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In March 2018, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) issued new measures to limit exposure to sodium valproate in utero, including the adoption of a Pregnancy Prevention Programme.

Following this, new and strengthened information materials for healthcare professionals and patients have been issued, including an updated Summary of Product Characteristics and Patient Information Leaflet, new education materials for professionals, as well as updated packaging stamped with a new pictogram. Furthermore, updated guidance on the use of sodium valproate has been issued by both the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN).

Prescribers in Scotland are expected to follow current drug safety information and the new measures in relation to sodium valproate to ensure women being prescribed this medicine are fully apprised of the risks and are able to make informed decisions.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. We would advise contacting health boards to obtain this data.

The Scottish Government formally adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism in June 2017. The Scottish Government and its agencies have been expected to adhere to the definition since June 2017.

While it is not legally binding, the Scottish Government would encourage publicly funded bodies to similarly adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, noting however that it is up to these bodies to make this decision for themselves.

Adopting the IHRA definition demonstrates a determination to tackle antisemitism and sends a strong message that it is entirely unacceptable in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has had several discussions with lead breast clinicians. The most recent was on 18th March at a meeting with the group leading on quality performance indicators for breast cancer. The group has indicated an interest in improving data on breast cancer recurrence and metastatic disease.

The Scottish Government met with the charity Breast Cancer Now on 3rd November 2021 and requested updated evidence of need for improved data. This was received on 26th January 2022 followed by email exchanges over the recent months.

In order to raise awareness of the early signs and symptoms of cancer, including ovarian cancer, a symptom-checker tool is included on our public facing website, getcheckedearly.org. An ovarian cancer survivor’s story and a link to the ovarian cancer page on Detect Cancer Early’s (DCE) website will be shared on our wee c social media pages, as part of Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.

The NHS Recovery Plan – published August 2021 – commits an additional £20m for the DCE Programme, to provide greater public awareness of possible signs and symptoms of cancer and supporting the development of optimal cancer pathways to improve earlier diagnosis rates. Research is currently being undertaken to better understand the possible barriers and levers to early diagnosis that any new DCE campaigns should focus on.

A 2017 review of the use of sodium valproate in pregnancy by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) found that babies exposed to sodium valproate are at higher risk of malformations or developmental problems. Following this review, the EMA agreed new measures to avoid the use of sodium valproate in women and girls of child bearing potential. This included the adoption of a Pregnancy Prevention Programme.

On 7 January 2022, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) published the results of the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) review of the safety of anti-epileptics in pregnancy. The CHM recommended that the MHRA should review whether the available data raises any new safety concerns or changes current understanding about the safety of other epilepsy medicines during pregnancy. The Scottish Government is continuing to work closely with the MHRA on issues around medicines safety, including those relating to sodium valproate.

Furthermore, the Scottish Government is funding the roll-out of a pilot Scottish Epilepsy Register in three NHS Health Boards (NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Tayside and NHS Lanarkshire). This will help identify patients taking sodium valproate, as well as any other anti-epileptic medicines, some of which may also have the potential to cause harm. Alongside the data we already collect on prescribing, this has the potential to form the basis of a Scotland-wide epilepsy registry and, with further adaptation, could collect outcome data. This can help support better shared decision making to reduce the risk of harm and improve delivery of and access to care and support.

The ongoing costs of the COVID Status App are publicly available via Public Contracts Scotland . The costs of developing and maintaining the App are broken down between Netcompany and Jumio who provide the core App and Identity Verification systems respectively.

The most recent update from Public Contracts Scotland as of 4 March 2022 places the total value of development of the core App from Netcompany at £2,400,000.00 and the Identity Verification systems from Jumio at £4,373,360.00.

The ongoing and future costs of the COVID Status App will be published as and when these figures are available.

The Scottish Government will publish its consultation on proposals for mandatory calorie labelling in Out Of Home settings on the Scottish Government’s Citizen Space portal at https://consult.gov.scot/ and https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781804352465 on 8 April 2022.

The consultation will run for 12 weeks, closing on 1 July 2022.

Information on the value of Chinese inward investments into Scotland can be found in the publicly available report Businesses in Scotland, which shows that there are currently 20 Chinese owned businesses in Scotland, with an estimated employment of 3,910 and a turnover of £1.33 billion. The Scottish Government does not hold data on the overall value of investment in Scotland specific to Chinese state-owned firms as this data is commercial in nature.

Scottish Government works with its enterprise agencies to ensure robust due diligence and proper consideration of human rights is undertaken on inward investments from China as well as from any other country. Additional safeguards are provided by the National Security and Investment Act 2021, which protects against acquisitions within sensitive areas of the economy that could cause harm to the UK’s national security.

KPMG have advised that there are 23 contracts across Scottish Government public bodies that they would have considered bidding for, were it not for them having stepped back from bidding for Scottish Government work. The combined value of these opportunities is estimated to be over £137,000,000, but KPMG are not conducting internal assessments of these opportunities and so may not have bid for them all, and would be unlikely to have won everything that they bid-for.

As tenders are ongoing it would not be appropriate to list the contracts at this stage as, were bidders to understand that a potential competitor was not participating, it could distort the competition, either reducing quality or increasing costs to the public purse. However, the tenders cover a range of service types, including research, analytical services, business-planning, and economic modelling.