Chamber and committees

There are no diagnostic tools, such as blood tests, currently available in NHS Scotland to assess brain tumours in primary care.

However, the new Headache Referral pathway can be used as a triage tool across Scotland based on presentation at General Practice. The pathway lists red flag symptoms that indicate the need for urgent and/or emergency assessment to exclude a secondary cause, such as a brain tumour, and is suitable for use within remote and rural settings.

Further to this, the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care (NCRRHC) was launched in October 2023. The Centre is working in an efficient, innovative way with health and social care providers that serve all of Scotland’s remote, rural and island populations, aiming to improve the capability and sustainability of primary and community care-based service delivery.

The regulation for the licensing, safety and efficacy of medicines is currently reserved to the UK Government and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Ivabradine is currently licensed in the UK for the symptomatic treatment of chronic stable angina pectoris, and the treatment of chronic heart failure.

The use of ivabradine for the treatment of postural tachycardia syndrome is an off-label indication (where the product licence does not cover the indication for which the medicine is being prescribed). Clinicians can prescribe medicines off-label, in line with local Health Board protocols where they consider there would be significant clinical benefit for an individual.

Decisions on whether to prescribe a medicine are based on an individual’s needs and are a matter for the clinical judgement of the prescribing clinician in consultation with the individual (and where appropriate their parent/s or guardian/s), informed by advice and guidance about the medicine.

In 2019, Scotland committed to the ambitious goal of eliminating HCV as a public health concern five years ahead of the World Health Organization’s global target of 2030. Since then, we’ve seen considerable progress with major achievements across multiple indicators. Unfortunately the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the rate of progress, however we continue to work with NHS Boards and other services to press towards our shared goal of HCV elimination.

Public Health Scotland’s annual HCV surveillance report is scheduled for release on 3 December 2024 and we are working with PHS to assess our position against the indicators. We will provide an update on progress towards our elimination goal in due course.

The Scottish Government is working with stakeholders on the review and development of various guidance to inform pain management services.

As outlined in the updated chronic pain implementation plan, Framework for pain management service delivery - implementation plan update (www.gov.scot) the national clinical guidelines for Scotland (SIGN 136), and polypharmacy guidelines are currently being updated.

We are also working with Healthcare Improvement Scotland to deliver a national approach to specialist interventions for chronic pain and to consider the creation of national standards for chronic pain management.

The following members of the Cabinet have visited a college in the last year:

• John Swinney MSP, First Minister
• Kate Forbes MSP, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic
• Shona Robison MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government
• Neil Gray MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
• Jenny Gilruth MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills
• Gillian Martin MSP, Acting Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy
• Fiona Hyslop MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Transport
• Mairi Gougeon MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands
• Angela Constance MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs

On Monday 4 November 2024 I announced that, through a combination of public and increasing private sector investment, Scotland has achieved its target of 6,000 publicly available EV charge points two years ahead of its 2026 target and this was achieved through a combination of public sector and growing private sector investment. Charge point data provider ZapMap reports Scotland had 6,030 public charge points as of 31 October.

The amount of Scottish Government funding which has been awarded and drawn down by recipients to support investment in public EV charging in the last five years is noted in the following table, from financial year 2019-2020.

Due to the current financial situation the Scottish Government is having to make some difficult budgetary decisions.

As part of this, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) was asked to minimise any discretionary spend where possible. The Scottish contribution to DOCET is held as part of the NES budget and in that context, NES Optometry decided to remove the funding to DOCET as part of the savings exercise.

The Scottish Government provides considerable funding to NES to provide training and education to support the provision of NHS General Ophthalmic Services. NES delivers a programme of on-line and in person events, e-learning modules, Independent prescriber training, peer support groups, as well as teach and treat clinics that provide clinical experience. Funding also supports training for other practice staff including dispensing opticians, with access to resources also available to eyecare professionals working within the hospital eye service too.

In addition to their NES training, optometrists can continue to meet their mandatory continuing professional development requirements via a number of different sources including self-directed learning, The College of Optometrist’s programme of courses, their employer’s events and also by the extensive array of private provider provision.

On a comparative basis, and adjusted for size, even with the removal of DOCET access, the investment in education and training for Optometrists in Scotland remains dramatically better than England.

The Scottish Government committed to reviewing the law on abortion to ensure that abortion services are first and foremost a healthcare matter.

An expert group chaired by Professor Anna Glasier, the Scottish Government’s Women’s Health Champion, has been established to take this forward. The Group will consider the legal framework for abortion and clinical practice with a view to making recommendations where appropriate.

Membership of the expert group consists of clinical, legal, reproductive rights and academic experts. Members were selected to reflect a diverse range of expertise relevant to the healthcare focus of the review and its aim to develop recommendations that best serve the needs of those seeking and providing abortion care, while also considering the complexities of the matter.

Stakeholder engagement is a vital part of the wider review. The work of the expert group is one element of that wider review, and written submissions will be provided to the group from a range of organisations, including pro-life groups. The Scottish Government has written to a range of pro-life groups to ask if they wish to participate in a stakeholder group to feed directly into the wider review. All organisational views will be carefully considered alongside a range of clinical evidence in addition to the recommendations made by the Expert Group.

All minutes of the Expert Group are published online, and can be accessed here: Abortion Law Review Expert Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The Scottish Government is not able to speak on behalf of individual members regarding their personal views on abortion. Members were chosen for their professional affiliations and expertise. No members of the Expert Group represent pro-life organisations as the Group is not considering the fundamental right to abortion.

The Expert Group is carefully considering all the evidence before it. Views from a range of perspectives, including those raised by pro-life organisations, will be considered on issues within the scope of the review. As outlined in the answer to S6W-30745 on 14 November 2024 on the work of the group is one part of the wider review and a stakeholder group has been established to represent a range of groups including pro-life organisations. The review will examine all evidence provided.

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 biodiversity duty requires public bodies to further the conservation of biodiversity in the exercise of their functions, having regard to the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy. Biodiversity duty reports produced under the Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011 are the best measure we have for compliance, and this shows that at least 85 of 156 (54.5%) public bodies active during the most recent reporting cycle (2021-2023) are compliant with the duty. However, the actual figure is likely to be higher. A number of smaller public bodies which are technically covered by the duty have limited opportunities to further the conservation of biodiversity due to the nature of their remit. We do not consider it to be a good use of public funds to try to enforce the production of a biodiversity duty report in every case, but all the information we have suggests that where it is relevant, most public bodies take the duty very seriously.