Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government recognises that the food we produce and consume has wide-ranging impacts in many areas of life. Our ambition is for Scotland to be a Good Food Nation where people from every walk of life take pride and pleasure in, and benefit from, the food they produce, buy, cook, serve, and eat each day. We have already been working across government on an extensive programme of measures to deliver on this ambition. This work will now be supported and underpinned in law by the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill, introduced on 7 October 2021.

The Bill will provide an over-arching framework for clear, consistent and coherent future Scottish food policy. It places duties on Scottish Ministers and certain public authorities to produce plans of their policies in relation to food and set out what they will do to make those plans real. These plans will also have to set out the main outcomes to be achieved in relation to food-related issues, the policies needed to do this and the measures we will use to assess progress. We want these plans to deliver outcomes which support our nation’s social and economic wellbeing, the environment, people’s health and economic development.

The Scottish Government is required by law to regularly review all protective measures that are currently in place, such as the mandatory requirement for the wearing of face coverings in most indoor settings, including places of worship. This measure will continue to be monitored and reviewed in relation to evidence on the four harms : the direct impact of COVID-19, other health impacts, societal impacts, and economic impacts.

After a recent review, during which there was careful consideration of all of the current evidence as well as the options available, Ministers determined that the regulations on face coverings remain proportionate and should not change for the present.

At this stage of the pandemic many of the more intrusive restrictions have been lifted, but the virus and the harms that it causes have not gone away. We still continue to see hospital admissions and deaths as a result of COVID and the impacts of long COVID can be significant. That is why it remains important to maximise the use of the remaining measures such as face coverings.

While the vaccination has significantly weakened the link between new cases and serious health harms, it has not been completely broken. It is therefore important that places of worship, along with many other indoor settings, continue their good practice to reduce the spread of the virus.

We are grateful to faith and belief communities for their important role in protecting their congregations and enabling everyone, particularly those at higher risk, to access worship safely.

The Misogyny and Criminal Justice in Scotland Working Group, chaired by the Baroness Helena Kennedy, is on track to produce its final report to Scottish Government by early February 2022, meeting the one year recommendation set by the Justice Committee.

The Working Group on Misogyny and Criminal Justice is working independently to consider how the Scottish criminal justice system can better deal with misogyny, and if the group recommends a specific criminal offence of misogynistic harassment the Scottish Government will carefully consider its advice.

Researchers at the University of Sheffield carried out various sets of modelling of minimum unit pricing for alcohol for the Scottish Government, including the modelling carried out in 2016. The modelling estimated the costs and benefits of various minimum unit prices. At the time the modelling was carried out, minimum unit pricing in the form introduced in Scotland on 1 May 2018, was not present in any other country.

Since minimum unit pricing at 50 pence was introduced on 1 May 2018, we are able to evaluate the real-life impact of this. Public Health Scotland are leading the comprehensive evaluation of the impact of a 50 pence minimum unit price on four outcome areas: implementation and compliance; alcoholic drinks industry; consumption; and health and social harms. More information on this can be found on the MUP Evaluation pages on Public Health Scotland’s website.

Transport Scotland, recently published a joint report with Scottish Futures Trust setting out the opportunities to grow Scotland’s public electric vehicle charging network and the conditions that will be needed to facilitate this over the next few years. The report makes reference to Climate Change Committee data which indicated that the UK as a whole may require 280,000 public charge points by 2030, implying the need for 30,000 in Scotland which in turn equates to approximately 4000 each year. Importantly, the report also highlighted that the number of charge points required will be influenced by a range of factors including development of battery and charging technologies and that significant commercial investment through public and private partnerships would likely be needed to develop the network as demand grows.

The Scottish Government has invested over £45m in developing the ChargePlace Scotland network, which now has over 1900 charge points, and is continuing to support network growth. Transport Scotland is working closely with Scottish Futures Trust to consider the most appropriate structures and approach to growing and developing charging infrastructure in Scotland.

I have now appointed an independent group who will provide oversight and assurance. The group will work with the Tayside Executive Partnership to support progress in improving Tayside’s mental health services and ensure that the recommendations from the independent inquiry are fully implemented.

The group will be chaired by Fiona Lees, former Chief Executive of East Ayrshire Council. She will be supported by David Williams, former Chief Officer of Glasgow City Integrated Joint Board and previously an Advisor on Integration to the Scottish Government; and Fraser McKinlay, former Controller of Audit and Director of Performance Audit and Best Value.

The Scottish Government takes the recommendations from the independent inquiry seriously and I believe the skill set and experience of these members are essential to providing the appropriate oversight of their implementation to improve mental health services in Tayside.

The Independent Oversight and Assurance Group on Tayside Mental Health Services will provide me with written updates on progress on a quarterly basis. The role of this group is also separate from that of the Tayside Executive Partnership which is expected to have its own collective assurance processes and remains accountable to the NHS Board and relevant Councils. This is a time-limited group, initially for a 12 month period. The timescales for its operation will be kept under review and as such, it will not become an established part of the governance landscape in Tayside.

I am determined that real and sustained progress is made in Tayside through the implementation of the independent inquiry recommendations and most importantly, that the people of Tayside receive the quality of mental health care which meets their needs and expectations, and that healthcare staff are appropriately supported and developed.

Our ‘A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People: Employment Action Plan’ sets out key actions we as a Government will take to meet our commitment to reduce the employment gap between disabled people and the rest of the working age population by at least half by 2038. This Action plan will be refreshed in Spring 2022; and we are working closely with our partners, including disabled people themselves and the organisations that represent them, as we develop this. The Young Person’s Guarantee will ensure that every person aged between 16 and 24 – including disabled people and those from low socio-economic groups will have the opportunity to study, take up an apprenticeship, job or work experience, or participate in formal volunteering. The transition to net zero presents opportunities to put this into practice. This year we have provided £27 million for Fair Start Scotland to provide tailored support for unemployed disabled people to move into fair and sustained work.

We are also providing over £8.65 million for the Parental Employability Support Fund in 2021-22, and will invest at least a further £15 million across 2022-24. This helps low income families identified as being most at risk of experiencing poverty, including disabled parents to increase their earnings, by gaining and progressing in fair work, providing intensive, person centred key worker employability support. In August we launched phase 1 of The Green Jobs Workforce Academy. The Academy makes it easier for individuals of all backgrounds at any stage of their career to consider how their skills and experience can be built upon to launch a green career. Finally, The Individual Training Account scheme continues to support the unemployed or those in low paid work with the opportunity to access £200 towards training.

Following the allocation of £2.1 billion provided to date to NHS Boards and Integration Authorities to support additional COVID-19 costs, a further £482 million is now being provided to NHS Boards and Integration Authorities in 2021-22 to meet ongoing costs associated with Covid-19. This includes funding for PPE, Test and Protect and delivery of Covid-19 vaccinations.

The Scottish Government will continue to ensure that our health and care services have the funding that they require to respond to this pandemic.

Details of funding allocations to NHS Boards and Integration Authorities are set out in the following table:

We are working with industry, local government and environmental groups to develop a route map to deliver our waste and recycling targets for 2025. This work will also be critical in determining how the waste and resources sector will contribute towards lower carbon emissions in the period to 2030 and beyond.