Chamber and committees

The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN), which sits within Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS), aims to improve the quality of healthcare for patients in Scotland by reducing variation in practice and outcome, through the development and dissemination of national clinical guidelines containing recommendations for effective practice based on current evidence. Guideline topics are selected on the basis of burden of disease, the existence of variation in practice, and the potential to improve outcomes.

HIS is committed to equality and diversity and assesses all of its publications for likely impact on the six equality groups defined by age, disability, gender, race, religion/belief and sexual orientation. SIGN guidelines are produced using a standard methodology that has been equality impact assessed to ensure that these equality aims are addressed in every guideline. Guideline development groups are therefore required by law, as well as good practice, to consider whether any recommendations they make will have a differential impact on any of these groups.

When setting the clinical questions to be addressed, consideration is given to issues of equity, ensuring that any subgroup of the patient population that has particular needs in relation to the topic under review has those needs specifically addressed. This should take account not just of the needs of that population, but any evidence of differences in effectiveness of interventions between equality groups. It may be necessary to analyse the evidence for specific subgroups of the population to see if and how it differs from the main results. If there are substantial differences it will be necessary to make separate recommendations for these subgroups taking these differences into account.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of gender, has access to the best care and treatment. Our Programme for Government committed to establishing a women’s health plan to reduce inequalities in health outcomes that affect women. That includes reducing inequalities relating to cardiac disease. We will work closely with the third sector, including the British Heart Foundation, as we develop that plan.

We also continue to implement our heart disease improvement plan, which sets out the priorities and actions that we will take to deliver improved prevention, treatment and care for all patients.

The report ‘Bias and Biology’ raises important questions around the inequalities faced by women with heart disease and the Scottish Government welcomes the report and notes the recommendations.

We are committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of gender, has access to the best care and rehabilitation opportunities. That is why our Programme for Government commits to establishing a Women’s Health Plan to tackle women’s health inequalities. One action in the plan is to reduce inequalities in health outcomes for women, including work on cardiac disease.

We continue to implement our Heart Disease Improvement Plan, which sets out the priories and actions to deliver improved prevention, diagnosis treatment and care for people living with and affected by heart disease in Scotland.

I refer the Member to the answer to question S5W-25695 on 25 October 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

There are no current plans to develop a national database that that identifies support for people experiencing poor mental health.

However, as set out in our Programme for Government commitments, we will:

• undertake to develop 24/7 crisis support for children and young people and their families and introduce a text service so children and young people can text as well as phone to access help.
• put into place a new community wellbeing service to support the mental health needs of children and young people, using an open access model that also allows self-referral.

To help facilitate this comprehensive package of measures we continue to explore the digital solutions that children, young people and their families would find useful.

We will investigate the possibility of extending these services in the future to people of all ages across Scotland

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-25543 on 30 September 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

These costings are estimated and we are not in the position to provide that level of specificity at this point. As the position clarifies, I will update Members in due course.

All medicines are prescribed based on clinical need. Doctors and other prescribers should always discuss treatment options with individuals. Prescribing decisions are based on national clinical guidelines which outline recommendations for effective practice based on current evidence. All prescriptions should be reviewed regularly to ensure individuals continue achieve the best possible health outcomes. Where individuals are concerned about the effect their medicines are having on their general wellbeing they should discuss this with their GP, pharmacist or other relevant healthcare professional as soon as possible.

The Scottish Government published “A Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland: Full Business Regulatory Impact Assessment” (BRIA) on 9 July 2019. That BRIA concluded that any impact on consumer choice, including a shift towards purchasing larger sized products, is likely to be small. The decision to pursue a scheme design which maximises consumer convenience and targets a high capture rate should help to mitigate this impact.

Where changes in consumer purchasing habits have taken place in other countries that operate deposit return, our analysis suggests that other policy interventions and consumer trends have often been a factor. In the case of Croatia, our understanding is that the most significant changes in demand for larger format containers occurred 5 years after the introduction of deposit return.

As one of the five main drivers of biodiversity loss, the Scottish Government has for many years taken the control of invasive non-native species seriously. While Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and other public bodies take an operational lead on supporting the control of invasive non-native plants in priority areas, the main responsibility for the management of invasive non-native species rests with landowners and developers.

In Scotland, there is a well-established approach to managing Himalayan balsam. It is listed as a species of Union concern under the EU Invasive Alien Species Regulation and the Scottish Parliament has recently passed legislation putting in place penalties and enforcement measures for breach of the Regulation.

Planting non-native plants in the wild is already an offence in Scotland, under section 14 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. It is also an offence to help or cause non-native plants grow in the wild. Landowners and occupiers are required to take all reasonable steps and to exercise all due diligence to prevent invasive non-native plants from spreading into the wild.

In 2020, the Tweed Forum, who work to promote the sustainable land and water management of the Tweed catchment, will be trialling the effectiveness of a type of rust fungus in controlling Himalayan balsam for the first time in Scotland. This is one of the projects being funded under the Scottish Government’s Biodiversity Challenge Fund.

We are also working with SNH to develop an approach which prioritises the control of Himalayan balsam, giant hogweed and invasive knotweeds, which we plan to consult on this winter and publish in 2020. This document will set out landowners’ responsibilities for invasive plants on their land and identify which locations are a high priority for effort to control them.

The Scottish Biodiversity Strategy’s working group on invasive non-native species has identified five invasive plants on its Management Priorities List. These are invasive plants for which strategic control at landscape-scale is a cost-effective way of helping to restore degraded ecosystems and reduce the pressures on vulnerable priority species.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-22838 on 14 May 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .