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The NHS Scotland Podiatry Service treats patients depending on the individual person’s healthcare needs, not according to specific medical conditions. Effective triage helps allocate resources efficiently and ensures that patients receive timely care based on their healthcare needs.

This is an operational matter for Caledonian Sleeper, the Member may wish to contact Caledonian Sleeper Ltd directly.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-27876 on 12 June 2024. 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 has engaged with the industry-led Offshore Energy Skills Passport through the project steering group led by Renewable UK and Offshore Energies UK. This group also includes representation from the Global Wind Organisation (GWO), the Offshore Petroleum Industry Training Organization (OPITO), the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB), Trade Unions and a range of other stakeholders. SSE is not a member of the project steering group.

We have welcomed the recent joint statement from Renewable UK and Offshore Energies UK on progress to date and next steps with the Passport and urge industry partners to continue to develop and roll the initiative out at pace.

This is an operational matter for Caledonian Sleeper, the Member may wish to contact Caledonian Sleeper Ltd directly.

A number of actions are already underway to improve recruitment into clinical and medical oncology. For example, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) are:

• Increasing front-end supply by funding the creation of additional posts in Internal Medicine Training (IMT), which is a pre-requisite for both clinical and medical oncology (42 IMT posts added in 2021 and 22 in 2024).
• Using these IMT posts to increase exposure to oncology during the early years of a doctors career.
• Exploring the feasibility of a regional rotational training post to attract applicants to vacant posts in the North and East of Scotland.
• Providing ongoing support to trainees wishing to enter oncology training through alternative routes.
• Delivering (a) oncology-themed national training days in all regions for IMT and Foundation trainees, and (b) ‘roadshows’ in all regions to promote oncology as a specialism.

In addition, the Training Programme Directors (TPD) for clinical and medical oncology within NES sit on the respective Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) Specialty Advisory Committees (SAC). The SACs then feed into the relevant Specialty Training Board (STB) within NES. The TPD for medical oncology is a member of the Association of Cancer Physicians (ACP). The TPD for both medical and clinical oncology feed back to the RCR with relevant issues arising from the STB. The RCR and ACP both had major involvement in designing and implementing the new oncology curricula, which is now fully embedded.

The Chief Medical Officer met with the Royal College of Radiologists on 14 December 2023 and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer met with them on 16 May 2024.

The Scottish Government has funded the creation of 68 additional training places in clinical radiology since 2014 in line with recommendations made by the Scottish Shape of Training Transition Group (SSoTTG). The number of funded posts in clinical oncology has also increased by 15 over the same period. The SSoTTG is currently undertaking its annual review of medical training establishments and will be submitting recommendations later in the year for expansion taking place in 2025. This annual review will consider the need for expansion in all medical specialties, including clinical radiology and clinical oncology, to ensure that Scotland has a sufficient supply of trained doctors coming through the system to meet anticipated future demand for consultants. Recommendations to expand are informed by medical workforce modelling undertaken by NHS Education for Scotland.

The Scottish Government recognises the need for active measures to improve retention across the health and social care workforce, which is essential to ensure confidence in longer-term modelling of a sustainable future medical workforce to meet future clinical service demand.

One of the 11 ambitions in the Cancer Strategy is for a Sustainable and Skilled Workforce with actions under 5 pillars. There are six actions being taken forward under ‘nurture’ to aid retention of staff.

For example, retiring employees who wish to continue in employment that is suitable to them and the service are supported by the Retire and Return provisions in the NHSScotland Retirement Policy . In addition, the NHSScotland Flexible work location policy and NHSScotland Flexible work pattern policy provide staff with a range of flexible working options to help them to balance their lifestyle whilst maintaining and promoting the best possible service to our patients and service users, supporting retention.

The majority of non-executive appointments to the Boards of Non-Departmental Public Bodies are regulated by the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland. This means that the process used to appoint Board members is governed by the 'Revised Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Bodies in Scotland’. Those which are not regulated, choose to adopt the same principles. 

The entities advise Scottish Ministers on their Board’s membership needs, the ScotRail Board determines this themselves, with a focus on diverse boards comprised of members who possess the right skills, experience and knowledge. In addition to other relevant attributes, such as, integrity and commitment. STUC's General Secretary, Roz Foyer, is a non-executive Director on Scottish Rail Holdings’ Board, the parent company of ScotRail Ltd, is appointed to that role with the support of railway trade unions.

As set out in the Industry (Scotland) Act 2002, non-executive Board members appointed by Scottish Ministers are required to have knowledge and experience relevant to the functions of Scottish Water. In addition, one of the non-executive members must have special knowledge of the interests of the employees of Scottish Water.

The Scottish Government (SG) has funded the creation of 68 additional training places in clinical radiology since 2014 in line with recommendations made by the Scottish Shape of Training Transition Group (SSoTTG). The number of funded posts in clinical oncology has also increased by 15 over the same period. These additional posts, and indeed all training posts for trainee doctors, are funded in full by SG. This approach is referenced in the Royal College of Radiologists 2023 workforce census report:

“In Scotland and Northern Ireland, the statutory education body provides funding for the full training place, with health boards and trusts paying on-call or any additional payments”.