Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-43256

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 5 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding the rising cost of electricity transmission charges, in light of reported concerns that these are undermining the economics of offshore wind projects.

Question reference: S6W-42960

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 22 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what investment it is currently providing to community organisations to support those with eating disorders.

Question reference: S6W-42951

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 22 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure that social media companies have a greater understanding of eating disorders.

The National Eating Disorder Network are considering how to take forward the longer term recommendations of the National Review of Eating Disorder Services.

This includes building, implementing and evaluating a public health strategy for Scotland that makes eating disorder prevention everyone's business, including social media companies.

Keeping young people safe online is of paramount importance for the Scottish Government, and prevention is key. While regulation of the internet remains a reserved matter, we have successfully engaged with the UK Government on its Online Safety Act to strengthen protections for young people.

Ministers met Ofcom in August 2024 to emphasise the responsibility of tech firms to deliver effective safeguards for young people online, and in June 2025 to discuss ongoing implementation and regulation of the Online Safety Act and possible further action. The First Minister wrote directly to tech firms in 2024 to remind them of their responsibilities and Ministers have invited X, Meta, Snap Inc and TikTok to meet.

We will continue to engage with the UK Government and Ofcom on the implementation of this important piece of legislation and to press for stronger protections to help keep children and young people in Scotland safe online.

Question reference: S6W-42950

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 22 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure that diet and weight loss companies have a greater understanding of eating disorders.

The National Eating Disorder Network are considering how to take forward the longer term recommendations of the National Review of Eating Disorder Services.

This includes building, implementing and evaluating a public health strategy for Scotland that makes eating disorder prevention everyone's business, including diet and weight loss companies.

More generally, the Scottish Government has funded the development of content pages and videos featuring people with lived experience, clinicians and parents/carers. This includes working with NHS inform to create a digital page to support positive body image, and to develop a self-help guide for binge eating behaviours which has guidance gathered from the Lived Experience Panel, that we fund eating disorder charity Beat to deliver.

Question reference: S6W-42944

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 22 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what action has been taken to improve information to carers whose loved ones are being treated for eating disorders.

The Scottish Government has funded the development of content pages and videos featuring people with lived experience, clinicians and parents/carers. The majority of these are now available on NHS inform with links below.

Over the last 3 months the eating disorder pages have collectively been viewed over 23,200 times. By far the most popular page in the Eating Disorders section is the Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) page with 5,326 views in December.

Information pages:

Videos:

We also continue to fund eating disorder charity Beat, who provide a range of support options to families and carers, including support groups.

Question reference: S6W-42961

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 22 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how it is improving services for those people with eating disorders with co-occurring considerations and/or comorbidities.

In many cases eating disorders can co-occur with other conditions. The National Specification for the Care and Treatment of Eating Disorders sets the expectation that services collaborate with appropriate teams to ensure comprehensive personalised care for individuals with these needs.

Recent work to develop consistent delivery of services to people with co-occurring conditions has included new content such as Eating disorders before, during and after pregnancy | NHS inform, and a webinar hosted by the Eating Disorder National Network to provide training on eating disorders and autism.

The Scottish Government’s funding to eating disorder charity Beat ensures that Scottish healthcare professionals can attend the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training workshops free of charge. A recent webinar hosted by Beat focussed on eating disorders and ADHD.

We are also working with NES to produce training resources for staff delivering care and treatment to children, young people and adults with eating disorders.

Question reference: S6W-42958

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 22 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made to improve information sharing between public services to ensure the right outcomes for those with eating disorders.

As part of the implementation of the recommendations from the National Review of Eating Disorder Services in Scotland, the Scottish Government established an Eating Disorder National Network in 2024 to take forward the medium and long term recommendations.

Membership of the network is comprised of senior representatives from key stakeholder organisations, including national health services, third sector, and lived experience representation.

Members share the network’s work, progress and good practice within their own professional fields and networks, acting as a voice for the network as well as a channel for feeding back the views of their profession.

The Scottish Government also continues to work with partners in hosting regular webinars for clinicians, carers and people with lived experience from across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-42946

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 22 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure that GPs and primary care staff have a greater understanding of eating disorders.

The Scottish Government has been working with NHS Education Scotland (NES) to develop new Eating Disorder content on Turas. The updated platform will act as a multi-agency resource, structured by age, context and practice type. This will link to guidance, training and evidence-based resources. Accessibility and intellectual property requirements are being built in, and navigation will be more user-friendly than the current structure.

Work is also progressing to produce Primary Care training videos focused on recognising and communicating physical risk. We have sought input from eating disorder charity Beat’s Lived Experience Panel to ensure the content is realistic and sensitive. These will be hosted on Turas once complete.

Question reference: S6W-42948

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 22 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure that teachers and school staff have a greater understanding of eating disorders.

The Scottish Government has been working with NHS Education Scotland (NES) to develop new Eating Disorder content on Turas. The updated platform will act as a multi-agency resource, structured by age, context and practice type. This will link to guidance, training and evidence-based resources. Accessibility and intellectual property requirements are being built in, and navigation will be more user-friendly than the current structure.

We are also providing funding to eating disorder charity Beat, who offer Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training to support secondary school staff to identify and act on the early signs of an eating disorder.

Question reference: S6W-42953

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 22 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure that the voices of lived experience are heard to improve eating disorder services.

The Scottish Government provides funding to eating disorder charity Beat to deliver the Eating Disorder Lived Experience Panel, a key recommendation from the National Review of Eating Disorder Services.

The Panel provide advice and evidence from the perspective of lived experience in order to inform the ongoing delivery of the recommendations of the National Review and support the work of the National Eating Disorder Network.

The Network also has representation from a peer researcher and a carers support worker, alongside those from the Lived Experience Panel.

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