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Through our vision for ‘a Scotland where people live longer, healthy and fulfilling lives we are focused on improving the health of the population. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the lifeblood of the Scottish economy and so we want to create an economy that prioritises the wellbeing of staff and employees of SMEs.

The Scottish Government supports the Healthy Working Lives (HWL) initiative, hosted by Public Health Scotland, which offers a range of materials to support employers on all aspects of work-related health promotion and ill health prevention, return to work and workplace safety.

The Scottish Government funds Working Health Services Scotland (WHSS), a service delivered by individual territorial health boards that provides occupational health advice and support for people who are self-employed or working in companies with 250 or less employees and have a health condition or injury which they feel is impacting on their work. This service is coordinated by Salus Occupational health, safety and return to work services (NHS Lanarkshire), who work in partnership with all 14 NHS Health boards delivering the service, including coverage across rural areas.

The Scottish Government, through the National Information Governance Programme and the Digital Health and Care Directorate, supports NHS boards by providing comprehensive guidance on enabling patients to access their medical records. Guidance includes the Records Management Code of Practice, the Confidentiality Code of Practice, and patient-facing guidance on NHS Inform explaining to patients what happens to and how they can access their personal data. Guidance is co-produced through a collaborative Information Governance community from across the NHS landscape, ensuring it reflects shared best practices and is centred on patient needs. This engagement with the NHS Information Governance community provides a valuable feedback loop to monitor compliance with such guidance, alongside direct interactions with patients, ensuring issues are addressed and mitigated accordingly.

A reassuring indicator of compliance within this feedback loop is the positive outcome of the recent ICO audit of health boards, underpinning our determination to ensure full transparency to patients and the wider public.

Social media management includes the management of Scottish Government social media accounts across platforms, and the directly related services comprise organic content production and outreach to secure content from creators and influencers.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-33748 on 29 January 2025. 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 supports the Healthy Working Lives (HWL) initiative, hosted by Public Health Scotland, which offers a range of materials to support employers on all aspects of work-related health promotion and ill health prevention, return to work and workplace safety.

The Scottish Government, in partnership with Public Health Scotland and See Me, also delivers the Supporting a Mentally Healthy Workplace: National Learning Network for Employers. The network brings together employers of all sizes and across all sectors to share learning and experiences of supporting mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. Over 800 individuals are now engaged with the network.

The Scottish Government also fund Paths for All, a Scottish charity which promotes everyday walking. Paths for All run two national challenges a year in the spring and autumn. The Step Count Challenge (SCC) is a walking challenge for Scottish workplaces, which aims to encourage business to support employees to walk more to improve mental and physical health. In 2023-24, 325 workplaces took part in the spring, autumn and bespoke challenges.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-33707 on 29 January 2025. 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/questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government actively promotes cyber security. Our goal is to reduce the risk of cyber-attacks and protect against the unauthorised exploitation of systems, networks, and technologies. As the Scottish Health Competent Authority for health in Scotland we promote best practice, regulatory requirements, and global international standards for the improvement of cyber security practices.

Health Boards must individually go through the Network Information Systems Regulations audit lifecycle, demonstrating continual improvements against the Scottish Public Sector Cyber Resilience Framework to the Scottish Health Competent Authority.

The Scottish Government has also invested in the Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE). The CCoE empowers continuous improvements by focusing on key enablement pillars including Centralised Security, 24/7 Monitoring, Threat Hunting, Incident Response and Training & Awareness. It is complimented by the Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre which is a key partner to the CCoE, enhancing our national incident response capacity and capabilities.

The Scottish Government remains committed to the integration of digital services in Scotland’s health and social care systems. This work has been supported and progressed through the National Digital Platform (NDP). Since its creation, the NDP has made it easier for the public sector to collect and utilize data for improved integration. In addition, the federation of Microsoft 365 into NHS and Social Care services has allowed for improved joint working between health boards and local authorities.

Additionally, the Scottish Government intends to improve digital integration through a personalised digital health and social care service, the first phase of which will be launched in December 2025.

Diagnostics are central to many clinical pathways, and we are working to define the transformation necessary to deliver sustainable and equitable diagnostic services. Service innovation and redesign, creating additional capacity, and digital technology will be central to this.

The Scottish Government is committed to tackling health inequalities including in areas of socio-economic deprivation and to supporting people to live longer and healthier lives. In 2024-25 Scottish Government has allocated £3bn to measures which tackle poverty, a fundamental driver of health inequalities, including the Scottish Child Payment; and continues to progress initiatives to support healthy lifestyles through tobacco and alcohol control and consulting on regulations to change the food environment to enable healthy weight.

The majority of health boards across Scotland have all, or some of their constituent population in a rural area. Health Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships take account of the diverse needs of their populations and plan their service provision according to that need.

Officials engage with Health Boards and HSCPs on a regular basis to review health outcomes.