Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-24444 on 22 January 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 .

As set out in the draft Scottish Government budget, the capital funding position is extremely challenging due to the UK Government’s decision to cut our capital budget by nearly 10%.

The capital budget settlement allows for Health Boards’ delegated capital budgets to be maintained at 23-24 levels, for all major projects in construction to be completed and for continued support for the national replacement programmes for ambulances and radiotherapy equipment. Given the current uncertainty regarding availability of funding, regrettably, we have advised boards to pause any new capital projects until capital funding becomes more certain.

Our Infrastructure Investment Plan identified priority health capital projects for funding within that period. As a result of UK Government cuts, we will bring forward a revised Infrastructure Investment Plan in the spring. All due consideration will be given to what projects can be included to ensure the revised Plan is affordable and deliverable.

I expect all NHS Boards, including NHS Forth Valley, to keep their services under review to ensure that they are of the highest quality; and that they meet the needs of local people, whilst remaining consistent with national policies and frameworks.

NHS Forth Valley have confirmed that they are considering a number of options to improve capacity and flow through Forth Valley Royal Hospital, which includes the development of a frailty unit. This work is still at an early stage and the Board have given assurances that no changes would be made without ensuring that all services can continue to be delivered safely and effectively.

This is an operational matter for ScotRail.

Transport Scotland were informed on 2 February of Peel Ports decision to close the Irish Berth permanently.

The number of timetabled sailings CalMac has provided with the charter vessel, MV Alfred since 27 April 2023 until 9 February 2024 is 882.

This is an operational matter for ScotRail. The member may wish to contact ScotRail for this information.

NHS Lothian has received £24.7 million of Capital Formula and the latest forecast indicates that by the year end a further £10.7 million in allocations will be provided for a total of £35.4 million in capital funding in 2023-24.

As set out in our draft budget the capital funding position is extremely challenging, with a UK Government cut of some 10% in our capital budget over the next five years. Nonetheless, this settlement allows formula capital to be maintained at £24.7 million 2023-24 levels in 2024-25. Additional in-year capital allocations will also be provided, but these have not been finalised at this point.

(a) There are a number of published data sets available in Scotland that help us understand bowel cancer. These are facilitated by Public Health Scotland and include data on incidence, mortality, staging, waiting times for cancer organised by tumour type.

Cancer Incidence

Public Health Scotland provides an annual update of cancer incidence statistics in Scotland from January 1997 to December 2021. All cancer types are included. Most recent data can be found here

Cancer Mortality

Public Health Scotland provides interpretations of the risk factors that cause cancer and changes in survival for the most common causes of cancer death. Most recent data can be found here

Cancer Staging

Public Health Scotland provides data examining the impact of COVID-19 on cancer staging distributions, with the focus of the report being on the 2022 data in comparison with the most recent pre-pandemic data (2018 and 2019). Most recent data can be found here

Cancer Waiting Times

Public Health Scotland provides quarterly updates of Cancer Waiting Times statistics, reporting two National Standards on how long patients waited for their first cancer treatment. The 62-day standard applies to patients urgently referred with a suspicion of cancer by a primary care clinician/general dental physician, patients referred by one of the national cancer screening programmes, and direct referrals to hospital where the signs and symptoms are consistent with the cancer diagnosed. The 31-day standard applies to all patients, regardless of the route of referral. The most recent data can be found here

(b) The research conducted by Cancer Research UK, published in the Annals of Oncology journal in January 2024, states that bowel cancer can be linked to diet and alcohol intake. The Scottish Government has introduced strong public health interventions to address these risk factors.

The Scottish Government’s Alcohol Framework sets out our priorities for preventing alcohol-related harm and introduced the Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) to alcohol sales in Scotland. The Scottish Government’s Alcohol Framework, published 20 November 2018, sets out our priorities for preventing alcohol-related harm. It contains 20 actions building on existing measures to change Scotland’s relationship with alcohol, including our world-leading minimum unit pricing policy. The Scottish Government takes a whole population approach to tackling alcohol-related harms, in line with the World Health Organization’s focus on affordability, availability and attractiveness of alcohol.

Prior to the pandemic, the reduction in alcohol sales showed encouraging early signs that the introduction of MUP was having a positive impact. In the 12 months following the introduction of MUP and before the pandemic, there was a 2% decrease in alcohol sales for off premises consumption.

The Scottish Government continue to endorse a healthy balanced diet as represented by the Eatwell Guide . Food Standards Scotland has translated the Eatwell Guide into the Eat Well, Your Way resource. This provides meaningful, practical advice and tips to help people make healthier food and drink choices, whilst acknowledging the social, cultural and environmental influences on food choice.

Our Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan sets out ambitious and wide-ranging action to deliver our vision for a Scotland where everyone eats well and has a healthy weight.

(c) The Scottish Government is committed to detecting cancer as early as possible. A new Detect Cancer Earlier campaign – Be The Early Bird - launched in March 2023, aiming to reduce fear of cancer and empower those with possible symptoms to act early. Following successful independent evaluation, the campaign re-ran in September 2023 to prompt health-seeking behaviour.

The wider Detect Cancer Early Programme works closely with the Scottish Cancer Coalition, including Bowel Cancer UK, to support awareness raising efforts and uses social channels to promote joint content and messages where possible.

The Lord President has been involved in the process of identifying a chair to the public inquiry and discussions are now at an advanced stage. The member will be aware that there will also be an independent clinical review of individual cases for those former patients who would like to participate, and planning for that is also well underway. At this time I am unable to provide a definitive start date for the clinical reviews, however I will endeavour to update Parliament once a date is agreed.