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The New Medicines Fund provided additional support to NHS boards for the cost of medicines approved under the new process implemented by the Scottish Medicines Consortium in line with the Task and Finish Group report provided to the Scottish Government and published by the Health and Sport Committee and related individual and group patient treatment requests.

The First Minister set out the Scottish Government’s position on this matter at First Minister’s Questions on 30 April 2015.

This is an operational matter for the Scottish Funding Council.

Innovation centres will help to ensure that Scotland continues to be a pioneer in sciences, innovative technology, ideas and development. Their business plans indicate that they have the potential to create up to 5,000 jobs in their first five years. The innovation centres are steadily building their infrastructure and engaging with businesses to identify projects with the greatest potential for impact on the Scottish economy and wider society.

In July 2014, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service published their annual Hate Crime in Scotland publication. This report indicated that in 2013-14, 154 charges were reported to prosecutors with an aggravation of prejudice relating to disability, 12% more than in 2012-13 (17 additional charges). The report went on to advise that court proceedings were commenced in respect of 126 charges (82%), a higher proportion than in previous years. In total 130 (84%) of charges led to court proceedings, including those not separately prosecuted, but which may have been incorporated into other charges for the same accused.

The report indicated that no action was taken in respect of 7 charges (5%), a lower rate than in previous years. The most common reason for taking no action was the lack of sufficient admissible evidence for the substantial charge even though there was sufficient evidence for the disability aggravation associated with the charge. If there are no proceedings on the substantial charge, there can be no proceedings on an aggravation associated with the charge.

At the time this report was compiled, 13 charges (8%) were awaiting the outcome of further enquiries before a final decision on proceedings.

More generally, the report noted there is a broad consensus that disability-related hate crime may well be under reported compared to other forms of hate crime. Both Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service are engaged in a variety of activities aimed at increasing the level of awareness, especially amongst disability communities, that hate crime is unacceptable and should not be tolerated.

There is currently no neuromuscular care advisor (NCA) post in the north. The NCA post in the north of Scotland was a project funded for two years with an end date of 31 December 2014. The North of Scotland Planning Group (NOSPG) did not support continued funding as it did not feel that one regional care advisor post in the north was the optimal model for improving neuromuscular care. However, the NOSPG recognised the valuable learning informed by the temporary role of NCA. They will be taking forward a recommendation to bring together the relevant specialist clinical services in the north of Scotland to articulate an improvement plan for implementation over the coming months.

In addition there are two part time neuromuscular physiotherapy posts in the north of Scotland (Dundee and Aberdeen) who support paediatric physiotherapy for this group of patients. The north has also appointed a part time neuromuscular physiotherapy co-ordinator to work with all services to ensure that patients have appropriate access to allied health care professional support.

Workforce data published by Public Health Information (PHI, formerly Information Services Division) does not specify the number of specialist neuromuscular care adviser (NCA) posts in Scotland.

The Scottish Government funded a two year pilot project to assess the need for neuromuscular care advisors; one post in each of the regional planning group areas. Currently there is a NCA based in the west of Scotland and one in the south and east.

The role of the NCA includes: emotional support throughout the patient journey; integration with health and social care multi-disciplinary teams; signposting information and referring to appropriate specialist services; educating patients, families, health and other professionals; and enabling self-management.

Tackling hate crime in partnership with key stakeholders and affected communities is a key priority. The Scottish Government believes hate crime to be unacceptable in modern day Scotland, and we are committed to eradicating it from society. We have already strengthened the law in this area, continue to work closely with Police Scotland and others to encourage reporting and are investing over £20 millionin 2015-16 to achieve equality and tackle discrimination. As we develop our approach, we are looking with interest at the approaches taken in other jurisdictions.

Police Scotland have made considerable progress in recent years through the development of third party reporting centres and online reporting of hate crime to help support people affected by hate crime including disability-related hate crime. In addition, specific statutory disability hate crime aggravations were introduced through the Offences (Aggravated by Prejudice) (Scotland) Act 2009 which has improved the recording of hate crime and ensures the court must consider whether to increase an offender's sentence to reflect that an offence has been motivated by malice or ill-will towards another person based on their characteristics relating to their identity such as having a disability.

Efforts will continue by partners in the justice system including Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to encourage victims of hate crime to report incidents so access to justice can take place and for a robust approach in dealing with such crimes to continue.

In some cases, it can be that victims and witnesses of hate crime including disability-related hate crime do not feel comfortable reporting the matter directly to Police Scotland and may be more comfortable reporting it to someone they are familiar with.

That is why Police Scotland works in partnership with a wide variety of partners who perform the role of third party reporting centres. The staff within third party reporting centres have been trained to assist a victim or witness in submitting a report to the police and can make such a report on the victim/witnesses behalf. Examples of third party reporting centres participating in the Police Scotland scheme range from housing associations to victim support offices and voluntary groups.