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The fostering a positive, inclusive and safe school environment guidance was developed with a range of key stakeholders, including headteachers and teaching unions.

Support staff views were captured through the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research, which informed the development of the guidance. The guidance responds to a direct ask from school staff, including support staff, for clarity and support in responding to behaviour and reflects a range of evidence from teaching unions on this issue.

In addition, UNISON is represented on the Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools, which oversaw the development of the guidance. The Advisory Group also contains representation from a range of perspectives including EIS, NASUWT, Education and Parents organisations.

Cataract surgery remains one of the most frequently performed surgical interventions across NHS Scotland. However, our health service has experienced unprecedented pressures over the past few years including the long-term impacts of the pandemic, seasonal and staffing pressures and unprecedented levels of inflation across the public sector. This has inevitably disrupted the NHS’s ability to carry out routine procedures, meaning longer waits for many patients.

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering reductions in waiting times, and has this year allocated an additional £12 million funding to NHS Boards for ophthalmology services.

The Scottish Government recognises that long waits can have an impact on health and wellbeing. Waiting well | NHS inform on NHS Inform provides patients with information to support their health and wellbeing while waiting for health and social care services. This includes information on physical and mental health, as well as advice about practical issues like money worries.

We know many people are still waiting too long and this is not good enough. We are determined do more and our Budget will provide a record £21.7 billion for health and social care, with more than £110 million allocated to health boards to help tackle the longest waits for procedures and operations.

The funding has been assigned to specialty areas for the year ahead where it can have the greatest impact against the longest waits. This includes more than £12 million for ophthalmology.

The Scottish Government supports all work being done in primary care, in acute care, in mental health settings, in specialist settings and in residential care, as well as by social care services, public protection chief officers and by social workers to ensure the best opportunities for recovery are available to anyone diagnosed with alcohol-related brain damage.

We are engaging widely on the creation of a new approach to care and support for people impacted by alcohol. That new approach will include plans for a national specification setting out the interventions required to reduce harm. This will include recommendations for the recovery support required for alcohol-related brain damage.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving perinatal and infant mental health services across Scotland. Anyone who requires Maternity and Neonatal Psychological Intervention (MNPI) services should be able to access them as part of their maternity or neonatal care.

We are providing £123.5 million funding to Boards to improve the quality and delivery of mental health and psychological services for all. This funding includes provision for access to MNPI services across all 14 Boards. Continued investment since 2019 has resulted in a substantial increase in services across Scotland, leading to all Boards having access to MNPI services, either from a local MNPI team or, for very small Board areas, via pathways to MNPI care in larger maternity hospitals where the patient may deliver.

The way in which MNPI services are provided differs across Boards, depending on population size and birth rate. However, we expect those who need the services to be able to access them in all areas of Scotland. Some Boards will have independent MNPI teams, working closely with local perinatal mental health services, and agreed referral criteria and pathways into care; while smaller Boards, such as Island Boards should provide access to psychological therapies via local primary care, adult mental health or perinatal mental health clinical psychology, with pathways into specialist MNPI support in the maternity hospital where they deliver.

The Scottish Government takes a comprehensive approach to assessing the impact of the fishing industry on marine biodiversity. Consideration of marine biodiversity is embedded across a range of statutory and non statutory assessments that inform the development and implementation of new marine and fisheries policies.

Recent assessments include those conducted as part of the updated evaluation of Good Environmental Status under the UK Marine Strategy (UKMS), as well as Scotland’s Marine Assessment 2020, which provides an evidence-based overview of the health of Scotland’s seas.

Further information on the UKMS assessments can be accessed at MOAT - Marine online assessment tool.

The Scottish Government regularly reviews the latest scientific evidence to inform our policy approach to protecting the marine environment, including natural carbon stores, from potentially harmful activities.

We are currently preparing a Blue Carbon Action Plan (BCAP), which will set out what we are doing to address key evidence gaps and how we are integrating consideration of natural carbon stores into the marine policy landscape. As part of the development of the BCAP, we have carefully considered the impact of human activities, including fishing, on natural carbon stores. Understanding the impact of bottom trawling on blue carbon is one of our priority evidence gaps and, in collaboration with the Scottish Blue Carbon Forum, we have been progressing research to better understand its impact on seabed carbon.

The Scottish Government’s Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Factors programme aims to reduce avoidable CVD death by 20% in 20 years.

A key principle of the programme is the approach of proportional universalism, to reduce associated health inequalities and to extend cardiovascular disease prevention efforts to those we know are at highest risk and particularly underserved by existing models of care

Further information on the Scottish CVD Risk Factors Programme can be found at:

National cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention and risk factors toolkit | Right Decisions

The CVD Risk Factors programme is part of a wider suite of work that sits with the Preventative and Proactive care (PPC) programme and is referenced in the Prevention section of the NHS Scotland Operational Improvement Plan published in March and in Scotland’s Population Health Framework 2025-2035, published in June, in the Equitable Healthcare section.

We will continue to work closely with our stakeholders and third sector organisations to implement positive change for people who experience a stroke.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-39413 on 6 August 2025. 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 does not currently have any plans to develop a standard post-diagnostic support pathway for ADHD. The National Neurodevelopmental Specification: Principles and Standards of Care for Children and Young People sets out the standards for all services to support children and young people with neurodevelopmental support needs, including ADHD. The Scottish Government is also working with the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) to develop national Adult Neurodevelopmental Pathways.

In addition, local authorities have duties under the Additional Support for Learning Act (Scotland) 2004 to identify, provide for and review the additional needs of their pupils. Under the Act an additional support need can arise for any reason and a diagnosis of ADHD is not required before support is put in place.

The Scottish Government is clear that support should be put in place to meet a child’s requirements when they need it. This includes community-based supports and where additional support is needed for learning. However, we recognise that in the case of ADHD, medication can be helpful, and a diagnosis is required to access this. We are working with Boards to ensure that children, young people and adults can access diagnostic services in a timely manner.