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The Scottish Government’s Vision for Trade and Scotland: a Trading Nation clearly set out our ambitions for international trade, which is vital to the whisky sector.

The Scottish Government works closely with the UK Government to address and prevent market access barriers for Scotch whisky around the world. The Scottish Government also works collaboratively with the sector on international trade asks. Support for individual companies is available from Scottish Development International, Scottish Enterprise and Scotland Food & Drink.

makes health promotion a central purpose of schooling and places duties on all education authority and grant aided schools including those in rural communities. A school is health promoting if it provides activities and an environment which promote the physical, social, mental and emotional health and wellbeing of pupils in attendance at the school.

It is up to local authorities and schools to choose which policies, initiatives and programmes they put in place to meet these duties recognising they are best placed to decide what will best serve local needs, priorities and circumstances.

was developed to support schools as they take action to meet their duties under the 2007 Act.

Health and wellbeing is an integral part of Curriculum for Excellence, helping to ensure that children and young people are provide with the skills, knowledge and experience they need to take responsibility for their health and wellbeing as they grow into adulthood. Children and young people should know where to go to get relevant support and help them make informed decisions about their health.

The Scottish Government has invested over £29m of Community Led Local Development (CLLD) funding in our rural communities since the closure of the LEADER programme in December 2021, delivering over 1000 grassroots community-led projects across rural and island Scotland in partnership with rural organisations. A place-based approach is the foundation of CLLD. Communities are empowered and supported to design and implement the solutions to the challenges and opportunities they identify in their local area, which may include community led health and social care provision. We have invested £11.4m so far in our rural and island communities to support CLLD and similar initiatives in 2024-25. A further £9m for CLLD was announced in the indicative 2025-26 budget, subject to the passing of the Budget Bill.

Current Public Health Campaigns targeting rural communities:

1. Right Care Right Place (increasing awareness of, and encouraging the public to use, appropriate health services).

• Purchased media space for this campaign includes community radio running in a number of rural locations that network radio does not reach, including Argyll FM, Caithness FM, Radio Skye, Radio Wester Ross, Radio Nevis (Fort William) and Shetlands (SIBC). Network radio advertising space has also been purchased for this campaign to ensure reach of the public Scotland wide.
• Campaign paid-for media also includes a print content partnership in a press pack which includes local publications such as Ellon Times, Buchan Observer, East Fife Mail, Berwickshire Advertiser and Ayrshire Post.

The Scottish Government has a centrally-managed contract with Office Papers to supply newspapers on an ad-hoc rather than subscription basis. Costs are recharged to requesting cost centres. The contract allows for newspapers to be bought according to requirement, and cancelled when not required, for example during Parliamentary recesses. Details of purchases made under the contract in the last five financial years are in the following table.

Purchases in Financial Year 2020-21 were made by the Directorate for Learning, Directorate for Economic Development, Directorate for Legal Services, Directorate for Commercial and Procurement, Directorate for Communications and Ministerial Support and the Directorate for Fair Work.

Purchases for 2021-22 were made by the Directorate for Learning, Directorate for Communications and Ministerial Support and the Directorate for Commercial and Procurement.

All purchases in Financial Years 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 were made by the Directorate for Communications and Ministerial Support.

Some units may be subscribing to newspapers using their delegated budgets. This information is not held centrally.

For details of newspapers purchased, I refer the member to the response provided to S6W-33494 on 31 January 2025.

Newspapers are taken for current awareness; to help identify and monitor local and regional issues; and to support policy and operational delivery.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government, Scotland Development International and the Scotland Food & Drink Partnership’s activities focus on three markets: Scotland, Rest of UK, and International. Small and independent distilleries are represented in all these activities, including support to attend trade fairs in these markets. Additionally, the Scottish Government’s Vision for Trade and Scotland: a Trading Nation export strategy set out our ambitions to increase market access and reduce trade barriers which is central to an improved trading environment. Domestically, funding provided by the Scottish Government to the Scotland Food & Drink Partnership’s “Sustaining Scotland. Supplying the World” food and drink strategy can help businesses to leverage these opportunities.

The sector provides employment opportunities in some of the most rural communities and can bring visitors from Scotland and around the world, to these areas. The Deputy First Minister recently opened the Cabrach distillery which is focused on community development and regeneration which the government was proud to support through Just Transition funding. We will continue to work with the sector on projects that deliver community benefits, and support our climate ambitions and the economic prosperity of Scotland.

This is a matter for individual Agencies. The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government provides funding to NHS Education Scotland (NES) to develop and run the National Digital Platform (NDP). The NDP supports storage, integration and interoperability of data making it easier for staff to record and share data across health and care systems.

Additionally, we provide funding to all territorial Boards to support the required investment for the six priority areas set out in our Digital Health and Care Delivery Plan: Digital Access, Digital Services, Digital Foundations, Digital Skills and Leadership, Digital Futures and Data-Driven services and Insights.

Further information on each of the six priority areas can be found here:

A key way in which Scottish Government is looking to expand home healthcare services in rural areas is through the expansion of Hospital at Home.

Hospital at Home is a short-term, targeted intervention that provides a level of acute hospital care in an individual’s own home that is equivalent to that provided within a hospital.

There is strong clinical evidence for Hospital at Home, which has improved patient outcomes such as being able to manage their own care, being more independent and being able to keep their care package whilst receiving care. The service also reduces admissions to nursing homes and reduces the likelihood that patients will be living in residential care in the months after being in hospital.

All hospital at home services capture patient feedback via Care Opinion (www.careopinion.org.uk) as well as locally developed feedback forms. That information is used to understand the impact of their service and inform improvement.

Every Health Board in Scotland operates a Hospital at Home service for adults, including some of the most remote and rural areas of the country. Between April 2023 and March 2024 Hospital at Home Older People’s services treated 14479 patients. Specifically, services in Western Isles treated 383 patients and Oban treated 91.

Further expansion of the service was set out in the 2025-26 draft budget statement where set out plans to expand the number of Hospital at Home beds to at least 2,000 by December 2026.