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The Scottish Government is currently working on a National Treatment Specification for Alcohol and Drug Treatment in Scotland.

This document will be informed by numerous sources including the forthcoming UK Clinical Guidelines for Alcohol Treatment and the recently published Public Health Scotland review into Alcohol Brief Interventions as well as key independent reports such as Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problem’s (SHAAP) paper on alcohol use disorder in the justice system.

Officials will work closely with colleagues within the Scottish Prison Service to ensure that the National Treatment Specification fully reflects the importance of the justice system including those resident in the prison estate as an integral part of Scotland’s alcohol treatment provision.

In keeping with the Road Safety Framework to 2030 priorities and with particular reference to the In-Depth Fatalities Report, we are running a national campaign on Drink and Drug Driving.

The Drink and Drug Driving campaign will tackle drivers aged 18-35. As outlined in the Road Safety Framework there is a need to ensure drivers do not drive while impaired through alcohol or drugs. Drug driving limits and roadside drug testing were introduced in Scotland in October 2019. Since then, more than 19,000 tests have been carried out with almost half of those resulting in a positive test (49%). However, a relatively low awareness of roadside testing remains, and Road Safety Scotland will continue to address this through future campaign activity.

We are also working alongside Police Scotland who are undertaking a pilot project in Shetland. The pilot includes local police officers trained in the testing of drivers at the roadside who are suspected to be under the influence of drink and drugs. The officers have been fully trained in the administering of the drug wipes, previously road policing officers had been the only trained officers to administer the wipes. This pilot will be monitored and evaluated and we will be meeting Police Scotland in the New Year to discuss progress as well as identifying future road safety initiatives to tackle drug driving in Scotland.

Post campaign evaluation shows the 2023-24 Drug-Driving campaign was effective in increasing awareness of use of roadside drug wipes by police and prompting key actions, including talking to friends and family about roadside testing.

The Scottish Government’s Drink and Drug-Driving campaign runs from the 2 December 2024 to 13 January 2025. It covers radio, digital, out of home billboards in urban areas where audience can be reached prior to drinking or taking drugs, tactical outdoor sites, including posters and beermats in pubs and clubs targeting the audience in environments where they may be considering driving home under the influence. Sub-targeting of drivers living in the most deprived areas has been factored into plans and will be achieved through digital media postcode targeting.

All campaign materials will signpost to the roadsafety.scot website, which will support behaviour change by including further information on drug and drink-driving penalties, legal alcohol limits and roadside drug testing. PR and partnership activity and a campaign toolkit is available for partners which outlines details of the campaign and key messaging alongside shareable assets.

The effectiveness of the campaign will be evaluated and this work is undertaken by independent research agencies and seeks to track shifts in the target audiences’ attitudes and behaviours as a result of campaign exposure.

The Scottish Government funds NHS Boards to provide healthcare to individuals in the criminal justice system. It is the responsibility of these Health Boards to provide safe, effective, person-centred care, equitable to that available to those in the community. This funding is being supplemented in the current Parliamentary term from our National Mission that includes a Prison to Rehab pathway which enables individuals with problem substance use, which includes alcohol, to access residential rehabilitation immediately on release from prison. Public Health Scotland is independently evaluating the impact of the National Mission. In December 2024 we supported the launch of Scotland's Charter of Rights for people affected by substance use to ensure people will have access to all appropriate services - including in the criminal justice system.

Applicants for the scheme already have to agree to specific terms and conditions when signing up for the scheme, however we are working to strengthen these through changes to application forms to specify expected standards of behaviour when travelling and development of a behaviour code linked to operator’s conditions of carriage and existing legal protections.

We are exploring the legal means to suspend access to concessionary travel for perpetrators of persistent antisocial behaviour of any age. While this is being progressed as a priority, the National Concessionary Travel Schemes in Scotland are provided on a universal statutory basis therefore detailed and thorough consideration of any process and penalty must be undertaken to ensure consistency and fairness.

The Scottish Government wants all children and young people to develop mutually respectful, responsible and confident relationships.

While there are no plans to introduce anything specific into the school curriculum on this subject, we encourage bus operators to work locally with educational establishments. Transport Scotland are developing a behaviour code covering all concessionary bus passengers and align with existing operators’ conditions of carriage.

Transport Scotland will work with key partners to ensure that this code is widely publicised.

The Independent Working Group on Antisocial Behaviour is reporting to Ministers, Cosla and Police Scotland by the end of 2024. Its remit was to: Consider the effectiveness of current approaches to understanding, preventing and tackling antisocial behaviour and if, and how, these could be improved to develop a holistic long term strategic approach which will help to improve the lives of communities across Scotland. This should include consideration of whether a preventative approach would be appropriate and how victims of antisocial behaviour are supported and whether this could be improved.

As part of its engagement work it met with a number of representatives from the transport sector who had also been invited to respond to a national data survey commissioned by the Working Group. This report will be published in the first quarter of 2025 and will be considered by Scottish Ministers, Police Scotland and Cosla prior to a formal response.

The common staffing method (CSM) sets out a process to identify, mitigate risks and determine what changes, if any, are needed to staffing numbers. Its purpose is to ensure a consistent approach to decision making across NHS Scotland. The frequency of applying the CSM has been defined as once per financial year as a minimum.

Local recruitment based on the outputs of the CMS are a matter for the Health Board and are one of several factors used to determine recruitment.

Use of the CMS will form part of the evidence that Health Boards submit Scottish Government to demonstrate how they have complied with the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019. Under the Act all Health Boards must submit a report on how they complied with their legislative requirements. Scottish Ministers will then lay a summary report to Parliament outlining overall compliance with the Act.

Under the Act, Scottish Ministers have a duty to take all reasonable steps to ensure that there is a sufficient number of registered nurses, registered midwives, medical practitioners, and other types of employees.

Information gained from Health Board annual reports will inform national policies to ensure sufficient future supply including determining future student intake numbers, recruitment and retention polices, and student career pipelines.

The Scottish Government recognises the important role that grandparents have in many families bringing up children, particularly following parental separation.

When the Children (Scotland) Bill (now the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 (the 2020 Act)) was introduced, the Scottish Government considered whether to include a presumption or right for grandchildren to have contact with their grandparents.

However, no such provision was included.A presumption in favour of a particular group of adults could cut across the driving principle of the legislation that the welfare of the child must be the paramount consideration in any contact or residence case.

We have no plans to change the law in this area at the present time.It remains possible for any person with an interest in a child, including a grandparent, to apply to the court to seek an order under section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (the 1995 Act), which is the key provision in relation to contact and residence.

Section 16 of the 2020 Act sets out additional factors that the court must consider when deciding whether or not to make an order under section 11 of the 1995 Act.It provides that the court must consider the effect the order might have on the child’s important relationships with other people.This could include the child’s grandparents. Section 16 is not yet in force but the Scottish Government will consider in 2025 which further sections of the 2020 Act could be commenced.

The Scottish Government has produced the Charter for Grandchildren as part of the Your Parenting Plan. The Charter sets out that grandchildren can expect to maintain contact with their wider family except in very exceptional circumstances.