Chamber and committees

The Review of Maternity and Neonatal Services was led by a review group consisting of representatives from the key professional groups involved in managing and delivering maternity and neonatal services, representatives of the Scottish Government, staff side organisations, Royal Colleges, third sector representatives and academics working in maternal and infant health research.

The full membership of the Review group can be found in Appendix E of The Best Start: A Five Year Forward Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Care in Scotland, and membership of Sub Groups and their remit in Appendix F.

Neonatal clinical outcomes data is gathered from neonatal units in Scotland and routinely published by Public Health Scotland on their Scottish Pregnancy, Births and Neonatal Data Dashboard. The National Neonatal Audit Programme run by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health also provides a further level of detailed comparable neonatal clinical outcomes data for units in England, Scotland and Wales on their Data Dashboard, and in their annual reports.

This information is not held by the Scottish Government. All NHS Board expenditure is recorded via the Scottish Financial Returns, which provides operating costs relating to the running of all services provided to patients across NHS Scotland, however, it does not show specific costs for conditions such as thrombosis.

Jenni Minto: The Scottish Government does hold the information on how much each NHS board spends on raising awareness of thrombosis.

Although the Scottish Government has not funded a national awareness raising campaign for thrombosis in recent years, in December 2023, Scottish Government social media health channels ran a series of online awareness-raising messages on the risks and symptoms of DVT.

In addition, the guidance available to the general public on NHS Inform on deep vein thrombosis is reviewed regularly to ensure it is up to date, with the most recent update taking place in July 2024.

To support clinicians, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) are responsible for publishing new rapid guidelines, with SIGN 122 and SIGN 163(specifically in relation to the prevention and management of venous thromboembolism (VTE) and VTE in patients with COVID-19 respectively) both being available.

SIGN supports the implementation of these guidelines by; raising awareness; networking with national projects and clinical networks; and developing implementation support tools and resources alongside specific guidelines.

The Scottish Government have no current plans run a national awareness campaign for thrombosis, however we are engaging with stakeholders and intend to mark World Thrombosis Day in October via social media channels.

This information is not held by the Scottish Government.

Special Advisers in the Scottish Government are paid using the following Pay Bands and Pay Ranges which are effective from 1 April 2024:

The terms of Special Adviser contracts of employment are reserved to the UK Government. Those contracts include a requirement that severance payments are made to special advisers where their employment is terminated in the circumstances where a First Minister demits office, or on the dissolution of Parliament prior to a Scottish Parliamentary election. The value of severance payment due is dependent on an individual’s length of service and range from the equivalent of 3 months’ pay up to a maximum of 6 months’ pay.However, payment of severance is subject to agreement that should an individual be reappointed as a special adviser, they will repay any severance pay less the amount of salary they would have been paid had they been employed during the period between the termination of the previous contract and re-appointment on a fresh contract. Therefore the amount of severance to be repaid upon reappointment varies depending on the length of time between termination of employment and later reappointment. The following table sets out for each of the last 5 years to July 2024, the net cost of severance payments once the approximate level of repayments received are taken into account for those who were reappointed:

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of access to interdependent services, including those provided by allied health professionals such as physiotherapists, in order to optimise kidney transplant outcomes.

Under the Scottish Government’s Donation and Transplantation Plan: 2021-2026, a working group on transplant recipient aftercare has been set up. Access to physiotherapy services, which are generally provided when needed both via the Transplant Units themselves and by referring centres, has not so far been identified as an issue of particular concern for chronic kidney disease patients who have received a transplant in Scotland. We will continue to monitor the situation closely including by means of the working group.

The Scottish Government’s Donation and Transplantation Plan: 2021-2026 sets out a number of actions designed to help reduce waiting lists for a kidney transplant. This includes the use of novel technologies, which offer the opportunity to allow transplant units to use more “marginal” organs that may previously have been declined, by means of closer joint working between transplant units, and through work to increase living kidney donation.

Working through the Scottish Donation and Transplant Group, which brings together key stakeholders, and by means of NHS National Services Division's commissioning planning, we will to continue to monitor organ utilisation to encourage good practice. In addition, the Scottish Government and NHS Boards continue to raise awareness about organ donation in order to help increase numbers of deceased organ donors, for example during Organ and Tissue Donation Week, which will take place in September 2024.

As the former First Minister reported to the member in answer to S6F-01607, the Scottish Government expects the Board of Scottish Water to take a proportionate position when setting charges; balancing affordability with critical investment needs to protect the quality of our drinking water and the environment.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting people in light of the rising costs of living and has already taken action on affordability of water charges; from 1 April 2021 – the start of the current 6-year regulatory period for the water industry - we increased the maximum discount under the water charges reduction scheme from 25% to 35% to support those struggling to pay their bills.

The answer to S6F-01607 is available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament .