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The Scottish Government issued a Medicine Supply Alert Notice (MSAN) relating to supply disruption of the medicine naloxegol on 25 April 2024. The anticipated resupply date for the medicine has since been moved to 15 August 2025 and the medicine is unavailable throughout the UK. The Scottish Government appreciates the frustration and concern that this continued shortage will be having on patients prescribed this medication and while medicines supply continues to be reserved matter for the UK Government, we continue to press for a lasting solution in our engagement with the UK Government’s Department of Health and Social Care.

Telecommunications policy, which includes mobile connectivity, is currently reserved to the UK Government. Whilst the Scottish Government has not conducted any analysis on the economic impacts of poor mobile connectivity, we do recognise the social and economic importance of high-quality and reliable mobile services, particularly for our rural and island areas. Through our Scottish 4G Infill (S4GI) programme, we have invested £28.75 million to deliver and activate 55 mobile masts in areas that previously had no coverage.

Social Security Scotland does not currently publish statistics on the number of people who receive more than one benefit from Social Security Scotland. Social Security Scotland recently published Official Statistics on the number of individual clients paid and in 2024-25, Social Security Scotland paid 962,525 individual clients (excluding clients in receipt of Carer’s Allowance Supplement).

The Scottish Government does not collect data on the scale of organised child sexual exploitation. External agencies such as Police Scotland, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and local authorities collect and record concerns and/or offences related to child sexual abuse and exploitation tailored to their statutory and operational responsibilities.

The information requested on how many clinics offer dermatology services, broken down by NHS board is not held centrally.

The total drug costs and fees for dispensing methadone mixture and solution (1mg/ml) to the NHS in the last four years, broken down by NHS Board, are presented in the following table. Cost data are complete for all NHS Boards, whereas fees are incomplete as some payment elements are handled locally.

Table 1: Total drug costs and fees for dispensing methadone mixture1 Items dispensed in Scotland, by NHS Board – 2021-22 to 2024-25

The Scottish Government recognise that there may be occasions where Health Boards require access to agency workers in order to supplement their workforce. In keeping with our national approach, such workers should only be deployed by exception.

Where such exceptions are met, the Scottish Government expects Health Boards to use one of the approved suppliers on the relevant National Procurement Framework (such as Staffscanner) to obtain temporary staff.

For care services, it the statutory responsibility of local Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) to ensure that appropriate social care support services are in place to provide people with the right care, in the right place and at the right time.

Consultation on bringing NHS Education in Scotland and NHS National Services Scotland together will take place over 2025 and work is underway to establish the full range of functions of the new organisation.

The Scottish Government recognise that to meet the ambition of service renewal and address the health and care needs of our population we urgently need to work differently. We are therefore taking the opportunity to bring key enablers of national service delivery together to create opportunities for further improvement, innovation and efficiency across NHS Scotland.

The Scottish Government has had no recent discussions with the DVSA about the expansion of locations offered by the Scottish Driving Assessment Service.

The Scottish Driving Assessment Service is a matter for NHS Boards, and is hosted by NHS Lothian on behalf of NHS Scotland. The service is free for users and is currently funded through contributions from NHS Boards to NHS Lothian.

The NHS Directors of Planning Group has agreed to oversee a review of the Scottish Driving Assessment Service (SDAS) and present a paper to the NHS Boards Chief Executives group. A Working Group will oversee a detailed scoping exercise to understand the demand for driving assessment in Scotland, and how this is currently being met.

It is proposed that the review will conclude with an Option Appraisal, supported by NHS Ayrshire and Arran, enabling stakeholders from throughout Scotland to discuss and appraise potential future service delivery models for driving assessment in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is in regular contact with NHS Ayrshire and Arran, and the review is expected to conclude in late 2025.

The information requested on how many dermatology service staff are employed by each NHS board is not held centrally.

Information requested on how many dermatology consultants are employed by each NHS board can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence