Seòmar agus comataidhean

Ministers are offered a SG mobile telephone on appointment. Our records show costs per year as follows:

2018-19 - £2,210

2019-20 - £3,802

2020-21 - £1,490

2021-22 - £1,463

2022-23 - £10,957

The pharmaceutical industry continues to successfully support pandemic preparedness and resilience in Scotland, as described in the answer to question S6W-19343 on 11 July 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

It is for individual Health Boards to ensure that communities have access to pharmacy services within a reasonable distance. However, in our strategy for pharmaceutical care in Scotland ‘Achieving Excellence in Pharmaceutical Care’ (2017) we committed to enhancing access to pharmaceutical care in remote and rural communities, which included use of Attend Anywhere for pharmacist clinics, and use of Near Me for remote and rural access to pharmaceutical care. We commissioned NES to work with remote and rural NHS Boards to explore mechanisms to attract more pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to work in remote and rural communities; ensuring any associated education and training needs are flexibly met. We also committed to testing a pharmacy longitudinal clerkship.

There are remote and rural longitudinal clerkships occurring in NHS Borders, NHS Dumfries and Galloway, NHS Highland, NHS Grampian and NHS Lanarkshire, all of which feed into a new piece of Additional Cost of Teaching Pharmacy research in collaboration with both Scottish Schools of Pharmacy.

In addition, to promote pharmacy technician recruitment in remote and rural areas, a number of senior pharmacy technicians attend school careers fairs etc to raise awareness of the role. All vacancies for the Pharmacy Technician Technical Apprenticeship are advertised on the Apprenticeships.scot website. Skills Development Scotland also provides an additional rural uplift for apprentices whose main employment and normal working hours are based in Argyll and Bute, Isle of Arran, Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles. Some of the Pre-registration Trainee Pharmacy Technicians in the remote and rural areas are undertaking placements in primary care and community pharmacy whilst undertaking the Technical Apprenticeship.

The Scottish Government continues to work with NHS National Education for Scotland (NES) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in developing a joint programme to encourage more students, and not just school leavers, to consider careers in pharmacy, including ensuring the output reaches deprived and remote and rural communities.

11 July 2023

Mercedes Villalba (North East Scotland) (Scottish Labour Party): To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made on large-scale water infrastructure development projects, such as reservoir expansions, to increase Scotland’s water resilience in the future.

Scottish Water, as the publicly owned provider of services in Scotland, is required to plan for the future provision of water through a sustainable water resource management approach; planning ensures that Scottish Water secures continuous, safe, clean drinking water for customers whilst supporting economic growth and protecting the environment. Scottish Water’s water resource planning looks 25 years ahead, taking account of water resource availability and the changing demands for water and making sure that these balance. Scottish Water also uses climate change scenarios to inform long-term investment requirements which may include additional sources of water or increased connectivity across the country. Scottish Water currently has no plans to build additional reservoirs.

Investment needs are reviewed for each regulatory period. This will consider the need to invest in resilience measures to ensure that services can be maintained and protected given the growing impacts of climate change. An example of this is the Glasgow Resilience Project, details of which are on Scottish Water’s website at https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/in-your-area/investments-in-your-area/220421-glasgow-resilience-project .

Scottish Water also has well-developed drought plans and has put these in place to ensure that public supplies are maintained. Investment in resilience measures over many years means that Scottish Water has ensured that supplies have been maintained through prolonged dry periods in recent years. Scottish Water will continue to focus on the efficient management of its existing water resources, which includes a range of measures from leakage reduction to encouraging customers to use water efficiently. Considering how we all use water and can minimise consumption is important in improving resilience to climate change and protecting the environment.

The Scottish Government’s Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Gateway was involved in managing the statutory correspondence between Aberdeen City Council and the consultation authorities (Scottish Environment Protection Agency), NautreScot and Historic Environment Scotland) for Aberdeen’s Beachfront Development Framework as required by the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting local communities through city regeneration projects such as the Aberdeen beachfront regeneration and will work with Aberdeen City Council and other partners as they take forward its regeneration.

Since independent hospice representatives met with Ministers in March 2023, SG officials have had a number of meetings with Health and Social Care Partnerships from April through to July to discuss the independent hospice sector’s calls for a national framework for hospice funding, and this engagement is continuing.

The final report is currently going through the publication process and the Scottish Government is confident that this, and any associated recommendations, will be published in August 2023.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring all people living in Scotland with neurological conditions, such as Essential Tremor, are able to access the best possible care, support and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care.

Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) was taken through the initial stages of the National Service Division’s National Specialist Services Committee assessment in 2018, which concluded there was insufficient evidence to support a formal national service at that time.

MRgFUS treatment is therefore currently provided on a trial basis in Scotland to help inform the evidence-base for the treatment and ensure that it is subject to rigorous clinical assessment to establish patient safety and efficacy before any decision on adopting it in the NHS. NHS Tayside have informed National Services Division that an application for national designation of the MRgFUS service in Dundee is expected to be submitted for 2024/25.

All decisions on a further referral to NHS England for any patient are the responsibility of the NHS Board where the patient resides. Specialist treatment outwith NHS Scotland is managed by the National Services Division as part of NHS National Services Scotland (NSS).

In the meantime, NSS is engaging with both clinicians in Dundee and colleagues in NHS England to determine how treatment might be made available more widely for eligible Scottish patients.

The Scottish Government has not received any interim reports from the Independent Review into Audiology.

However, given the serious nature of this issue the Scottish Government has been clear that action needs to be taken before the final report from the Independent Review is published. As such, the Scottish Government is already engaging with senior leadership in all Health Boards to seek assurances there are robust structures in place to deliver audiology services safely and effectively, and that Boards are sufficiently prepared to take forward any recommendations when they are published.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19380 on 11 July 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