Seòmar agus comataidhean

Following a submission for alpelisib (Piqray®), as a treatment for postmenopausal women, and men, with advanced breast cancer, the SMC | Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) published not recommended alpelisib (Piqray) advice in December 2022. The marketing authorisation holder did not present a sufficiently robust clinical or economic analysis to gain acceptance by the SMC. The SMC would welcome a resubmission at any time.

Where licensed medicines, such as Piqray®, are not routinely available on the NHS in Scotland, doctors can use the PACS Tier Two system to request access on a case-by-case basis. The cost of the medicine is not a decision-making criterion when considering PACS Tier Two applications.

The Scottish Government provides support to individuals facing redundancy through our initiative Partnership Action for Continuing Employment, PACE. By providing skills development and employability support, PACE aims to minimise the time individuals affected by redundancy are out of work and it supports both individuals and employers.

PACE records are available from 2010, and figures requested are in the following table.

(A) Since 1 January 2025, Agricultural Wages Inspectors (AWIs), acting on behalf of the Agricultural Wages Enforcement Team (AWET), have conducted a total of 70 on-farm inspections. Of these, 64 were Control Test Inspections (CTIs)—routine spot checks—and 6 were complaint-based inspections initiated by workers submitting formal complaints regarding pay and working conditions under the Agricultural Wages (Scotland) Order (“The Order”). Further inspections in 2025 are scheduled to take place.

The inspection year runs from 1 April to 31 March.

(B) AWIs carry out inspections at employers’ premises throughout the year. Complaint inspections are prompted by individual workers completing and submitting complaint forms to the AWET, detailing concerns about wages or working conditions. Workers who believe their employment terms do not comply with The Order are encouraged to contact AWET and complete a complaint form to enable investigation. We cannot undertake a compliant inspection based on assumptions from a third party as we need access to the worker’s payslips and time records, however, where we are notified of a suspected concern by a third party, we will endeavour to schedule a future CTI, and three such inspections are in train for 2025.

Since January 2025, AWIs have interviewed 206 workers during inspections. This total includes:

3 workers on the Seasonal Worker Visa scheme

4 workers on three-year Skilled Worker visas

1 seasonally contracted worker with EU Settled Status

Regarding (i) & (ii) inspections outcomes involving seasonal workers are ongoing. Where issues of non-compliance are identified, these will be raised with the employers for rectification. Should employers fail to address the concerns, enforcement notices will be issued in accordance with the provisions of The Order.

The Digital Strategy for Scotland Vision and the Sustainable Digital Public Services Delivery Plan (2025-2028) were both published on 18 November 2025.

• The Digital Strategy for Scotland Vision is available here:
  https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781806433698
• The Sustainable Digital Public Services Delivery Plan is available here:
  https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781806433704

The Scottish Building Standards Hub (SBSH) is an independent unit hosted by Fife Council, providing support to all building standards services across Scotland in both verification and enforcement. Responsibility for decisions regarding the professional qualifications of staff lies with SBSH.

A dedicated structural engineering hub is currently being established within SBSH to enhance technical support. However, there are no current plans to incorporate conservation-accredited structural engineering expertise within this unit. Local authorities will continue to engage structural engineers with appropriate conservation experience on a case-by-case basis, ensuring that specialist input is available when required.

The scheduling of psilocybin in the UK is overseen by the Home Office and the regulation for the licensing, safety and efficacy of medicines is currently reserved to the UK Government and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. The Scottish Government has no power to alter this.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is supporting psilocybin research via the NIHR King’s Clinical Research Facility, the NIHR Oxford Health Clinical Research Facility, and the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre. This includes developing and evaluating the efficacy and safety of psilocybin therapies.

Please see the following table with details of the complaints HIS has received about maternity care provided by maternity units in each year since 2020-21, broken down by maternity unit.

The information held by HIS relates to concerns raised through its Responding to concerns – Healthcare Improvement Scotland that were referred by another national organisation; raised with HIS by an NHS member of staff, and one complaint that was raised with by a member of the public. Whilst complaints from members of the public are not usually within the remit of the RTC process or HIS’s remit, the HIS Executive Review Team agreed that in that instance an assessment should be undertaken.

I was first made aware of issues with maternity services in NHS Lothian in December 2024. At that time Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) had already started an investigation following whistleblower reports. I met with Lothian Chief Executive and Chair, and they outlined the improvement work they had underway. At my request, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Chief Nursing Officer/Deputy Chief Nursing Officer began working directly with NHS Lothian on the issues, providing support and reporting back to Ministers on progress. They noted that NHS Lothian was taking forward a suitable programme of work to address the issues raised as a priority. However the complexity of the issues and improvement required, particularly cultural change, would take time to take full effect.

Following the unannounced HIS inspection, the decision was made to escalate NHS Lothian’s maternity services to Level 3 of NHS Scotland’s Support and Intervention Framework. I have met with NHS Lothian’s Chief Executive to discuss the findings of the report and wider concerns on patient safety oversight, leadership, staff wellbeing and delays in care. NHS Lothian has provided assurances that they will move quickly to implement the required changes and I am scheduled to meet with the Chief Executive and Chair of NHS Lothian on 25 November for an update on progress.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

A range of checks are carried out before the release of a prisoner is authorised including but not limited to, an identity check of the person, confirmation of liberation date and a check for any known outstanding warrants.

A liberation in error occurs when an individual is released from a Scottish Prison Service establishment without lawful authority. This situation typically arises due to an administrative or procedural mistake, such as incorrect interpretation of documentation, miscalculation of sentence dates or incorrect data sharing from other partners.

The following table provides the numbers of total liberations and the liberations in error since 2021-2022, up to and including 13 November 2025:

We expect all women who experience pelvic floor trauma and post-partum haemorrhage (PPH) will have this recorded within the electronic maternity record. Rates of third- and fourth-degree tears for each Board are available on the Scottish Pregnancy, Births and Neonatal Dashboard: Scottish Pregnancy, Births and Neonatal Dashboard. Data on PPH is collected by Healthcare Improvement Scotland as part of the Scottish Patient Safety Perinatal Programme.

We have written to all NHS Boards identifying the Obstetric Anal Sphincter Injury (OASI) care bundle as an approach which can be used by maternity services with a view to reducing the incidence of third- and fourth-degree tears. This will be one of several priorities for consideration by the expert members of the Scottish Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce.