Seòmar agus comataidhean

We will be publishing a draft strategy to tackle social isolation and loneliness for consultation in January. We will be consulting widely on this, and will consider carefully the recommendations set out by the Mental Health Foundation and Age Scotland.

Smart tickets can now be used to make journeys on rail, bus, subway, tram and air – with work progressing with ferries. This means Scotland has one of the most advanced smart integrated multi-modal public transport networks in the UK, outside of London.

Integrated ticketing between the Glasgow Subway and ScotRail, as well as the introduction of multi-operator bus smartzones in Aberdeenshire, Dundee and more recently Glasgow (with Edinburgh set to follow in early 2018) have proven successful, and Transport Scotland is now looking to expand this cross mode interoperability for the full saltire smartcard estate. In addition we are working with the industry to support the contactless bank card payment system to bring more convenience to the travelling public.

The roll out of upgraded standardised ticketing infrastructure across the deregulated bus network is virtually complete, meaning that nearly 150m smart concessionary transactions happen each year.

We have just closed our "Future of Smart Ticketing" consultation which will help to inform the future delivery of a smart ticketing and payment scheme in Scotland.

The award of funding will be within the draft budget to be considered by The Scottish Parliament. While we await 2018-19 draft budget outcomes, we continue to actively explore all options of how this funding will be allocated.

NHS Forth Valley have engaged with the Mental Health Access Improvement Service Team based within Health Improvement Scotland. which was funded as part of the package of support offered to Boards to improve access to services.

The support offered by the improvement team already includes locally based ISD analysts undertaking analysis and reporting on data within CAMHS and PT services to inform improvements in service provision. Also work undertaken within Forth Valley on a major service review and redesign has seen a new service model introduced. The new model looks to address delays identified in the system, as well as undertaking staff recruitment and working to reduce waiting times.

In terms of working to improve child and adolescent mental health services at a national level we have announced a review of rejected referrals to CAMHS to gather evidence from young people, their families and carers to inform the approach to mental health services. As part of our Mental Health Strategy, we have commenced a national review of Personal and Social Education, including counselling in schools. In addition on the 6 December we announced a £95,000 investment in a Youth Commission on mental health, which will be delivered in partnership between SAMH and Young Scotland.

Passengers can currently purchase tickets using contactless bank cards (EMV) from ticket offices and on the train on all ScotRail services. We are working with ScotRail to enable contactless payments to be accepted at ticket vending machines.

ScotRail's Smartcard has been introduced on all routes and is available for most ticket types.

There a number of advantages for passengers using a ScotRail smartcard (saltirecard). Some special promotional fares are only available on Smart. Super Off Peak Day Return and Club 50 are exclusive to Smart which provide discount travel. For Smart season ticket holders, exclusive online benefits are also offered, including discounts and deals on the high street. Smart also offers more convenience for passengers as tickets can be purchased online making it faster and easier with no need to queue at the ticket office as well as providing more security against lost and stolen cards. Smartcard also brings the rail industry in line with other transport operators and it provides the opportunity for Transport Scotland to expand and create new ways of making Scotland's public transport interoperable.

ScotRail will be piloting Account Based Ticketing in 2018, which will allow payment to be added to Smartcards and offer passengers daily and weekly best fares without having to purchase tickets before traveling (similar to that which is offered on Oyster in London).

Our immediate priority is to focus on delivery of our Programme for Government commitment to provide access to free sanitary products in schools, colleges and universities, and we will consider further action in light of the findings of our Aberdeen pilot which will conclude in March next year.

This is a ground-breaking commitment to tackle this gender injustice and we are proud to be the first nation in the world to take this action.

We continue to work towards our vision that all journeys on Scotland’s bus, rail, ferry, subway and tram can be made using some form of smart ticket or payment. For some time now this has focused on creating an infrastructure across all of Scotland that can support saltirecards (ITSO secure smartcard) and – particularly for bus - contactless bank cards (EMV).

To make using public transport around Scotland a simpler experience for the public, and having now largely put the infrastructure in place, we are now working to improve smart ticketing interoperability by persuading over 200 transport operators across all modes to accept products on each others’ cards.

Over the last few months many of the major operators have also launched EMV on their services, benefitting the travelling public with an additional, easy and convenient way to pay. As technology moves apace we are also looking to take advantage of ITSO’s emerging options for using a mobile phone rather than a smartcard.

Lastly, we have just closed our “Future of Smart Ticketing” consultation (December 5^th) which considers whether legislation and governance requirements are needed to enable further, quicker progress with this consistent and standardised approach.

Government recognises that children who live with substance–misusing parents are among the most vulnerable in society and require particular care and support. We have an Alcohol Framework in place which contains a package of measures to tackle alcohol misuse. A key measure is the introduction of a minimum price for alcohol which we believe is the most effective and efficient way of reducing overall alcohol consumption and harm. We have confirmed an additional £20m for alcohol and drugs services as part of our Programme for Government 2017.

Improving outcomes for children affected by parental substance and alcohol misuse is a priority for the Scottish Government. That is why we currently provide funding of £600,000 per year to the CORRA Foundation who support Scottish voluntary organisations to deliver vital on the ground support largely to children and families across Scotland affected by substance and alcohol misuse. The CORRA Foundation receive a further £160,000 for the delivery of the recommendations contained in "Everyone Has A Story", an action learning project that aims to hear the voices and experiences of children and young people whose parents are in recovery from drugs and alcohol.

We also provide £269,000 to Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs for support to families across Scotland affected by a loved one’s substance and alcohol misuse, raising awareness of their needs and the issues affecting them and ensuring that these are recognised and addressed.