugar or salt where they are sold to the public this autumn.
My statement is available on the Scottish Parliament website .
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 5 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to publish the analysis of its call for evidence on single-use food containers and other single-use items, conducted from April to June 2022.
Answer
The purpose of the Scottish Government’s call for evidence was to gather evidence to inform policy development on how to reduce consumption of single-use food containers and other single use items. All responses to the call for evidence have been published, where consent was given to do so, here: https://consult.gov.scot/environment-forestry/single-use-items/consultation/published_select_respondent . The Scottish Government will publish an analysis of the call for evidence this year.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 5 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will report on progress towards its ambition to halve childhood obesity by 2030, now that it is five years since the announcement of this ambition.
Answer
The Scottish Government reports on progress on its aim to halve childhood obesity by 2030 on an annual basis in the regular Scottish Health Survey Report.
The latest data available is from the 2021 Scottish Health Survey, published in November 2022, which reported 18% of children in Scotland were at risk of obesity. Data for 2022 will be available when the Scottish Health Survey is next published in Autumn 2023.
A range of wider factors are likely to be impacting on childhood obesity levels. The Scottish Government remains committed to the actions contained within the 2018 Diet & Healthy Weight Delivery Plan . We will continue to focus on improving the health of our young people, aiming to reduce childhood obesity and reduce diet-related health inequalities.
- Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 5 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-11295 by Humza Yousaf on 14 November 2022, whether it will provide an update on its discussions with Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) officials to ascertain whether there are any concerns in relation to the regulation of private first aid companies which provide medical cover at events across Scotland.
Answer
Further to the former Cabinet Secretary’s update, my officials continue to engage with HIS and other stakeholders and are undertaking scoping exercises to assess the extent of these issues and consider the most appropriate and proportionate next steps. Following on from the First Minister’s commitment when he was Cabinet Secretary, I will keep the member informed as this progresses.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 5 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-17210 by Angela Constance on 4 May 2023, and in light of the fourth National Planning Framework, whether it will encourage the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) to consider marketing the air rights above the car park to the south of Glasgow Sheriff Court, which would potentially return a capital receipt to SCTS and promote local townscape regeneration objectives while retaining its essential use as a car park at a ground floor or basement level.
Answer
As stated in the answer to question S6W-17210, the management of the court estate is an operational matter for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS).
Further to that answer, the SCTS is a non-ministerial office established by the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008. The SCTS core purpose is supporting justice and can only consider proposals that enhance the delivery of justice. The SCTS Corporate Plan for 2023-26 and Business Plan for 2023-24 have recently been published. The SCTS is fully committed to the next zero agenda and the SCTS Board has commissioned a revised sustainability strategy and associated action plans that will be developed during 2023.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 5 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-17019 by Michael Matheson on 15 May 2023, whether it will delineate the morphine prescriptions by (a) inpatient use, (b) outpatient use, (c) GP-prescribed and (d) those prescribed by drug and alcohol recovery services.
Answer
The Scottish Government nor its partners hold information on morphine prescribing at this level of granularity and have no plans to do so.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 5 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made against the actions outlined in its A Healthier Future –
Scotland’s Diet & Healthy Weight
Delivery Plan, now that it is five years since its publication.
Answer
In our 2018 Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan we set out ambitious and wide-ranging action to deliver our vision for a Scotland where everyone eats well and has a healthy weight.
We are taking forward a range of action across five key outcomes: giving children the best start in life; creating a healthier food environment; better access to weight management services; leadership and reducing health inequalities.
We continue to make progress. This includes, among other things:
- We will consult on the detail of proposed regulations to restrict promotions of food and drink high in fat, sugar or salt where they are sold to the public this autumn.
- We have updated the Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations to give children more access to nutritious food.
- Continued provision of free vitamin D to infants, and pregnant and breastfeeding women.
- Additional investment to support breastfeeding, particularly in the days immediately following birth. We have provided over £9 million of additional funding since 2018.
- eady Steady Baby , Ready Steady Toddler and Parent Club have all been updated to provide parents practical advice on weaning, and at the ages and stages that follow: toddlers, pre-schoolers, and primary school aged children.
- We continue to provide funding to health boards to deliver weight management services for children and young people in line with our national standards , ensuring consistent quality and equity of access to evidence-based support across Scotland.
- Since 2020-21, we have provided additional funding to health boards and their partners for projects to encourage healthy eating and physical activity in families and communities at risk of diet-related health inequalities. This work has included: specialised training for practitioners, increasing physical activity, and support for those experiencing food insecurity.
- We have continued to support pilots in eight local areas to develop and champion a whole system approach to diet and healthy weight. An evaluation was published on 6 December 2022, which is informing the development of resources to support national rollout.
- We continue to provide funding to improve weight management services for adults, in line with our 2018 Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Framework and Public Health Scotland’s standards for tier 2 and tier 3 weight management services .
- In June 2022, Public Health Scotland launched a Challenging Weight Stigma learning hub to increase awareness of and challenge weight stigma and bias within healthcare settings.
- In 2021 we published our Out of Home Action Plan to support people and business to access to healthier options. This includes Food Standards Scotland and Public Health Scotland developing an Eat Out Eat Well Framework and code of practice for children’s menus.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 5 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many suspected invasive non-native species have been reported via Scotland’s Environment website in each year for which data is available.
Answer
The following table provides annual figures for the total number of reports of suspected invasive non-native species (INNS) submitted via Scotland’s Environment website. The two reports in 2015 are test reports submitted by project partners; the system went live to the general public in 2016.
A small number of the following reports listed were not verified as INNS due to misidentification. Twenty of the more recent reports from 2023 are pending verification while further information is gathered.
Year | Number of reports |
2023 (up to 23/5/23) | 34 |
2022 | 82 |
2021 | 93 |
2020 | 152 |
2019 | 71 |
2018 | 72 |
2017 | 14 |
2016 | 8 |
2015 | 2 |