Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not routinely publish its response to SAWC recommendations. We are currently awaiting a further report from SAWC on a wider range of aversive dog training tools, including other types of electronic training collars. We will consider all their findings carefully.

The Scottish Government supports NHS Scotland‘s Health Boards implement a standardised approach to Child Healthy Weight programmes through funding for Tier 2 and Tier 3 pathways as part of the delivery of Scotland’s Diet and Healthy Weight Plan

Health Boards deliver weight management services in line with Public Health Scotland Standards Weight Management Standards. These standards were introduced in 2019 and aim to ensure a fair and equal approach to the treatment of overweight and obesity for children, young people and adults across weight management services in Scotland.

Health boards delivering weight management interventions work to ensure that programmes are tailored to the specific needs of their local populations by conducting robust needs assessments, consulting with local communities and frontline staff, and addressing barriers related to equality, diversity, and inclusion. This includes conducting Equality Impact Assessment to continuously improve service accessibility and effectiveness.

All Health Boards provide data via Public Health Scotland on their weight management service’s performance and outcomes. This data is published regularly.

Public Health Scotland are undertaking an evaluation of the implementation and impact of the Standards for weight management services with recommendations to inform local action and national policy direction.

The Scottish Government supports NHS Scotland‘s Health Boards implement a standardised approach to weight management services.

Health Boards deliver weight management services in line with Public Health Scotland Standards Weight Management Standards. These standards were introduced in 2019 and aim to ensure a fair and equal approach to the treatment of overweight and obesity for children, young people and adults across weight management services in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is working with Boards to reduce any unnecessary variation, this includes working to develop once for Scotland approaches to weight management and adoption of evidence-based weight management interventions such as Counterweight Plus Type 2 Diabetes Remission.

Public Health Scotland are undertaking an evaluation of the implementation and impact of the Standards for weight management services with recommendations to inform local action and national policy direction.

This government is committed to ensuring everyone in Scotland has reliable access to safe, nutritious, affordable, sustainable, and age and culturally appropriate food.

The Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022 provided the framework for our future food strategy, to build an environment 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. It places duties on Scottish Ministers, local authorities and health boards to produce plans of their policies in relation to food and set out what they will do to make those plans real.

The Ministerial Working Group on Food will provide cross-Government leadership to co-ordinate action on food relevant to achieving a Good Food Nation. Members will work collectively to drive progress across portfolios by providing strategic direction, tackling complex issues and sharing best practice.

To help create a food environment which better supports healthier choices, we are committed to legislation to restrict promotions of food high in fat, sugar or salt at the point of purchase. This is when people make their decisions about what and how much to buy and to consume, for themselves as well as for their families.

Over the last seven years we have invested in the Healthy Living Programme (HLP) and the Reformulation for Health Programme. The HLP helps convenience stores offer healthier choices. More than two-thirds of the 2,300 strong HLP membership serves the most deprived areas of the country and ensures access to affordable, healthier food and drink in those communities.

The Reformulation Programme helps smaller businesses reformulate common products to make them healthier. This is playing an important role in improving dietary health by removing hundreds of millions of calories from Scottish food and drink products sold across the country, including deprived areas.

All long waits are regrettable, and we continue to work with Health Boards, including NHS Western Isles, to drive improvements in waiting times.

Public Health Scotland publishes data on NHS Waiting Times across NHS Scotland quarterly. This can be accessed using the following link: Stage of treatment waiting times - Inpatients, day cases and new outpatients quarter ending 30 June 2024 - NHS waiting times - stage of treatment - Publications - Public Health Scotland. The data for NHS Western Isles show:

Inpatient/Day-Case:

Ongoing waits: 371

Over 52 weeks: 1

Over 78 weeks: 0

New Outpatient Appointment:

Ongoing waits: 1,518

Over 52 weeks: 14

Over 78 weeks: 2

I understand from NHS Western Isles that 70% of Inpatient/Day-Case patients are currently listed within 12 weeks. However, a small number of patients are waiting longer due to medical unavailability or due to the timetable for visiting services.

NHS Western Isles expect to clear the majority of their backlog for New Outpatients in November 2024.

Scottish Government officials have been 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, and Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

This scoping work is informing the development of a consultation that will seek the views of the public on the specific details to ensure that proportionate, robust, flexible and future-proofed further regulation is introduced. This new public consultation will be published by the end of the year.

According to the 2022 Scottish Health Survey, 23% of children who live in most deprived areas are at risk of obesity, compared with 15% in the least deprived. Addressing the risk of obesity and its associated health conditions is therefore a key priority for the Scottish Government in reducing health inequalities for those on lower incomes.

We have provided core funding of £8.25 million to health boards to continue to deliver adult, children and young people’s weight management services in 2024-25.

Our aim to halve childhood obesity by 2030 and significantly reduce diet related health inequalities is deliberately ambitious. A Whole Systems Approach to childhood obesity remains the strongest evidence-based route to improving levels of healthy weight in children.

However, dealing only with the consequences of poor diet and higher weight is not enough. We also need to address the underlying causes. This includes ending poverty, supporting fair wages, and improving our physical and social environments. Since 2022-23, we continue to allocate around £3bn a year to policies which tackle poverty and protect people as far as possible during the ongoing cost of living crisis.

With particular reference to child poverty, our Scottish Child Payment provides £26.70 per eligible child per week – support that is only available in Scotland.

This is a matter for NHS Lothian. The information requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government do not hold any data on the number of children that currently have at least one parent or parental figure with a drug addiction, nor do we collect data that could make an informed assessment of this or provide a proxy.

The following funding has been given to the identified charities, both directly and indirectly: