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The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) is currently reviewing its 2007 recommendation against lung cancer screening. The work on developing a protocol for NHS Boards to undertake pilot programmes for lung cancer screening will resume once the NSC’s evidence review is complete, as any new recommendation will guide pilot design and implementation.

The Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) is open and available to crofters that are registered on the Scottish Government’s Rural Payments and Services website.

An important feature of the scheme is a scoring system designed to avoid discrimination against smaller businesses, including crofters. This aims to promote applications by small businesses by awarding points where the application value is less than £20,000 (1 additional point) and more for applications less than £10,000 (3 additional points).

Where an applicant’s business has less than 30 hectares, some beneficiaries are able to access small unit supplementary payments across many of the options over and above the income foregone payments for AECS options. This extends to allow some businesses of less than 30 hectares to access important socio-economic options like native breed cattle introduction and retention.

As we anticipate a decision from the UK National Screening Committee (NSC) in the coming months, we have no current plans to expedite this. This is a complex matter and it is important that time is taken to evaluate all available evidence. The Scottish Government has, however, provided funding to the University of Edinburgh to support an exploratory piece of research into the feasibility of the introduction of lung health checks within Scotland and it is hoped that the findings will support the evidence base being considered by the NSC.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05600 on 10 January 2022. 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 continues to reflect our latest position.

The Scottish Government continues to engage in discussions with the UK Government around reported labour shortages through several forums, including Business and Industry Interministerial Group QUAD Meetings and DEFRA/devolved administration inter-ministerial group meetings. Our concerns have been echoed by colleagues from Wales and Northern Ireland in these meetings, and the Devolved Governments have jointly written to the UK Government Minister for Safe and Legal Migration requesting regular and meaningful engagement on migration issues.

It is clear from engagement to date that the UK Government is unwilling to make the necessary changes required to address Scotland’s needs. The UK Government must revise its restrictive migration policy to prevent further harm to our economy and society, and establish a specific Labour Market Shortages Taskforce with the Devolved Governments to enable constructive discussion on the measures required to tackle labour shortages

The Scottish Government acted on requests by retail organisations not to launch the consultation in the run-up to Christmas which is the busiest trading period and may not have allowed retailers the full opportunity to share their views. We took the opportunity to liaise with a short-life working group and update the consultation in line with the most recent emerging evidence.

a) There are six breast screening centres across Scotland. For women aged 53-70 years who were screened between 1st April 2020 and 31st January 2021, the average interval between screening episodes was 41 months across Scotland.

The average interval between screening episodes, broken down by screening centre, was as follows:

East – 46 months

North – 40 months

North East – 42 months

South East – 41 months

West – 38 months

South West – 39 months

b) It is not possible to provide information on the current longest interval between screening episodes; however, within the period between 1 April 2020 and 31 January 2021, 2% of those screened had an interval between screening rounds of greater than or equal to 51 months.

It should be noted that the data provided to answer this question is management information that has not been subject to quality checks applied on an official publication.

A full public consultation into proposed restrictions on the advertising and promotion of vaping products was launched on February 3. The consultation will run for 12 weeks and all responses will be independently analysed.

In year one, the Fund will be split evenly between Capital and Financial Transactions. Detail of what each can be used for is available in HMT’s consolidated budget guidance, the most recent version of which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/consolidated-budgeting-guidance-2021-to-2022

NHS Boards are expected to assess their patients’ travel needs and can, if required, direct them to appropriate support this will include local volunteer groups and charities who they have engaged with. For example NHS Ayrshire and Arran has a service level agreement with Ayrshire Cancer Support which provides transport for patients.