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The Scottish Government advocates Fair Work policy and believes there must be respectful and meaningful dialogue between employers and employees and their trade unions, to ensure employees are treated fairly.

Any prospective ferry operator would need to ensure their proposal meets all requirements under UK employment law. While employment law remains reserved, we will use our Fair Work policy to promote fairer work practices across the labour market in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has not held recent discussions with the UK Government regarding future roll-on/roll-off ferry links between Rosyth and ports in northern Europe.

Scottish Ministers have maintained that the Scottish Government wishes to see Scotland’s sea connections to Europe enhanced and are happy to consider any approach. Discussions have taken place between Transport Scotland officials and a number of prospective interested parties in recent years.

I met with representatives of the hospice sector on 3 October to discuss funding and the development of a new framework.

I have committed to holding a round table later this year to discuss the development of a framework with health and social care partnerships and independent hospices to support local planning, commissioning and funding of independent hospice care.

Between 1 January and 31 August 2023, COPFS instructed 4,460 post mortem examinations. Of those, 383 were conducted by way of a non-invasive examination.

Procurators Fiscal do not seek the consent of nearest relatives for a post mortem examination to be instructed. A post-mortem examination may be required to determine the cause of death, to ensure the circumstances surrounding the death are fully investigated and to exclude criminality. Whilst the views of the family will be sought and taken into account, the final decision as to whether it is necessary for a post mortem examination to be carried out is for the Procurator Fiscal as part of their independent role in investigating the person’s death. Any views expressed by relatives in relation to the conducting of a post mortem examination are recorded, usually within the report submitted by Police Scotland to the Procurator Fiscal. Further information cannot be provided as that would require a manual check to be made of every case where a post mortem examination was instructed.

While the decision regarding the necessity to instruct a post mortem examination is made by the Procurator Fiscal, and in certain deaths, such as homicides where criminality is being investigated, the Procurator Fiscal must specify certain requirements of the examination to ensure that any evidence obtained meets the required criminal standard, it is a matter for the pathologist, as the medical practitioner responsible for establishing the cause of death, to conduct the examination in the most appropriate manner to ascertain the cause of death accurately.

It is also a matter for the pathologist to decide, during the examination, whether it is necessary to obtain tissue samples in order for them to instruct further tests or examinations to clarify the cause of death. The pathologist will make the decision as whether any organs require to be removed during a post mortem examination for further testing, whether in the form of whole organs, or small samples from organs.

No samples that are retained are kept by COPFS and they are instead retained by the NHS as part of the deceased’s medical records.

COPFS keeps a record of all cases where a pathologist has decided that it is necessary to retain a whole organ during a post mortem examination. This record also includes details of when the organs are returned to the family of the deceased at the conclusion of examinations.

Implementation of the new support framework will deliver effective, cost efficient public services, and the Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board has been engaged in and provided feedback on the tiered approach.

This week the Scottish Government has launched a further stakeholder engagement programme on the bill measures and tiered approach, which will include interviews, surveys, workshops, testing and trials, and anyone can take part. More information is available here .

The NHSScotland 'Once for Scotland' Workforce Policies Programme commenced work to review and transform existing workforce policies (PIN policies) on 1 March 2020. Work was paused during the pandemic and in response to service pressures before being restarted in June 2022.

The ‘Once for Scotland’ policies are developed nationally in partnership with NHSScotland employers, trade unions and the Scottish Government. The refreshed, simple, standardised, person centred policies and guides are accessible on an innovative digital solution. They set the national standard for employment practice in NHSScotland.

We have worked to develop and implement a quality assurance programme for the General Standards for Neurological Care and Support. A Self-evaluation tool was published by Healthcare Improvement Scotland in April 2023, to help enable services to measure their own implementation of the standards.

Undertaking this work will identify areas of good practice and improvement across NHS Scotland and help to drive forward better standards of care for people with neurological conditions, including migraine.

Our National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care supports the remobilisation and recovery of health and social care services and sets out priorities for recruitment, training and retention.

In Scotland, the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) appraises the clinical and cost-effectiveness of newly licensed medicines. Following a full submission for rimegepant (Vydura ® ) for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura in adults, the SMC issued ‘accepted for restricted use’ advice for routine use of this medicine in NHS Scotland on 9 May 2023.

The SMC restriction is that the use of this medicine should be restricted to patients who have had inadequate symptom relief after trials of at least two triptans (a group of medicines used to treat migraine or headache), or in whom triptans are contraindicated or not tolerated; and have inadequate pain relief with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and paracetamol. Final draft guidance on routine use of this medicine in NHS England issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is similar to that issued for Scotland.

We understand the distress and pain that migraines cause and want to ensure that everyone living with this debilitating condition can access the best possible care and support.

The Scottish Government awarded a further £135,501 to the Migraine Trust in October 2023 through our Neurological Care and Support: Framework for Action for 2023-2024 towards their work with pharmacists in NHS Grampian to help people manage their symptoms and treatments more effectively.

The Agriculture Bill has now been published and introduced to Parliament.

Engagement with stakeholders will continue during the Bill process, and the Scottish Government looks forward to hearing and seeing the evidence that organisations and individuals provide as part of Stage 1 of the bill process.

This week the Scottish Government has launched a further stakeholder engagement programme on the bill measures and tiered approach, which will include interviews, surveys, workshops, testing and trials, and anyone can take part. More information is available here .