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We are investing £200 million across the health and social care system to increase capacity and reduce backlogs. For chronic pain services, this investment will support Health Boards to create additional appointments and strengthen the flow of patients through the system, helping more people to be seen more quickly.

We want to deliver better and more sustainable care for people with chronic pain and we have outlined the action we will take to achieve this vision in our Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery Implementation Plan.

Through our Implementation Plan we are continuing to work with partners to improve how pain services are planned and delivered. We are also working to deliver a more sustainable and knowledgeable workforce by developing specialist training routes and new resources to enhance pain education and skills amongst NHS staff.

The Modernising Patient Pathway Programme - Coeliac Disease test of change report - October 2020 | Turas | Learn estimates that the incidence of diagnosed Coeliac Disease is 1% of the population in Scotland with 7-8 people remaining undiagnosed for every person diagnosed.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people living in Scotland with long term conditions such as coeliac disease are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put the person at the centre of their care.

We expect all Health Boards to fully implement the Coeliac Disease Pathway in Scotland to improve under diagnosis and improve time to diagnosis for those with coeliac disease. Our £70 million Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan is increasing capacity and supporting workforce training. This also includes a commitment to promote and implement guidelines for non-biopsy diagnosis for coeliac disease, which is expected to reduce waiting times for diagnosis for this condition.

The Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime (SPARC) is a multi-agency partnership which works across all Police Scotland divisions to deliver the SPARC strategy’s key rural crime priorities. The service’s National Rural, Acquisitive and Business Preventions Team (RAB-PT) has trained over 100 officers across North, East and West on rural machinery thefts. Through this partnership working, 12 officers will shortly enter through a stolen vehicle examiners accreditation course which is dovetailed with rural machinery theft training giving Police Scotland additional capacity for such investigations across Scotland. RAB-PT have also developed metal theft training with partners and will deliver this in areas most affected by renewables and metal thefts in the coming year.

Police Scotland is using the additional £3 million additional funding provided this year by the Scottish Government to establish a Retail Crime Taskforce made up of uniformed officers, detectives and specialist analysts. The team is targeting repeat offenders of retail crime by using analytical data and intelligence to carry out proactive enforcement activities in areas most heavily impacted.

As highlighted in Police Scotland's recently published Quarter 1 performance report, their dedicated Edinburgh team has delivered significant results for the capital’s retailers, including 234 charges brought against retail crime offenders in the first three months of operations.

In terms of Lanarkshire, the Police Scotland-led Op Dynos involves the gathering intelligence on how retail theft is used by organised criminals in the region to fund the purchase of drugs and further criminal activity. Op Dynos is part of the work of the Retail Crime Taskforce and has resulted in the arrest and charging of a man in connection with organised crime and exploitation of young people over the summer.

The Scottish Government is fully supportive of this work and I hope to see further significant results in the coming months.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has received an abbreviated submission from the marketing authorisation holder, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, for vanzacaftor–tezacaftor–deutivacaftor (Alyftrek®), for the treatment of cystic fibrosis in people aged six years and older who have at least one non-class I mutation in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene. The appraisal of Alyftrek® via this abbreviated process is ongoing, and NHS National Procurement (NP) is continuing to work with Vertex Pharmaceuticals on the commercial arrangements.

The medicine product page on the SMC’s website will be updated with the advice in due course, once published.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40546 on 24 September 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 expects all managers of afforested land, including Gresham House, to meet the requirements of sustainable forest management as outlined in the UK Forestry Standard. The UK Forestry Standard contains requirements and guidelines on environmental quality, managing and improving biodiversity and community engagement.

Delivery of ASN continues to be a joint endeavour with Local Authorities, who retain the statutory responsibility for the delivery of education and responsibility to identify, provide for and review the needs of their pupils, including those with dyslexia.

I can confirm that the joint letter with COSLA, outlining key polices, best practice and available resources on support for dyslexia in Scottish schools is due to be issued shortly to all Education Authorities.

It will issue in the context of record investment in ASL - over £1bn was spent by local authorities in 2023-24. We have continued to invest £15m each year since 2020 to help schools respond to the individual needs of children and young people and the 2025-26 budget sets out a further £29m of additional investment for ASN.

In June 2023, as Minister for Higher Education, Further Education & Minister for Veterans, I was gifted a framed piece of ceramic artwork of the Hotel de Ville from the Mayor of Arras. The value of the gift was estimated to be in the region of £80 of which was declared on my proactive release entry available on the Scottish Government website at the following link: https://www.gov.scot/publications/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts-june-2023/

In May 2025, I also received a limited edition (2/20) Nicolaus Widerberg lithograph – liberation convoy from Dag Lee CEO, the Chairman and Board Member Entrepreneurial VC and PE Investor. The value of the gift was estimated to be in the region of £340 of which will be declared on my proactive release entry for May 2025 due to be published late September.

Gifts under the value of £140 are not recorded by the Scottish Government or published. However, on this occasion the gift from June 2023 was recorded and published.

Scottish Government policy on genetic modification has not changed and our position is clear: we are opposed to the cultivation of GM crops in Scotland. We are aware of the current debate around new genomic techniques, such as gene editing, and how these relate to existing genetic modification legislation. Ministers will continue to monitor developments in the EU as they consider any next steps.