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The Safe Delivery of Care in acute settings maternity inspections were introduced to ensure that all service users in maternity services receive the highest standard of care, as well as to identify opportunities for learning for all NHS Boards. NHS Boards are expected to address the requirements identified by Healthcare Improvement Scotland during inspections as a priority and within the timescales set out in their Improvement Action Plan. We expect that all NHS Boards will consider the findings in these reports and my officials continue to work with maternity service leaders to ensure that the findings are communicated effectively and to identify any national level actions required to improve care.

We remain committed to continuous improvement in maternity services across Scotland. As part of this, we have commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland to develop a set of maternity standards designed to drive improvements in care at a local level, expected to publish in Spring 2026. In parallel, our Scottish Patient Safety Perinatal Improvement Programme continues to work with maternity services across Scotland to drive improvements in care for mothers and babies.

As part of our’ Best Start’ Programme we published the new Pathway of Maternity Care in February 2025. This Pathway illustrates compassionate, individualised, person-centred core maternity care that all women and their babies should receive.

The Scottish Government is supporting plans for a more sustainable, productive, innovative and diverse construction industry.

The Scottish Government’s Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Factors programme aims to reduce avoidable CVD death by 20% in 20 years. The focus is on improving the identification and management of key risk factors which are; high blood pressure, high cholesterol, raised blood sugars, obesity and smoking.

A key principle of the programme is to extend cardiovascular disease prevention efforts to those we know are at highest risk and particularly underserved by existing models of care.

We have also established a new GP enhanced service from the 2025-26 Reform Fund to support 100,000 patients who are at risk of developing CVD.

We are not aware of high rates of maternal mortality in remote and rural areas of Scotland, and unfortunately the ICESCR report does not provide any evidence in support of this statement in its report in relation to Scotland or the UK.

All women and girls who are pregnant in any part of Scotland will have the full range of maternity care provided to them. Our Health Boards continue to look to improve the range of maternity and neonatal care that can be provided locally to meet the needs of their rural populations. When specialist maternity or neonatal care is required which cannot safely be delivered locally, women and babies may need to travel to access that care, and we expect Boards to facilitate seamless delivery of this care.

We are also committed to ensuring that women across Scotland have timely access to sexual and reproductive health services, and to information which allows them to make informed decisions about their own sexual and reproductive health. Our Sexual Health and Blood Borne Viruses Action Plan 2023-26 sets out our ambitions to improving the accessibility and availability of contraception services across Scotland. As part of this plan, we have committed to visiting all 14 health boards. During these visits we will be recognising the challenges that boards are facing and the good practice they are delivering. We will also use this time to explore areas for collaboration between boards both nationally and regionally, especially within rural areas.

The Scottish Government values the input of clinicians in informing any recommendations regarding abortion services. The Scottish Government works closely with services through the Scottish Abortion Care Providers network in particular to identify contributors with suitable clinical backgrounds to be involved in any groups convened by the Scottish Government regarding abortion services.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Public Health Scotland publishes a yearly report named the ‘Prescription Cost Analysis’ which outlines annual total expenditure on all prescriptions from community pharmacy in Scotland. British National Formulary chapter 4 includes methadone and buprenorphine (also known by its brand name Buvidal) and the cost of prescribing these drugs can be found on tab 4 of the PCA at Dispenser payments and prescription cost analysis - Financial year 2023 to 2024 - Dispenser payments and prescription cost analysis - Publications - Public Health Scotland.

Economic inactivity due to long-term sickness and disability is a problem across the UK and each nation has seen increases since the pandemic.

In January to December 2024, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Population Survey (APS), an estimated 269,000 people in Scotland aged 16-64 gave their reason for being inactive as long-term sick or disabled, 33.7% of Scotland’s economically inactive people aged 16-64.

ONS state that although the APS estimates are robust at headline regional level, there are concerns with the quality of the estimates for smaller groups of the population such as local authority level estimates.

Due to the increased volatility in the APS local authority estimates in recent years, National Records of Scotland Census 2022 results have been provided in Table 1.

Table 1: Number of 16-64 year olds who are economically inactive due to being long-term sick or disabled by Local Authority, Scotland, 2022

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Public Health Scotland publishes a yearly report named the ‘Prescription Cost Analysis’ which outlines annual total expenditure on all prescriptions from community pharmacy in Scotland. British National Formulary chapter 4 includes methadone and buprenorphine (also known by its brand name Buvidal) and the cost of prescribing these drugs can be found on tab 4 of the PCA at Dispenser payments and prescription cost analysis - Financial year 2023 to 2024 - Dispenser payments and prescription cost analysis - Publications - Public Health Scotland.

Section 259 of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 gives people with a mental illness, learning disability, dementia and related conditions a right of access to independent advocacy. It confers a duty on each relevant local authority and relevant health board to secure the availability of independent advocacy services and to take appropriate steps to ensure that those persons have the opportunity of making use of those services.

The Code of Practice Volume 1 for the 2003 Act states that independent advocacy organisations may provide individual or collective advocacy, but notes the Act is not specific about the type or types of independent advocacy services to which an individual should have a right of access. It goes on to acknowledge that any or all of the various types of independent advocacy may be appropriate depending on the circumstances and personal preferences of the individual concerned.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Public Health Scotland publishes a yearly report named the ‘Prescription Cost Analysis’ which outlines annual total expenditure on all prescriptions from community pharmacy in Scotland. British National Formulary chapter 4 includes methadone and buprenorphine (also known by its brand name Buvidal) and the cost of prescribing these drugs can be found on tab 4 of the PCA at Dispenser payments and prescription cost analysis - Financial year 2023 to 2024 - Dispenser payments and prescription cost analysis - Publications - Public Health Scotland.