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The Scottish Government understand the importance of sport and physical activity for women and girls in Scotland and the positive impact that has on their physical, mental, and social health, across all stages in life.

We believe there should be no barriers to participating in sport and physical activity, and we should all feel included, and able to take part and access the benefits of sport.

sportscotland’s Fit for Girls (FFG) and Young People’s Sport Panel (YPSP) tutors lead conversations and workshops on menstrual education as well work to increase awareness of the barriers to physical activity.

sportscotland’s Institute of Sport delivers tailored support services for athletes. Their internal working group, the Female Athlete Performance Group, have developed a range of resources specifically for female athletes. These are designed to support anyone working with girls and women in sport and include e-learning on the menstrual cycle in sport. These resources are available for free to all, with the ambition that all within the sporting system are comfortable having conversations about female athlete health and understand the impact on training and performance.

Evidence confirms that substance use can be a potential consequence for those of us who have experienced high levels of trauma and adversity in our lives.

The Scottish Government’s ambition, shared with COSLA, is for anyone who has been affected by trauma to be supported by the trauma-informed and responsive support, care and services they need. These are services built on safe, trusted relationships, which foster recovery, prevent re-traumatisation and help reduce the risk that individuals and/or their families might turn to substance use to cope.

Since 2018, the Scottish Government has invested over £12 million in the National Trauma Transformation Programme (NTTP). The NTTP aims to support all sectors of the workforce, to understand how to adapt the way they work to be trauma-informed. This includes understanding how substances can be a coping strategy for the impact of trauma and embedding the principles of choice, collaboration, empowerment, safety and trust to help improve the life outcomes of those affected.

It is the responsibility of local authorities, health boards and health and social care partnerships to manage and provide appropriate services in their area, and to engage with their communities on how this is provided.

We remain committed to reducing harm for individuals from the use of unsafe paraphernalia and will continue collaborating with stakeholders and harm reduction services on this matter.

Funding allocation to research by Scottish Universities in 2024-25 is £54,787. The National Mission is further supported by research undertaken at national and local levels by national boards such as Public Health Scotland and Health Improvement Scotland and third sector partners.

In October 2024, Chief Scientist Office (CSO) announced Phase 2 of the Reducing Drug Deaths Innovation Challenge. This £5 million partnership between CSO and UK Government Office for Life Sciences funds 7 innovation projects to address the rising issue of drug-related deaths. CSO contribute £500,000 to this partnership.

In addition, we provided funding of £52,500 to the University of Edinburgh to host the Drugs Research Network Scotland to deliver knowledge exchange activities through an annual conference and regular webinars and to monitor ongoing research activities.

We know that there are links between smoking illicit drugs and some respiratory conditions. For example, smoking cannabis can lead to chronic bronchitis and clinicians sometimes see destructive emphysema in younger people.

To prevent harm in future generations, we are taking forward education work on substance abuse in our schools through the Curriculum for Excellence. Through educating young people about substance use and the impact it can have on their life and health, this will prevent them making unhealthy choices.

As part of our cross-government response to the final Drug Deaths Taskforce Report, we are investing £1.5 million in piloting Planet Youth in up to 35 schools across eight areas in 2025. Planet Youth is a universal approach to prevention that empowers communities to take action that will work for their specific circumstances to support young people to reduce the risk of substance use and its harms.

We are committed to ensuring that anyone living with a respiratory condition in Scotland receives the best possible care and treatment and will continue to ensure this takes account of areas of particular concern relating to drugs.

We know that people who inject drugs are at higher risk of contracting blood borne viruses (BBVs), bacterial infections and injection site wounds.

The Scottish Government has committed to effectively eliminating hepatitis C (HCV) as a public health threat in Scotland and to driving improvement through focusing on intensifying case finding and treatment initiation, and ensuring that people who inject drugs have access to, and take up, i) optimal harm reduction services and ii) if deemed clinically ready, antiviral therapy to prevent the onward transmission of infection.

The Scottish Governments ‘Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Action Plan’ also aims for everyone in Scotland to have good sexual health and wellbeing, with high quality, innovative, sexual health and BBV prevention, care and support available to those who need it, in a timely manner and irrespective of age, sex, gender, sexual identity or location. We have allocated multi-year funding to a range of projects alongside the action plan which will drive improvement in the areas identified.

In addition, the ‘HIV Transmission Elimination Delivery Plan’ sets out prioritised actions towards achieving our goal of zero people contracting HIV within Scotland by 2030. This aligns with wider global strategic aims, including UNAIDS’ goal “to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030.” Alongside the plan we have funded a National Coordinator post to oversee coordination of this Delivery Plan and to work with locally identified HIVTE Champions at NHS Board level towards delivery of actions to support elimination.

Specifically in Glasgow, The WAND (Wound management, Assessment of injecting risk, Naloxone supply and Dry blood-spot test for BBV) model has been implemented in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. WAND has proved effective in engaging with people who inject drugs and who are not in contact with traditional services, reflecting the requirement of MAT Standard 4, and providing them with a unique level of support to address these issues. Other areas are also trailing the model.

Scottish Government has committed to making up to £2.3 million available per annum (from 2024-25 – 2026-27) to Glasgow HSCP for the development, set up and running of the SDCF in Glasgow from 2024-25. A total of £1,277,000 will be provided by Scottish Government for the financial year 2024-25.

The Thistle facility in Glasgow acknowledges the challenges posed by external factors, such as the potential for organised crime groups to exploit vulnerable individuals. To address this Glasgow HSCP are working closely with Police Scotland who are dedicated to disrupting organized crime groups and ensuring a hostile environment for their operations.

Police Scotland maintain operational independence to police the facility and surrounding areas, safeguarding the wider community, facility operators and users.

In addition, local policing teams will act on reports of drug use or supply by deploying community police and response officers to patrol identified areas, deterring criminality and enhancing public safety. Police Scotland will also continue patrols to address illegal acts around the facility. Public support around this facility is vital and Police Scotland would encourage the reporting of any concerns to them or Crimestoppers to help address any issues.

Data generated from the day-to-day running of the Thistle Service will be recorded and collated by Glasgow HSCP alongside a range of routine data from other Health and Social Care services to enable a comprehensive evaluation. This includes data to assess:

1.Extent to which people use the service,

2.Interventions provided within the service (such as reviews of injecting practice, peer support and referrals into drug treatment); and

3.Public Health outcomes such as incidence of drug overdose, Accident and Emergency attendances and drug deaths, uptake of testing for HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C and engagement in addictions treatment and care.

Data collated for evaluation will be published in due course in aggregate form. The format and timeline for these publications has not been set but likely to consist a full evaluation report which will be published in a few years’ time as well as an interim report which will be produced in the nearer term.