Chamber and committees

As a harm reduction service, there is no intention that staff would record or report suspected crimes in relation to the possession of drugs. The service will collate information on the substances being reported by service users but this will be anonymous and for the purposes of the city’s drug harms agenda in relation to gathering intelligence to support wider service responses. Staff working in the service are not expected to determine whether a crime in relation to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 is being committed.

Police Scotland will record any crime in the usual manner, there is no change to either Police Scotland or crime reporting where they find people to be committing a crime, including those under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

Scottish Government is currently assessing alternative spending models for natural restoration that will seek to encourage greater responsible private investment while maximising the value of public spending.

Scottish Government's ambition is that women and girls enjoy the best possible health, throughout their lives and this will continue to be our guiding principle as we develop the next phase of the Women’s Health Plan.

Any future topics or priorities for the next phase of the Women’s Health Plan are yet to be decided. Priorities will be agreed in collaboration with women and girls, clinical experts, other relevant stakeholders and our Women’s Health Champion, using the most up-to-date evidence base.

Information on the level of spend by the Cladding Remediation Programme is proactively published and broken down by local authority.

Latest published data shows the aggregated spend by local authorities on single building assessments, fire risk measures and remediation is just over £9m to the end of quarter one 2024-25; spend is updated quarterly, the next update will be proactively published in quarter three 2024-25. Single Building Assessment programme: spending information (gov.scot).

In our pilot programme, all 107 pilot entries are undergoing necessary pre-assessment checks, if in scope they will proceed to a developer or Government led Single Building Assessment (SBA). We have identified 12 pilot entries in scope, without a linked developer, and have confirmed that we are commissioning SBAs as a priority. This includes 4 in Edinburgh and 8 in Glasgow.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. We are currently working with Public Health Scotland to review options for a national approach to data collection for secondary breast cancer.

The Scottish Government has published the following reports relating to the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults.

Year 1 (2021-2022)

Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund: year 1 - monitoring and reporting summary - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

External Evaluation of Year 1

Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults: evaluation - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Year 2 (2022 -2023)

Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults: year 2 - monitoring and reporting summary - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Year 3 (2023-2024)

Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults - year 3: monitoring and reporting summary - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Year 4 of the Fund opened for applications on 30 September 2024. As with previous years, data in respect of Year 4 will be published when it is available.

In addition, we are currently working with Third Sector Interface organisations to gather information on the impact of the Fund and we intend to make key findings available in due course.

In relation to the children and young people’s community mental health and wellbeing supports and services funded by the Scottish Government, the Scottish Youth Parliament conducted an independent evaluation which was published in August 2023 and is available at https://syp.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Independent-Evaluation-of-Community-Mental-Health-Supports-and-Services-April-2023.pdf.

Local authorities also report annually on data including numbers of people accessing support, age and gender of service users, reasons for presenting at the services, and numbers of people reporting an improved outcome. Summaries of this information are published retrospectively by the Scottish Government at https://www.gov.scot/publications/access-to-counsellors-in-secondary-schools-and-children-and-young-peoples-community-mental-health-services-summary-reports/.

The £15 million per annum funding for Children and Young People’s Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Supports and Services is provided by grants from the Scottish Government to all 32 local authorities. The funding allocations are calculated and distributed based on the number of children and young people in each local authority area, with appropriate adjustments made to take account of the deprivation level and rurality of each area.

Local authorities administer the funding at a local level and determine which supports and services to implement on the basis of locally-identified need and in line with the Children and Young People’s Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Supports and Services Framework.

Local authorities are required to provide the Scottish Government with annual profiles of expenditure and statements of compliance at the end of the financial year, and must keep the Scottish Government informed of any changes to estimated expenditure each year.

Local authorities also report annually on data including numbers of people accessing support, age and gender of service users, reasons for presenting at the services, and numbers of people reporting an improved outcome. Summaries of this information are published retrospectively by the Scottish Government at https://www.gov.scot/publications/access-to-counsellors-in-secondary-schools-and-children-and-young-peoples-community-mental-health-services-summary-reports/.

The Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults is distributed in all 32 regions of Scotland by Third Sector Interface (TSI) organisations who allocate funding in line with the National Fund Guidance.

TSIs are required to submit monitoring and reporting data annually, including information on the number and value of awards granted, types of organisations funded, key priorities and target groups reached, aims of funded projects and overall spend including any underspend.

This data informs the content of the Reporting and Monitoring Summary which is published for each year of the Fund.

The published reports can be found here. Wellbeing and prevention - Mental health - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

From Year 2 of the Fund (2022-23) Scottish Government has also requested that TSIs collect standard evaluation data from organisations to demonstrate the impact of the Fund on their specific projects. This includes information on: what the project expected to do compared to what they did; the activities and level of participants; and the outcomes and challenges/changes of the project.

An external evaluation of Year 1 of the Fund was commissioned by the Scottish Government. The findings were published in July 2023 and can be found here:

Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults: evaluation - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The decision to enhance public authorities' inclusive communication through guidance, tools, and training was communicated in a letter by myself, issued to stakeholders on 14 August 2024. Officials are now undertaking a scoping exercise and gap analysis endeavouring to work with partners in this and will continue to communicate updates on this work as it progresses.