Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people living with hypothyroidism are able to access the best possible support and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care.

We expect clinicians to adhere to current guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment options from authoritative sources such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the British Thyroid Association (BTA).

The information you have requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. It is for local authorities to decide whether to write-off outstanding debts for school meals, ideally by taking into account the needs and circumstances of any affected families.

The Scottish Government recognises the work which has been undertaken by Aberlour on this issue and the First Minister has committed that officials will work with COSLA to understand this issue more fully.

Local authorities also have the flexibility to offer free school meals to families who do not meet the regular eligibility criteria but are experiencing financial hardship. I would encourage any family who thinks that they may have become eligible for free school meals to apply for them as soon as possible.

The environmental benefits of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will be realised by the increased collection and recycling of drinks containers that the scheme entails. As scheme administrator, Circularity Scotland will be required to report regularly against collection targets to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA); these are set at 80% for 2024 and 90% for each subsequent year.

Significant programmes of work are underway within both Circularity Scotland and SEPA to prepare to deliver its obligations, and monitor its compliance with these obligations, respectively.

Housing to 2040 sets out Scotland’s first ever long-term national housing strategy with a vision for what we want housing to look like and how it will be provided to the people of Scotland. As such, it sets out how we will take housing policy forward over the long term and this means that not all actions are intended to be taken forward at the same time. This action point relates to wider work which is in progress towards the new tenure-neutral housing standard for Scotland; an Equalities Impact Assessment is being developed and initial engagement with stakeholders is underway. We aim to produce a draft standard in 2023 and to progress legislation in 2024-25 for phased introduction from 2025-30, in line with Action Point 18 in Housing to 2040. Monitoring occurs through regular reviews of the project workplan and discussions between myself and the Scottish Government officials responsible for developing this new housing standard. The specific action to establish an inclusive programme of retrofitting social homes, with a focus on accessibility, will be addressed in future years as this wider development of the new housing standard progresses.

Scotland’s natural environment will be critical in our action to tackle climate change and ecological breakdown. We are fortunate to have such potential to sequester carbon and support biodiversity in our natural environment. The public purse cannot fund this action alone - we will need private investment to help realise this potential. It is, however, vital that this investment is responsible, high-integrity and values led where the benefits are shared with local communities.

We already have a suite of measures in place to mitigate the impacts of this rapidly evolving market. We recently published our “Interim Principles for Responsible Investment in Natural Capital”, which set out the Government’s expectations of those who wish to invest in our land. These include delivering community benefit, engaging communities and supporting the creation of more diverse patterns of land ownership. The principles also state that investment in offsetting should not be a replacement for emissions reductions, and should always be made in addition to having plans and demonstrable actions in place to reduce emissions as close to zero as possible, and as part of targets and transition plans aligned with the Paris Agreement.

The Interim Principles sit alongside our ongoing pursuit of Land Reform in Scotland. Existing provisions under previous land reform acts have created a range of community rights to buy, some of which are compulsory. These provide the opportunity for communities across the whole of Scotland to buy land or assets to support their aspirations. Over 940,000 people across Scotland already live in communities where assets have been acquired over the last five years with funding from the Scottish Land Fund. Both the Programme for Government 2021-22 and the Bute House agreement commit to doubling the Scottish Land Fund (SLF) to £20m to further support community ownership.

We are also developing proposals for a new ambitious land reform bill, which will build on our land reform measures to date and will further tackle Scotland’s historically iniquitous patterns of land ownership - including by tackling problematic scale and concentration of ownership. In addition, the Scottish Land Commission is consulting on a new protocol on responsible natural capital and carbon management.

The latest Gateway Review into our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) was carried out in May this year. We are carefully considering the recommendations, and will share these and our response to them in due course.

From the £12 million we made available to support the wellbeing of the health, social work and social care workforce in 2021-22, we:

• Used £3.5 million to assist in the continuation of our national wellbeing resources
• Allocated £2 million to Health and Social Care Partnerships to provide evidence-based support to meet the needs of those working in primary and social care
• Allocated £2 million to Health and Social Care Partnerships to be used by Chief Officers of Integration Authorities (IA's) to support staff wellbeing during the winter pressures
• Allocated £2 million to Health Boards to support NHS staff wellbeing during the winter pressures
• Allocated £1.5 million to Health Boards to provide additional practical support that staff needed due to increased pressure from the Omicron variant
• Made £1 million available to support wellbeing projects for staff working in Adult Social Work and Social Care

The Scottish Government and its agencies collaborate closely with their counterparts in Wales and England on the control of INNS. Scottish Government officials have played an active role with their counterparts in drafting the 2022-2030 Great Britain Invasive Non- Native Species Strategy. This key document sets out our agreed, collaborative approach to preventing invasive non-native species reaching our shores, through surveillance, early detection and rapid response provisions and long terms management and control of species already established. The provisions in the Strategy will be implemented in Scotland through the Non-native Species Action Group, and similar partnerships, which has representatives from the public and voluntary sectors.

The Scottish Government remains fully committed to enhancing community audiology services. We are continuing to work closely with NHS Boards, Social Care and the Third Sector to develop fully integrated and sustainable audiology services located closer to local communities being served. Our approach will be informed by outcomes from the recently established National Audiology Review.

In our Programme for Government the Scottish Government has committed to developing nature networks across Scotland, as we recognise the key role they can play in protecting and enhancing biodiversity. We are working closely with NatureScot and key stakeholders to develop a national framework and guidance which will help us support Local Authorities and others in developing new, and expanding existing, nature networks. A key part of this work will also be encouraging co-operation and knowledge exchange across local authorities.