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Marketing expenditure of £3.8m was spent on the Let's Do Net Zero campaign, covering the period from its development in 2020-21 through to the current financial year 2024-25.

This campaign is delivered as part of the Scottish Government’s Climate Change Public Engagement Strategy and specifically supports the strategic objective to ensure that people are aware of the action that all of Scotland is taking to tackle climate change and understand how it relates to their lives. The campaign seeks to motivate households to take action in the areas that will have the biggest impact in reducing emissions. Evidence, including from the Climate Change Committee’s Citizen panels, suggest that communications of this nature are both necessary and welcome as part of Scotland’s journey towards net zero.

The Scottish Government recently published the Climate Change – public engagement strategy:mid point review (April 2025) which reflects on the results delivered to date and includes a summary of outcomes and learning related to the Let’s Do Net Zero campaign. Independent evaluation shows that:

• Paid-for Let’s Do Net Zero campaigns typically reach a large proportion of people in Scotland: for example, the October 2021 communications activity reached 3,475,000 (75%) of adults in Scotland, who saw the activity on average 9.7 times.
• Seeing messaging relating to the need to take action to tackle climate change has a positive impact on the target audience’s commitment to taking action: for example, 76% of campaign recognisers were motivated to take action in November 2024 versus 49% of non-recognisers.

The Review’s findings indicate that the public want to see more mass communication on climate change from the Scottish Government and want to hear more on the urgency of the climate crisis from Government, balanced with communication on the practical actions that people can take, and their co-benefits.

Scottish Government consultation with the trade unions is ongoing and at this stage of the process there are no outcomes to report.

The Scottish Government has prioritised action on marine litter through the Marine Litter Strategy for Scotland. We published our refreshed Strategy in September 2022, which sets out a co-ordinated approach to address the amount of litter entering the marine environment and supports the removal of debris that is already there. The Strategy contains multiple actions on the most problematic types of marine litter, including sewage-related debris and wet wipes. We are working across the four nations to put an end to pollution caused by wet wipes containing plastic, with legislation forthcoming. Scottish Water are a valued member of our Marine Litter Strategy Steering Group, which oversees the work of the Strategy.

In January of this year, Scottish Minsters agreed to Highland HSCP putting in place a mixed-model for vaccinations. GP delivery is likely to be key in some aspects of this model, however, the aim is to take a collaborative approach to delivering vaccinations.

Since 2022, Health Boards have been responsible for delivering vaccination programmes. However, the Scottish Government recognises the need for flexibility to account of specific, local circumstances that might negatively affect vaccine uptake, which is why Ministers agreed to the development and implementation of a mixed model.

The Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland continue to engage with Highland HSCP to support a flexible and responsive immunisation service.

There are currently no plans for a Ministerial statement on vaccination.

Since April 2022, Health Boards have been responsible for delivering vaccines. The vast majority of adult vaccinations, including flu, Covid, RSV, shingles and pneumococcal are visible to GPs via their GP-IT system.

Currently, childhood and non-routine vaccinations do not automatically flow into GP-IT from the separate systems that record them, but this pre-dates the move from GP to Health Board delivery.

Any associated patient risk is mitigated by Health Boards providing GPs with a list of childhood and non-routine vaccinations they have administered. The Scottish Government funds GPs to manually input these into their GP systems.

Highland HSCP are putting in place a mixed-model for vaccinations. GP delivery is expected to be key in some aspects of this model, but the plan is for a collaborative approach rather than one that relies solely on GP delivery.

Oversight of how the mixed model is developed and deployed to deliver local and accessible vaccination and immunisation services in a cost effective way will ultimately remain the responsibility of Highland HSCP.

Health boards are funded to offer vaccination in a way that best suits the needs of their communities, supported by national frameworks, such as Public Health Scotland’s (PHS) 5-year Vaccination and Immunisation Framework and Delivery Plan. This plan specifically sets out that boards should “ensure availability of a range of flexible, responsive, and good-quality immunisation services that meet the needs of all communities, including our rural and island communities”.

The Lord Advocate has responsibility for the investigation of all sudden, suspicious, accidental and unexplained deaths in Scotland, including the deaths of children. Such investigations are conducted by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service on behalf of the Lord Advocate and these investigations are carried out independently from Government.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) recently reviewed and published an updated version of A national framework for reviewing and learning from adverse events in NHS Scotland in February this year. The revised framework includes an updated shareable learning template which NHS Health Boards should complete following a Significant Adverse Event Review (SAER). These summaries, which will support local and national learning, will be published on an online community of practice for NHS staff which HIS will launch later this year.

The framework is clear that those people directly affected by a significant adverse event should have the opportunity to be involved in the review process and should be made fully aware of the circumstances surrounding the event. This includes sharing the final report with the individual concerned, or their family in the event of a death.

The Scottish Government does not require NHS Health Boards to publish SAER reports more widely. It is the responsibility of the Health Boards to consider relevant legislation and guidance when releasing or publishing information.

Scottish Government officials meet with Healthcare Improvement Scotland on a regular basis to discuss the ongoing work surrounding adverse events. The most recent meeting took place on Monday 21 July.