Chamber and committees

There are 3 specialist endometriosis centres in operation in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow all of which serve patients outside the NHS board area in which they are based.

Further to the answer provided to S6W-00200 on 3 June 2021, Scottish Ministers considered all options for the future operation of ScotRail services after the current contract, which is expected to expire in March 2022. We have to work within current UK rail legislation, principally the Railways Act 1993, which neither the Scottish Ministers nor the Scottish Parliament have powers to change.

Having regard to the framework set out in the 1993 Act, the Scottish Ministers’ revised Franchising Policy Statement, the continuing uncertainty arising from the Covid 19 pandemic and the delay in publication of the UK Government’s White Paper on rail, the Scottish Ministers considered that it would not be appropriate to award a franchise agreement to any party at this time. We are therefore undertaking mobilisation arrangements for a wholly owned company of the Scottish Government (ScotRail Trains Ltd.) to provide ScotRail services when the current franchise expires. This is in line with our duty under section 30 of the 1993 Act to provide or secure the provision of passenger rail services where a franchise agreement comes to an end and no further franchise agreement has been entered into in respect of the services.

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 .

The Scottish Government’s Women’s Health Plan (WHP) will be published shortly and includes a number of actions to improve access to appropriate support, speedy diagnosis and best treatment for endometriosis.

Work is already underway by the Modernising Patient Pathways Programme, as part of the Centre for Sustainable Delivery, developing a Pelvic Pain Pathway for Scotland, starting with endometriosis.

In the last year, Endometriosis UK were funded by the Scottish Government to carry out research to identify the challenges to diagnosis in primary care and implementation of the National Institute for Healthcare and Excellence (NICE) guidelines on endometriosis. This work has included updating endometriosis content on NHS Inform and the delivery of a webinar to support primary care to implement the NICE guidelines.

Information on the endometriosis waiting times in each NHS board is not currently available. Public Health Scotland are working with officials and Endometriosis UK to analyse national and board-level data to understand what information is available to assess current waiting times and identify future data needs that could be used to measure improvement in waiting times.

Collective bargaining agreements are a matter for CalMac, its employees and the recognised trades unions. In the case of any additional ferries secured by CalMac through a “time charter”, the crews of these vessels are not employed by CalMac and are not covered by collective bargaining agreements which are currently in place with RMT and Nautilus. Any agreement with the Unions would be a matter for the vessel operator in that instance.

The recommendations of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Endometriosis fall into 4 main categories; a commitment to drive down diagnosis times, to ensure access to appropriate care, awareness and investment in research.

The Scottish Government’s soon to be published Women’s Health Plan (WHP) includes a number of related actions to improve access, for women, to appropriate support, speedy diagnosis and best treatment for endometriosis.

I refer the member the answer to question S6W-00372 on 15 June 2021.

The money we provide to NHS boards is provided to fund drug and alcohol services.

In 2018-2019 Health Boards received £53.8m to support the delivery of alcohol and drug services. In addition –

Health Boards received £17m from Programme for Government allocation.

In 2019-2020 Health Boards received £53.8m to support the delivery of alcohol and drug services. In addition -

Health Boards received £17m from Programme for Government allocation.

In 2020-2021 Health Boards received £53.8m to support the delivery of alcohol and drug services. In addition -

Health Boards received £17m from Programme for Government Allocation.

£3 million in additional funding was made available to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships to support work to reduce drug deaths in Scotland.

Additional funding information will be available on the DDTF website shortly.

We have declared that a national mission is required to tackle drug-related death and have committed additional funding of £50 million per year over the next session of parliament. This is in addition to baseline funding.

Details of funding to NHS Boards can be found here - Alcohol and Drug Partnerships: funding allocations - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Details of additional funding through Local Improvement Fund can be found here –

Local Improvement Fund: allocations - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Details of Additional funding for ADPs in 2020/2021 can be found here - Alcohol and drug partnerships: additional funding 2020-2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00274 on 15 June 2021. 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.

We are unable to identify the total number of people who have been diagnosed with endometriosis in the population from routine healthcare data, and therefore cannot provide figures for the required breakdowns (NHS board, age cohort and “deep endometriosis”).

Green Jobs Fund comprises two tranches of money – £50m which has been baselined into our Enterprise Agencies capital funding; and £50m under the direct control of Scottish Ministers. As of 25 June 2021, no specific projects have been funded for 2021-22. Scottish Enterprise are currently in the process of a green jobs call to business. The first application window, offering grants between £50k and £500k, closes on Thursday 1 July. Awards will be made in early September 2021. Highlands and Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise are directing their support towards businesses already within their knowledge base and expect to make related awards by the end of September 2021. The policy for the second tranche of funding is currently under development and we expect to make related awards in October 2021.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how much funding has been provided for endometriosis (b) treatment and (c) care in the last 14 years and how much will be allocated in each of the next five years. This is the responsibility of local NHS boards through their existing NHS budgets.

(a) Research

In recognising the importance of research to improve diagnosis and treatment the CSO has invested £162,000 in a study on laparoscopic treatment of endometriosis based at the University of Edinburgh. It is also funding a £30K Postdoctoral Clinical Lectureship: Precision treatment and drug repurposing to reduce endometriosis-associated pain in women.

Additionally, the CSO contributes financially to United Kingdom-wide research programmes that are run by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), which enables researchers in Scotland to apply to those programmes. NIHR have invested £6.8 m to support 4 additional studies on endometriosis, being led from Scotland.

CSO also provides funding (about £66k p.a.) for the NHS Research Scotland Reproductive Health and Childbirth Research Speciality Group to support delivery of high-quality clinical research in Reproductive Health and Childbirth in Scotland, which includes supporting research studies on endometriosis.

Applications looking at the underlying causes, diagnosis and treatment of endometriosis are welcomed. In common with all other applications, these would go through CSO's standard independent peer review process.