Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government have recently corresponded with the Scottish Parliament’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee on this question. See Electronic patient record | Scottish Parliament Website . To support our ambitions set out in the 2021 Strategy - Digital Healthcare Scotland % (digihealthcare.scot) we will be publishing our Delivery Plan for 2024-25 in late April 2024.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many primary care appointments were cancelled in the last two years, broken down by NHS board.

All patients who access NHS Pharmacy First Scotland do so by self-referral. In some cases though they will have been advised to attend a community pharmacy by NHS24 or another healthcare service.

Public Health Scotland has published data on the number of patients who used NHS Pharmacy First Scotland during its first full year of operation, 2021/22. Between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022, twenty-three percent of the Scottish population (1,242,801 people) accessed Pharmacy First Scotland services at least once. This data is not published as a breakdown by Health Board. More information can be found at NHS Pharmacy First Scotland - NHS Pharmacy First Scotland - Publications - Public Health Scotland .

The figures for 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 (up to September 2023) will be published on 16 April and will be available at the same link.

The first Project Gigabit funding to be deployed anywhere in the United Kingdom was secured by the Scottish Government in 2021.

A total of £31.2 million of Project Gigabit funding has already been committed for investment in Scotland through the Scottish Government’s own £600 million Reaching 100% (R100) programme to enhance and extend the R100 contract coverage footprint. The R100 contracts are now predominantly full fibre, delivering gigabit capable infrastructure across rural Scotland at pace.

The Scottish Government and Building Digital UK (BDUK) have been working closely to prepare the next phase of Project Gigabit activity in Scotland, with the first local and regional procurements outside of England expected to launch in Scotland imminently.

The Scottish Government is aware of the pressures facing businesses due to inflation, energy costs and the cost crisis. While Scottish Ministers are sympathetic to calls to replicate the non-domestic rates relief available to businesses in England in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors, doing so would have meant that the Scottish Government could not provide the NHS, schools, or emergency services with the funding they require.

The Scottish Government estimates that over 60% of properties in the hospitality sector across Scotland will be eligible for 100% relief from Non-Domestic Rates in 2024-25 (including from the Small Business Bonus Scheme, the new islands and specified remote areas hospitality relief, and others).

Prostate BRCA1/2 genetic testing to support access to Olaparib is available to all eligible patients in Scotland. The testing has been implemented with funding from Scottish Government in 2023-24.

In Scotland genomic testing is provided through a network of four NHS laboratories which are commissioned through NHS National Services Division (NSD), part of NHS National Services Scotland. The laboratories work in conjunction with the Scottish Strategic Network for Genomic Medicine (SSNGM) to deliver a directory of genomic tests for people across Scotland as a whole and to ensure that testing is embedded within end-to-end clinical pathways.

The Scottish Government is preparing a Voluntary Code of Practice on dismissing and replacing land-owning land maintenance companies.

I acknowledge that there has been a considerable time elapsed since the decision to bring forward a voluntary code of practice on dismissing and replacing land-owning maintenance companies.

Unfortunately, due to other pressures, work has not progressed on the voluntary code of practice as anticipated.

The latest published data shows that North Ayrshire Council have paid a total of £187.2 million in unitary charge payments since 2007-08 for its North Ayrshire Schools PFI contract and that the total projected payments from 2023-24 onwards until contract expiry are estimated at £253.6 million.

It also shows that North Ayrshire Council have paid a total of £20.5 million in unitary charge payments since 2017-18 for its Largs Campus contract, which formed part of the NPD/hub Programme and the total projected payments from 2023-24 onwards until contract expiry are estimated at £91.5 million.

The transportation of defence nuclear material in Scotland is a reserved matter for the Ministry of Defence (MOD). The Scottish Government expects any such transportation to be carried out safely and securely and has made this expectation clear to the UK Government.

Our emergency services have plans in place for responding to the consequences of any major incident regardless of the cause. There are well established resilience structures in Scotland to manage the consequences of any emergency, and we regularly engage with key stakeholders in Scotland and where appropriate with relevant authorities across the UK.

We are committed to help deliver drug checking facilities across Scotland and are making progress to establish this service in three pilot areas (Dundee, Aberdeen and Glasgow), alongside a national hub which will be able to provide additional analysis of samples.

We have highlighted our desire to introduce these facilities to the Home Office as any activity which involves the possession of controlled drugs would require a Home Office licence. As a result, the Home Office have provided a set of criteria to assist in the completion of these licence applications and which they would expect any prospective drug checking facility to adhere to. That information has been shared with those pilot areas and we continue to provide them with support.

However, these criteria make clear that such a license would only be granted for a facility attached to an existing drug treatment service, and that it be specifically targeted at those with problem substance use. Furthermore, UK Ministers have been clear in their opposition to ‘front of house’ drug checking, as might be found in festivals and other venues, and so would not grant a license for such a service.

We welcome interest from further cities or organisations who would wish to implement this harm reduction measure in alternative venues, including music festivals. We would be willing to work with them, and partners such as Police Scotland, to explore what might be possible in Scotland.