Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-32859 on 20 January 2025. 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

The Scottish Government recognises challenges faced by businesses and particular circumstances faced in Scotland, and that is why the Scottish Government stands ready to support the UK Government to design an immigration system that addresses the requirements of Scotland’s economy and communities.

The Scottish Government is working with business to grow the economy and address labour and skill shortages, promoting fair work to make it easier for people to enter and remain in the workforce and ensuring our education and skills system are responsive to national needs .

We can currently only provide accurate information on whether buildings are within scope of the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act 2024 if they have been entered into the pilot phase of our Cladding Remediation Programme. There are no buildings within the Highlands and Islands region that were entered into the pilot phase. We currently do not know if there are any buildings within the region that are within scope of the Act.

We recently announced that we will be delivering two new schemes of assessment and remediation. One will allow residents of potentially affected buildings to bring these to our attention where no owner or developer is willing or able to undertake responsibility. The other will involve working with local authorities and the fire service to identify buildings that appear to be at an elevated risk. More generally, we plan to bring partners together - harnessing their skills, knowledge and capacity – to make action on cladding a national, collective endeavour.

These actions will allow us to develop a clear picture of the position across Scotland and action being taken. We will seek assurance where appropriate, and be prepared to offer support where needed. We will be publishing a renewed plan of action in March that will set out how and when we will be delivering these and other priorities for cladding remediation.

Women’s Health is key priority for this government which is why Scotland was the first country in the UK to publish an ambitious Women’s Health Plan in August 2021. Timely access to gynaecology services will remain a priority as we continue to develop our Women’s Health Plan.

The Budget we set out on 4 December 2024 will throw the weight of the government behind performance improvements with almost £200 million to reduce waiting lists and help support reduction of delayed discharge. By March 2026, we expect no one to be waiting longer than 12 months for a new outpatient, inpatient treatment or day case treatment.

We have already invested £30 million to reduce waiting lists that built up throughout the pandemic. This funding is being targeted at a series of national and local plans to reduce backlogs by maximising the use of local and national resources across Scotland. As part of this, we have allocated additional funding to Gynaecology services which we expect to deliver around 3,500 new outpatient appointments.

Whilst this is an operational matter for CalMac, given the significant reduction in passenger capacity Transport Scotland officials have been updated by CalMac on the timeline for repairs and will be kept appraised of any capacity issues relevant to the routes MV Isle of Mull is operating on.

During this time, during the annual overhaul schedule, as it normally does, the MV Isle of Mull is operating as relief vessel on Lochboisdale service. The MV Loch Frisa continues to operate to Mull to timetable.

With the MV Glen Sannox entering service, CalMac assessed the optimum deployment of the MV Isle of Arran through use of their Route Prioritisation Matrix, and the MV Isle of Arran has been operating on the Oban-Craignure route alongside the MV Loch Frisa since 16 January 2025.

There is ongoing engagement with the Nordic countries on a wide variety of policy issues which deliver against the commitments in Scotland’s International Strategy and the Scottish Government’s Priorities for Scotland. For example: officials are working to develop opportunities for policy learning and exchange with Sweden on forestry and peatland restoration, while collaboration with Denmark is proving pivotal to informing the Scottish Government’s approach to digitisation and health reform. Scottish Government officials benefit from working closely with colleagues from Scottish Development International, who are based in the Nordic Office. Integrated working between the two teams has led to the first Space Scotland Summit which can be linked to £2 million of exports.

Transport Scotland’s Approach to Climate Change and Resilience (ACCAR) was published in August 2023 setting out a strategic framework to secure a well-adapted future for Scotland’s transport system. It includes an ambitious Vision for “A transport system which is well adapted and prepared for current and future impacts of climate change, is safe for all users, reliable for everyday journeys, and resilient to weather related disruption.” It can be found here: Transport Scotland’s Approach to Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience

The ACCAR provides our current approach to adaptation and Strategic Outcomes for Road, Rail, Aviation and Maritime transport networks, to address the key climate risks affecting Scotland’s transport system. A key deliverable of this work is the development of a Trunk Road Adaptation Plan, which is intended to be published in the first quarter of 2025. The Trunk Road Adaptation Plan is based on a climate vulnerability and risk assessment using the latest UK climate projections. This will compliment work of our Vulnerable Locations Group, who have been providing a number of improvements across Scotland’s trunk road network in response to extreme weather-related disruption.

Our Cancer Strategy for Scotland 2023-2033 makes clear that Mental Health Support forms part of an individual’s basic care. Individuals requiring support should have access to this at the point of clinical need.

To help understand the demand and capacity for cancer related psychological care and support, a national scoping exercise was conducted as part of a Macmillan Psychology and Support Project with findings published in November 2024. The findings are being considered by Scottish Government.

We also published the Psychological Therapies and Support Framework for People Affected by Cancer to support Health Boards in considering the services which should be available to those affected by cancer, including psychological support.

The Framework includes quality statements and self-assessment tools for organisations providing support to benchmark themselves on an annual basis and develop local action plans as appropriate. The benchmarking exercise was carried out across Scotland for the first time in 2024 with Regional Cancer Networks coordinating the activity and Scottish Government looks forward to receiving findings.

The Scottish Government are liaising with NHS National Services Scotland, as the contract holder, and are a member of their GPIT Incident Management Team which has specifically been established to lead on this matter. Through this, NSS are in regular contact with the Administrator. Assurances are continually sought from the Administrators on their plans to ensure continued performance and delivery of the Managed Services to NHS Scotland for the foreseeable whilst the administrators actively seek a buyer for In Practice Systems Ltd.

In the meantime, there remains no impact on GP service delivery and existing operational governance around Service levels is very much still in place. GP practices are advised to utilise the service and raise any queries through their usual health board escalation routes.

Scottish Government are provided with unclaimed deposit figures on a monthly basis by the tenancy deposit schemes, and as such cannot provide information from a specific date. The December 2024 figure is not yet available but at the end of November 2024 there were 23,123 unclaimed deposits, totalling to a value of £6,310,182.