Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government engages with the pharmaceutical industry directly as well as via the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, and through Four Nations partners as part of UK-wide pandemic preparedness and resilience measures. This has ranged from long-standing arrangements to build and maintain stockpiles of medicines to address challenges from potential influenza pandemics to more recent measures to establish stockpiles of medicines and associated consumables for the response to COVID-19. Collaborative working across the UK also includes working in partnership with the pharmaceutical industry to develop onshore vaccine manufacturing capacity, with potential for pandemic deployment.

The pharmaceutical industry continues to successfully support pandemic preparedness and resilience in Scotland, as described in the answer to question S6W-19343 on 11 July 2023.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office engages regularly with UK Government and agencies directly, and through cross-UK fora, on streamlining the clinical trials system across the UK. These discussions cover a range of topics, recently including post-pandemic growth, clinical trial regulations, research ethics review, and commercial trial costing and contracting – where Scotland’s already existing single price model for commercial research is informing work to realise a streamlined, standardised, UK approach.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office invests through NHS Research Scotland in the Scottish Health Research Register and Biobank (SHARE) to support the recruitment of people into health research studies and clinical trials. SHARE is an expanding register of over 300,000 people who have expressed an interest in participating in health research and have agreed to be contacted about studies to which they might be suited.

Data produced by SHARE shows ethnic and socioeconomic distributions supportive of inclusive recruitment to health research studies. CSO is also funding an ongoing project by the University of Aberdeen looking at ways to improve ethnic diversity in clinical trials and to help trial teams recruit and retain ethnic groups in studies.

In addition, In February 2023, the Scottish Government published an independent report on Equity of Access to Cancer Clinical Trials in Scotland. The report contains 51 recommendations, with an Implementation Board established to prioritise these and develop an implementation strategy. While the report focuses on cancer clinical trials, many of the recommendations are relevant across the clinical spectrum.

The Scottish Government recognises that the ability to attract and deliver innovative clinical research studies is vital to improving healthcare and patient outcomes. We therefore welcome Lord O’Shaughnessy’s review into commercial clinical trials in the UK. We will engage with partners across the UK in the coming weeks to understand how we can work together to ensure the review’s recommendations are considered for Scotland.

Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office is fully engaged with UK partners, including the MHRA, on improving the clinical trials system across the UK. In addition to facilitating inputs from across the Scottish clinical research community to the MHRA’s recent public consultation on clinical trials legislation, officials are engaging regularly through cross-UK fora with MHRA and other UK partners to ensure that any updated regulations and their supporting guidance work well for Scotland, and as part of a streamlined, efficient, and innovative UK-wide clinical trials system.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office invests through NHS Research Scotland in the Scottish Health Research Register and Biobank (SHARE) to support the recruitment of people into health research studies and clinical trials. People interested in participating in health research can register to SHARE in order to be contacted about studies to which they might be suited.

The Scottish Government recognises that the ability to attract and deliver innovative clinical research studies is vital to improving healthcare and patient outcomes. We therefore welcome Lord O’Shaughnessy’s review into commercial clinical trials in the UK. We will engage with partners across the UK in the coming weeks to understand how we can work together to ensure the review’s recommendations are considered for Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office (CSO) invests through NHS Research Scotland in a range of research infrastructure to support Health Boards host and participate in clinical research, including to support the development of new medicines. CSO also supports a range of funding opportunities for applied health research, including for research on the development of new therapeutic approaches.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving care for people with chronic kidney disease through a number of activities which are aligned with the recommendations set out in Kidney Research UK’s (KRUK) Changing the Future for Chronic Kidney Disease in Scotland report, published in December 2022 with input from Scottish Government clinical advisors and partners.

We are raising awareness of the symptoms, causes, diagnosis and prevention of kidney disease by providing and promoting information on chronic kidney disease for patients and their families on NHS Inform .

Our Donation and Transplantation Plan was published in 2021 and sets out a dedicated priority to increase living donation and reduce the wait for a kidney transplant. This includes a number of recommendations to improve care, including developing resources and information to promote living donation , changing clinical practice in renal units, increasing direct engagement with patients and their families, and developing new guidance on staffing to support living donation.

We also continue to support the work of the Scottish Renal Registry which promotes excellence in renal care in Scotland including audits on the delivery of renal replacement therapy. The most recent report from registry was published by Public Health Scotland in October 2022 and provides vital information for Health Boards, service managers and individual clinicians to help improve care and standards for people with chronic kidney disease.

We will shortly publish a new Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy. The Strategy will set out a long-term vision, and a set of outcomes, for mental health and wellbeing to ensure that everyone who needs support can get access to services that are appropriate to their needs.

Whilst we also welcome the recent report on the economic impact of the disease published in June, following our recent meeting with KRUK on 2 May 2023, we are not proposing to develop an individual action plan for this condition at this time. However, we remain committed to engaging with KRUK on these important matters to ensure that all people living with kidney disease are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective, and put people at the centre of their care.