Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22774 on 21 November 2023. 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 other two medicines alluded to in that answer are Orkambi ® , and Symkevi ® .

If any cystic fibrosis medicine is not recommended in the final multiple technology appraisal (MTA) guidance, clinicians in Scotland will be able to request the use of that medicine on a case-by-case basis for individual patients using the Peer Approved Clinical System (PACS) Tier Two process. National guidance explicitly states that Health Boards should not take account of the cost of medicines when considering applications using the PACS Tier Two system.

Net mental health expenditure is published on the Public Health Scotland website Scottish health service costs under data files mental health expenditure Excel workbook . This information is available for financial years 2011-12 to 2021-22 for each NHS Board in Scotland, split by various types of expenditure including Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Please note that expenditure data is collected by broad specialties and therefore categories may include multiple services.

Scottish Government continues to provide overall increases to mental health spending. Between the Scottish Government and NHS boards we expect spending on Mental Health to be well in excess of £1.3 bn in 2023/24.

Expenditure on CAMHS rose from £88m in 2020-21 to £97.6m in 2021-22, an increase of £9.3m or 10.6% - representing 0.66% of total NHS expenditure.

We are now seeing significant and sustained improvements in CAMHS waiting times. In the quarter ending September 2023, 75.6% of CAMHS patients started treatment within 18 weeks of referral, up from 67.9% in same quarter the previous year, and 13 out of 14 CAMHS Services had effectively eliminated their long waits (where 3% or fewer of all waits are over one year).

We continually monitor CAMHS waiting times performance and backlogs and are directing tailored support to those Boards with the longest waits, providing access to professional advice, ensuring they have robust improvement plans in place and monitoring their implementation.

We have commissioned all Boards to submit performance trajectories up to March 2024, including a timeline for clearing long waits. These will be updated annually and used to inform further targeted improvement work to ensure all Boards consistently meet the CAMHS waiting times standard.

We have allocated £48.6 million of supplementary funding to Boards this year via the Mental Health Outcomes Framework to improve the quality and delivery of mental health services for all. This is in addition to £36.7 million allocated to Health Boards via the Outcomes Framework in 2022-23; and to the total package of core funding that Health Boards receive.

The Scottish Government is advised on food safety and standards matters by Food Standards Scotland (FSS). They have advised that stakeholders were consulted in 2019 on the Honey (Scotland) Regulations 2015, to ensure the regulations remained operable and effective after the UK had left the EU. This included a specific focus on proposed changes to how country of origin would be labelled after the UK left the EU. The views of stakeholders including Scottish honey producers were considered to ensure the rules remained relevant in Scotland.

FSS notes Mr Burnett’s interest in this area and would welcome the opportunity to meet with him if he would find that helpful.

Scottish Government fund peatland restoration via the Peatland Action partnership. The individual delivery partners that make up this partnership apply their own grant offer terms and conditions regarding protections and restrictions on the land that receives money from them for undertaking peatland restoration. I would refer the MSP to those organisations for further information.

At a programme level, the Peatland ACTION Monitoring Strategy ( https://www.nature.scot/doc/peatland-action-monitoring-strategy ) is putting in place a structured approach to monitoring sites that have had their peatland restored to evidence whether we are delivering effective restoration.

The Scottish Government is advised on food safety and standards matters by Food Standards Scotland (FSS). They have advised that in August 2023, they contacted a range of interested parties to seek initial views on the proposed changes at EU level. This included eleven trade associations and honey producers along with the 32 Scottish Local authorities. FSS included a statement in the letter issued stating that stakeholder data would be anonymised, and we are therefore unable to disclose the specific details of the businesses included for data protection reasons. Responses are currently being considered and this will help inform policy thinking ahead of a review of the domestic honey regulations and working with the other departments with food labelling and composition standards responsibilities across the UK.

On call firefighters are exceptional individuals who step up to protect their communities when needed most. The Scottish Government continues to recognise the vital role they play and appreciates the cooperation and understanding of their primary employers.

Whilst the recruitment, terms of employment and retention of on call firefighters is a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS), the Scottish Government will carefully consider any proposal put forward by SFRS on this issue.

SFRS works closely with employers and has an Employers Recognition Scheme to fully recognise their efforts in supporting their employees to become on call firefighters. SFRS also have an On Call Guide for Employers which enables employers to learn more about what is involved and how they can support their employees to become on call firefighters.

The Accounts Commission oversees the audit of local authority Annual Accounts. Audit Scotland would advise the Accounts Commission of any concerns who would then investigate and advise the Scottish Ministers if required.

All local authorities have published their unaudited 2022-23 Annual Accounts and these are publicly available for inspection.

The Scottish Government is aware of minor delays to the completion of some local authority Annual Accounts audits, primarily as a continuing consequence of the pandemic. These challenges apply across the UK with only 5 out of 467 local authority Annual Accounts audits for 2022-23 in England having been completed in line with the statutory deadline.

Audit Scotland were anticipating that most audits will be completed by 30 November, following which local authorities will be able to publish their audited Annual Accounts.

In line with the Local Authority Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2014, all local authorities have published their unaudited 2022-23 annual accounts on their websites by 30 June 2023 and these are available for inspection.

Local authorities were required to publish their audited 2022-23 annual accounts by 31 October 2023 and are required to publish the audit report of those accounts by 30 November 2023.

As part of routine discussions between the Scottish Government and Audit Scotland, some audit delays have been identified, primarily as a continuing consequence of the pandemic. Audit Scotland have raised no concerns and expect most local authority audits to be completed by 30 November 2023.

Bus and coach operators are required to hold Public Service Vehicle (PSV) licenses. The PSV licensing is a reserved power to the UK Government and is managed by the Traffic Commissioner, the main purpose of the regime is to ensure safe and proper use of vehicles. The Scottish Government has no oversight of investigations carried out by operators in relation to maintenance and safety of vehicles.