Seòmar agus comataidhean

The management of Scottish waters is an area of devolved competency. Whilst there are currently no supertrawlers in the Scottish fishing fleet, a number of other fleets operate within Scottish waters, including a small number of EU supertrawlers. As well as vessels from the rest of the UK, the TCA UK/EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement allows EU vessels full access to fish shared stocks within UK waters.

It is important to note that all vessels authorised to operate in Scottish waters do so under the appropriate licenses, and are obliged to follow Scottish domestic management rules, including mesh size restrictions and closed areas. These vessels also operate within agreed quotas. The majority of commercial stocks fished are managed by the use of Total Allowable Catches (TACs). TAC levels are informed by the best available independent scientific advice, and are used with an aim to ensure sustainable fishing levels in the long term. Vessels, regardless of size or gear, are only permitted to fish the quotas that they have been allocated, in line with TACs set for each stock.

I am aware that a multinational fleet has operated in the UK/Faroe ‘Special Area’ for a number of years under the Faroese Government’s authority. This is an area of water overlapping both UK (Scottish) and Faroese waters, which the UK and the Faroe Islands both claim, and over which both Parties are entitled to exercise jurisdiction and other rights. Both the UK/Scottish Government and the Faroese Government can issue sea fishing licences, including to third country vessels, which include the right to fish within the Special Area. Under the 1999 Agreement, neither Party can prevent or impede the other from issuing such licences.

I was, however, deeply troubled by the Russian fishing activity within the Special Area earlier this year. Whilst I fully recognise that the Faroese Government has the right to license third country vessels to fish in this area, I do not condone or support the continuation of any activities which will deliver economic benefit to the Russian Federation at a time when their unlawful invasion of a sovereign state continues to pose such a threat to the global order. In the spirit of the constructive relationship we have developed with the Faroese Government, I met with the Faroese Fisheries Minister on 11 July to discuss this matter, and to reaffirm Scotland’s strong position.

Delivery of the police 101 and 999 services and the recruitment and deployment of resources are operational matters for the Chief Constable, with oversight provided by the Scottish Police Authority.

The Scottish Government will continue to support the Chief Constable, who along with the Scottish Police Authority, will ensure the capability and capacity of Police Scotland.

Police Scotland’s call handlers continue to work hard to ensure that calls to the service are answered as quickly and as safely as possible. Figures published by the Home Office for July 2022 show that Police Scotland was well above the UK average for 999 call answer times with 79.9% of calls answered in under 10 seconds, compared to 68.3% for the rest of the UK.

The National Concessionary Bus Travel Scheme for Young People currently covers bus travel only. At this time, there are no plans to extend this to rail.

On public transport fares more broadly, the Scottish Government is progressing its Fair Fares Review to develop and assess options to create a fairer, more transparent system of fares across all modes that maintain and increase affordability for those who need it most, taking cognisance of the relative changes to the overall cost of travel.

We are working with all NHS Boards to support them to implement the National Neurodevelopmental Specification: Principles and Standards of Care , including working with NHS Lanarkshire through regular engagement.

NHS Education for Scotland CAMHS Workforce data, published 6 September 2022, showed an increase of 17% in CAMHS community staffing in NHS Lanarkshire compared to March 2021. This CAMHS workforce data includes Neurodevelopmental staffing.

Civil solicitors have always covered a wide geographical area. The location of firms does not appear to support the assertion that advice is not available. Unlike in other jurisdictions, the Scottish Government has maintained wide access to legal aid for civil law issues. In addition to the availability of legal aid for private legal firms, we also fund a number of law centres who provide advice and representation on issues not normally dealt with by commercial firms, as well as localised advice providers who are supported by grant funding from the legal aid fund. We also fund public legal services through the Civil Legal Assistance Office. All of these services can and do operate across a wide geographic area.

Responsibility for the management of the police estate sits with the Scottish Police Authority and the Chief Constable.

However, Police Scotland has confirmed that 15 police stations have been closed since 2013 across Ayrshire, Renfrewshire and Inverclyde with the majority of them been moved to a new modern co-located accommodation within the same towns or officers were moved to new police stations nearby.

The Police Scotland Estate Strategy, approved by the SPA in May 2019, provides a framework for planning the future of the police estate to support the long term vision of policing which includes enhanced partnership working, and seeks to respond to the changing needs of communities while maintaining public visibility and confidence.

The number of resident places by funding category (i.e. self-funded/publicly funded) is not available. However, Public Health Scotland have published the estimated number of long stay residents in care homes for older people by funding category and by local authority since 2009.

a) i) This information is not held centrally and is not published by Public Health Scotland.

a) ii) These figures are available in two parts:

The latest Public Health Scotland Care Home Census for adults publication contains figures from 2012 - 2022. The figures can be found in the “Funding and Charges” section of the dashboard.

The Public Health Scotland Care Home Census for adults 2020 publication contains figures from 2009 – 2011. The figures can be found in Table 13C of the accompanying Care Home Census Data Tables.

b) i) This information is not held centrally and is not published by Public Health Scotland.

b) ii) These figures are available in two parts:

The latest Public Health Scotland Care Home Census for adults publication contains figures from 2012 - 2022. The figures can be found in the “Funding and Charges” section of the dashboard.

The Public Health Scotland Care Home Census for adults 2020 publication contains figures from 2009 – 2011. The figures can be found in Table 13C of the accompanying Care Home Census Data Tables.

The Scottish Government provides annual funding to Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). It is a matter for the Chief Constable and the Chief Fire Officer to determine the most appropriate allocation of resources and operational approach to preparing for, and responding to incidents during, bonfire night.

Since 2018 Operation Moonbeam has been the national multi-agency response to the bonfire night period. The well-established operation is running again this year, with the planning and preparation involving Police Scotland, SFRS, local authorities, COSLA, Scottish Community Safety Network, Scottish Ambulance Service, British Fireworks Association and Trading Standards. The Scottish Government has engaged with senior officers from Police Scotland and SFRS who have advised that robust multi-agency systems are in place again this year.

In terms of legislative change, on 10 October two key measures of the Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Act 2022 came into force – a proxy purchase and supply offence criminalising people who purchase fireworks for, or make fireworks available to, under 18s; and a statutory aggravation for attacks against emergency workers involving fireworks and pyrotechnic articles. The statutory aggravation requires courts to take this into account when determining the most appropriate sentence. This provides an important reassurance to emergency workers that the Scottish Government is committed to such behaviour being firmly addressed.

The Scottish Government is aware that those experiencing poor mental health are more likely to smoke, and to smoke more, than those with good mental health. Reducing the inequalities caused by higher rates of tobacco use among this group is an important area of consideration and one is being looked as part of our revised Tobacco Action Plan due to be published in Autumn 2023.

Our vision is to have a Tobacco-Free Scotland through lowering smoking rates in our communities to below 5% by 2034 and to create a generation of young people who do not want to smoke, with all the health and economic benefits that follow. We are developing an expert group that will be reporting on smoking cessation services early next year. We are also committed to working with our NHS cessation coordinators and pharmacy colleagues across Scotland to refocus and remobilise these services to ensure we are reaching those in our communities who are in most need of support to quit.

Work is also ongoing to develop a new Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy. We have received a broad range of evidence and views through our engagement to date, including through our public consultation, which closed on 9 September and received around 500 responses. These will be carefully considered over the coming months as we continue our work with stakeholders to shape the Strategy and Delivery Plan.

The Scottish Government is not aware of any monitoring that takes place with regards to the release of rehabilitated seals from rescue centres. However, advice from the Special Committee on Seals ( 2019 Report ) is that rehabilitated seals typically behave like wild seals shortly following release. Rehabilitated seals are released back into the wild close to the sites at which they were found. No non-native seals are released in Scotland.