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I welcome the UK’s pilot Antimicrobial Purchasing Project which seeks to implement a novel payment model to incentivise pharmaceutical companies to do research and development into new antimicrobials which are vital in our fight against Antimicrobial Resistance. In June 2022, the Secretary of State for Health formally invited Scottish Ministers to join the next stage of the project. I agreed in principle for Scotland to engage in follow-on work and to progress towards being an equal partner in shaping the model’s evolution, with particular reference to Scotland's requirements. We await the formal proposition from UK which would allow us to proceed but are in regular contact with DHSC to ensure we are in the position to respond when an approach comes forward.

The remit of the Women’s Health Champion is to drive change and share best practice and innovation in the improvement of health services and health outcomes for women. Professor Glasier will work with partners in the NHS and across the public and third sectors to drive forward the ambitions, aims and actions in the Women’s Health Plan. Professor Glasier’s particular priorities were set out in the recently published report on progress and include specialist menopause services, menstrual health with a focus on endometriosis and polycystic ovarian syndrome, and heart health.

The Champion is a member of the Women's Health Plan Implementation Programme Board which has been established to oversee and drive the delivery of the Plan.

Professor Glasier is scheduled to attend the next Women’s Health Cross Party Group on 22 March 2023. In addition a number of introductory meetings with both individuals and organisations have already taken place, with more arranged for the coming weeks. Any requests should be directed to womenshealthchampion@gov.scot.

NHS Scotland’s staffing levels are at a historic high, staffing levels have grown by over 2,900 whole time equivalent, permanent staff, representing ten years of consecutive growth.

NHS Boards are responsible for ensuring they have local policies in place to effectively recruit and retain staff. We support this through our National Workforce Strategy, which outlines the actions we will take in partnership with boards to plan, attract, train, employ and nurture the health and social care workforce.

NHS Education Scotland publishes official workforce statistics on the NHS workforce, providing evidence of the effectiveness of recruitment and retention policies of NHS Boards.

There have been no material changes to the design of either the Baird Family Hospital or the ANCHOR Centre agreed to date. An important part of any large capital project however, is the ongoing testing and refinement of the design, in particular the mechanical and electrical aspects. This process, informed by a range of internal and external experts and subject to independent review led by NHS Scotland Assure, is intended to provide assurance of compliance with the most up to date standards and also that learning from recent large projects is incorporated appropriately.

The Scottish Government liaise closely on an ongoing basis with NHS Grampian to ensure that any emerging pressures on the project are managed appropriately and this includes the outcomes and recommended action arising from the design review processes. The report on the recent NHS Scotland Assure Review of the ANCHOR Centre Construction stage is expected shortly and any associated action will be reported to the next NHS Grampian Board meeting 6 April 2023.

We have noted the trial based in Wales, which is offering blood tests to people who have recovered from bowel cancer. We will consider of the results of this trial once it has concluded to determine whether it has evidenced benefit for patients.

The NDAP process does not use the term, or produce an ‘action plan’. The process results in essential and advisory recommendations at the end of each of each Business Case stage which must be developed by the Board. The Board will submit evidence or a commitment to address the recommendations prior to their NDAP report achieving a ‘verified’ status.

NHS Grampian received the supported NDAP report for the Full Business Case stage of the Baird and ANCHOR project on 3 July 2020. This was followed up confirming the commitment from NHS Grampian to complete and close out all required actions. A tracker was developed which included all the required actions and the work to agree and close out the actions was carried out with NDAP and Graham Construction until May 2021. The actions were confirmed as closed by the NDAP team on 18 May 2021.

The Scottish Government provides local authorities with funding to allow them to deliver their statutory duty to ensure all eligible children can access 1140 hours of high-quality funded early learning and childcare. Scottish Government officials have spoken to Glasgow City Council regarding the closure of Rising Stars, and the Council's early years team is supporting families with children who attend these settings to discuss suitable alternatives - including through one-to-one support where required.

The Scottish Government do not publish NHSScotland Design Assessment Process (NDAP) reports, but they are available on request from the Health Board.

On 1 January 2023, a one dose schedule was introduced in Scotland for all those eligible in the HPV vaccination programme up to their 25th birthday. We envisage that this programme change will increase the amount of people completing their vaccination schedule as it will remove the requirement to be recalled to receive a second dose.

We have outlined to Health Boards that some of the resource freed up due to the reduction in vaccination sessions due to the change to a one dose schedule should be re-directed to interventions that strengthen programme delivery, increase coverage rates and reduce inequalities.

Additionally, we have developed a dashboard which allows us to interrogate deprivation data further which will allow us to work with PHS and Health Boards to support these groups and encourage HPV vaccination and wider vaccination services.

The information requested on providing the latest data showing the retention rate of (a) nurses and (b) doctors in the NHS is not centrally available.

Information on vacancies by the three main staff groups, can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

The turnover rate for all staff across NHS Scotland in 2021/22 was 8.1%.