Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government currently has no specific plans to provide mobility aids to medical charities operating in war zones. However, we will work with NHS Scotland and local authorities to respond to such requests from recognised partners, including WHO and UN bodies.

The Scottish Government has provided significant financial aid to humanitarian efforts in war zones in Gaza and Ukraine. We also donated a significant amount of medical supplies to Ukraine last year as part of the UK humanitarian response, coordinated by Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

The building regulations in Scotland require that the materials used must be durable, and fit for their intended purpose. The regulations and supporting guidance also restrict the use of highly combustible materials depending on where the products are used in the building. More detailed information is provided in the Technical Handbooks available on the Scottish Government website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.gov.scot/policies/building-standards/monitoring-improving-building-regulations/ .

Construction products regulation is a matter reserved to the UK Government. Insulation products are generally tested and certified to relevant British and / or harmonised European tests, including being tested for reaction to fire properties.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) have published ‘Spray foam insulation: a clear, impartial guide’, to inform surveyors and building owners on application and risks when used in existing buildings. The guide is available on the RICS website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.rics.org/news-insights/rics-release-new-spray-foam-consumer-guide.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. It is publicly available from Public Health Scotland on the incidence publication page for blood cancers: Leukaemias, Hodgkin lymphoma, Non-hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma.

The primary objective of a devolved Building Safety Levy is to raise revenue to support the funding of cladding remediation for multi residential properties where cladding may present a risk to life. This will also ensure that homeowners and residents do not have to meet those significant costs themselves, directly.

The Scottish Government will balance this objective with minimising the impact on housing supply. We will also work with stakeholders and across the public sector to understand the cumulative impact of existing costs and regulations on the residential property and construction sectors.

Revenues from the UK Government’s Building Safety Levy in England will be small in relation to UK GDP and so the Levy is not expected to have any significant macroeconomic impact. As set out in the 2023-24 Programme for Government, the Scottish Government intends for a devolved Building Safety Levy to apply in equivalence to the Levy that is being introduced in England and so it does not expect the macroeconomic impact to be materially different in Scotland.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium accepted tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah ® ) for routine use in NHS Scotland in February 2019 for the treatment of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, which is a very rare type of cancer of the white blood cells.

It is used to treat children and adults under 25 years-old, where the cancer has not responded to treatment (refractory); has come back after a transplant (relapsed); or has come back after treatment for the second time. National Services Division does not currently commission a paediatric CAR-T service in Scotland, but all eligible children and young people under 16 years of age have access via referral to a specialist unit in England.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) publishes incidence and mortality data on leukaemias, Hodgkin lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma annually.

PHS previously published survival data on these same cancers. However in the 2023 release, a different approach was taken to assess the short-term impact of COVID-19 on cancer survival for a select few cancers. It utilised a much smaller cohort than the usual methodology which meant an estimate of survival for rarer cancers could not be calculated. Some estimates for blood cancers are available for the 2016-2020 cohort upon request to PHS.

In future cancer survival publications, these same blood cancers will be included again, as survival publications will revert back to previous methodology.

This is a matter for NHS National Services Scotland National Services Division. The information requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans to introduce such a register. We are working with Local Authorities, Health Boards and other public sector partners to understand the extent to which RAAC is present in buildings and any actions necessary in response.

The Scottish Cancer Registry does not capture whether a cancer was detected following presentation at an Accident & Emergency (A&E) department. The details in the Scottish Cancer Registry and the lack of clinical information included in the A&E attendance data leaves the relationship between cancer diagnosis and A&E attendance uncertain.

Public Health Scotland completed a study to describe emergency and non-emergency routes to cancer diagnosis in the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. A decision on whether to include an expanded list of cancers in the emergency vs. non-emergency routes to cancer diagnosis reporting will be made ahead of a planned publication in March 2024. However, this would be using the emergency/non-emergency definitions and so presentation at A&E would not specifically be defined as a route to diagnosis.