Chamber and committees

The Young Patients Family Fund provides valuable financial support to eligible visitors of inpatients up to the age of 18. There are currently no plans to extend the age range.

Those aged between 18 – 25 years old continue to have access to the Patient Travel Expenses Scheme or the Highlands and Islands Travel Scheme, both of which provide eligible claimants with support to meet travel costs associated with outpatient appointments.

In its first year of operation, a total of £2,056,179 was paid out to Scotland’s 14 territorial Health Boards for the Young Patients Family Fund in 2021-22.

Scottish Government does not yet hold data on how many individual people have benefitted so far.

The Young Patients Family Fund provides valuable financial support to eligible visitors of inpatients up to the age of 18. There are currently no plans to extend eligibility for outpatient treatment.

Transport Scotland officials and Scottish Ministers have regular engagement with British Transport Police (BTP). These have included meetings with the new Chief Constable BTP UK and the Chief Superintendent D Division BTP Scotland where topical rail issues, such as the topic of ScotRail services being brought under Scottish Government ownership on 1 April 2022, have been discussed.

I personally met with the Chief Constable of BTP UK, Lucy D’Orsi, on 31 March and we discussed this matter along with several other topics.

In accordance with the Sewel Convention and in line with Rule 9B of Standing Orders, the UK Parliament should not legislate with regard to devolved matters – that is on matters within the legislative competence of the Parliament or which change the competence of the Parliament or the Scottish Ministers – without the consent of the Scottish Parliament.

Within the legislative programme announced by the UK Government, Bills which appear to give rise to the requirement for the legislative consent of the Scottish Parliament are:

Procurement

Trade (Australia and New Zealand)

Bill of Rights

Levelling Up and Regeneration

Energy Security Bill

Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill

Brexit Freedoms Bill

Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill

Social Security (Special Rules for End of Life) Bill

Transport

Modern Slavery

Data Reform Bill

In addition, the following Bills may extend to Scotland but at this stage it is unclear whether they will generate the requirement for an LCM:

UK Infrastructure Bank

Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill

Electronic Trade Documents Bill

Financial Services and Markets Bill

Higher Education Bill

Social Housing Regulation Bill

Harbours (Seafarers’ Remuneration) Bill

The Scottish Government will consider the content of all Bills before making its recommendation to the Parliament on legislative consent. It will then be for the Scottish Parliament to determine whether to give or withhold consent.

It is possible that legislative consent may be required for other UK Bills and those will be drawn to the attention of the Parliament as they arise.

We have published the Report of the independent review of the role of incineration in the waste hierarchy.

The Report is available at: http://www.gov.scot/ISBN/9781804353912/documents/

Dr Colin Church submitted his Report to Ministers on 13 April. Given the potential for the Report’s findings and recommendations to raise issues that could be of particular local interest, publication was deferred until after the local government elections.

We are considering Dr Church’s recommendations carefully and will respond to these in a statement to Parliament in June.

Given the important issues that the Review Report raises in relation to Scotland’s national capacity requirements for incineration, the temporary notification direction that was put in place during the review will remain in place until we determine our response to Dr Church’s recommendations. This notification direction requires local authorities to notify Scottish ministers when they receive, and when they intend to approve, a planning application for an incineration facility.

I am pleased to announce that Scotland’s first Adult Learning Strategy has been published today, and can be found online here: www.gov.scot/isbn/9781802018301

The strategy has bold and ambitious actions to remove barriers to learning, enabling more adults across Scotland to begin and continue their learning journeys. It outlines important steps required to create more accessible learning opportunities for our adult learners, particularly those experiencing disadvantage and furthest from learning.

The publication of the strategy deepens collaboration with adult learners to address and tackle the inequalities that many face. Our aim is to ensure that learners are at the centre of the strategy’s delivery as we work with them to realise their ambitions and aspirations.

Through the Women’s Health Plan, we are committed to improving support and care for people experiencing perimenopause symptoms.

A menopause platform has launched on NHS Inform to ensure women have access to information on menopause, including the signs and symptoms of perimenopause. One of the key actions in the Women’s Health Plan is to launch a public health campaign in order to raise awareness of the symptoms of menopause.

We want all women to have timely access to menopause support and services. For those who need specialist support, there is now a specialist menopause service in every mainland NHS Board and support in place for the Island health boards.

A Menopause Specialists Network meets regularly to provide consistent advice and peer support to health care professionals, including primary care teams.

We know that many women will seek support from their local GP practice for their perimenopause symptoms. To support primary care, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) is developing menopause training for healthcare professionals, including Practice Nurses and GPs.

A Women’s Health Lived Experience Group has been established by Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland to ensure we continue to engage with women across Scotland on menopause and other areas of Women’s Health.

NHS boards are provided with monthly reports on the activity levels of practices providing NHS activity. We have set out through NHS Boards action plans for those practices with lower levels of activity with the intention of seeing substantial increases from them in the immediate future.

The Scottish Government has made £100,000 available for 2022-23 for tests-of-change to improve care co-ordination for people living with rare diseases.

Our Bridge to a Scottish Genomics Strategy project focused on expanding our genomics capabilities to support the diagnosis and treatment of rare and inherited disease. This was a key programme for government commitment for 2017-18, and £4.2 million was made available to NHS National Services Division over 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21. A further extension of the Bridge was agreed in 202-/22 with a further £2.3 million made available.While the work of the Bridge has concluded, we have announced a significant increase in the genomics budget for 2022-23, rising to £6.2 million. This funding will support the sustainability of the successes from the Bridge as well as expanding our genomics capabilities further into cancer.

Furthermore, the Scottish Government has made available over £600,000 since 2019-20 to Public Health Scotland for the development of the Congenital Anomalies and Rare Diseases Registration and Information Service for Scotland (CARDRISS). A further £169,000 will be provided for 2022-23. The registry will become operational in this financial year. Discussions are ongoing with Public Health Scotland in expanding the registry’s functionality to support our wider endeavours for rare disease.

While the above sets out discreet funding to support those with a rare disease, many of our wider health priorities will equally contribute and deliver improved care for those living with a rare disease.