Chamber and committees

Funding certainty and market stability for farmers is absolutely crucial and we want to do all that we can to try to ensure that that is the case in Scotland. As announced at February’s NFU Scotland Conference, Tiers 1 and 2 will receive at least 70% of the available budget. Work on the future framework is continuing to be developed and any announcements will be made in due course. As always, we are committed to working with the industry to co-develop the new payment framework to ensure there are no cliff edges.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W- 30147 on 11 November 2024. 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-31245 on 21 November 2024. 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 Community Right to Buy Review was announced in July and Phase 1, which was an evidence gathering phase, is due for completion by the end of this year.

It is having no impact on the current applications.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Scotland’s local authorities are responsible for the maintenance and management of play parks within their estates.

NHS 24 is committed to providing safe and effective care to our patients across Scotland 365 days of the year. During times of peak demand staff work hard to answer as many calls as quickly and safely as possible.

Calls to the 111 service can be unanswered for a variety of reasons, including callers choosing to end their call after being connected to the automated messaging service and hearing the options available to them.

These include accessing self-care advice via NHS Inform or contacting another area of the health service which may be more appropriate to meet their needs.

The Scottish Government continues to support NHS 24's on-going work to help reduce unanswered calls, including recently revising NHS 24's key performance indicators to help better reflect and understand the current demands on the service.

This work allows the Service to capture any unmet demand, and any potential risks where callers have made multiple attempts to access 111 without success.

It will also allow the Service to continue to make improvements to service delivery moving forward.

Within our 2024-25 Programme for Government we committed to working across the four nations on banning the sale of single use vapes (SUV) as well as the UK Tobacco and Vapes Bill. SUV’s have been linked to a rapid increase in the number of young people vaping, particularly due to their low price. The SUV ban will be implemented from 1 June 2025 in line with the rest of the UK. If passed the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, will restrict the promotion, advertisement and brandsharing of vapes.

Our ‘Take Hold’ marketing campaign educates parents, carers and children about the dangers of vaping and increased the awareness of the harms and risks of nicotine addiction.

We continue to work with Young Scot to support young people to understand the risks of using tobacco and nicotine products, and raise awareness of available cessation services and avenues to support young people to stop smoking/vaping.

Our Tobacco and Vaping Framework recognises that price can be a critical factor in people’s decisions on starting to smoke and vape. The Scottish Government welcomes the UK Government’s commitment in the Autumn budget to introduce a duty on vapes from 2026 while ensuring the price differential between tobacco and vapes will be maintained.

This information is not held by the Scottish Government as it relates to an operational matter for the children’s hearings system.

The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) publish their annual statistics, which sets out a measure on time taken to progress referrals through the children’s hearings system. The information is available on the SCRA website: Official Statistics - SCRA.

On 14 May 2024 Reach Advocacy wrote to the Scottish Government requesting to become a ‘Nationally Commissioned Advocacy Training Body’. The Scottish Government replied to Reach Advocacy on 28 May 2024 seeking to fully understand the basis on which Reach Advocacy were requesting this.

On 15 October 2024 Reach Advocacy submitted a business proposal to ask for funding from Scottish Government to deliver Reach Advocacy’s ‘Advocacy Practice Award’ and human rights-based training.

This proposal was submitted for consideration to relevant directorates under the responsibility of the Minister for Drugs and Alcohol Policy, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, the Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise, and the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport.

Scottish Government Officials from each directorate assessed that the request for funding was not the most appropriate means by which the Scottish Government’s current priorities and objectives would be achieved.

On 6 November 2024 a response was issued to Reach Advocacy to inform them of the decision and rationale.

We are committed to ensuring that people living with respiratory conditions receive the best possible care, treatment and support. Our Respiratory Care Action Plan sets our priorities and commitments for driving improvement in the prevention, diagnosis, care, treatment and support of people living with respiratory conditions such as COPD.

The funding announced in the UK Autumn Statement is welcome, however, the Scottish Government continues to face the most challenging financial situation since devolution. The new Scottish Budget will be presented to Parliament on 4 December 2024. This will detail Scottish Ministers spend proposals for the year ahead.