The Medical Associate Professionals (MAPs) Programme Board meets on a quarterly basis to discuss and advise on matters regarding the deployment of MAPs across NHS Scotland. The Board will next meet on 3 April 2025. Papers for the Programme Board can be viewed at https://learn.nes.nhs.scot/77069.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

There are several measures Scottish Government is taking to assess AI-related industry activity in Scotland, in terms of size, location and specialisation. These include the Scottish Government BICS survey (with data on AI adoption for business and industry) and Scottish Government is supporting a suite of programmes driven by Scottish Enterprise which regularly assess AI activity in Scotland. Scottish Enterprise completed research in 2023 about AI and business and are currently preparing research that assesses the economic opportunities for AI in Scotland (i.e. the size of the market). They will also soon publish a report including assessments into AI activity specialisation and location in Scotland.

Public bodies are reviewed quarterly as part of the Scottish Government’s Assurance cycle to ensure they are operating efficiently and effectively.

One of the key aims of our Public Service Reform (PSR) programme is to drive efficiency and effectiveness across government and public bodies, making sure we have the public body landscape to deliver the services the people of Scotland need. As part of this, we have commissioned data on expenditure on corporate functions to identify where there is duplication and are working with public bodies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our services.

The Scottish Government’s policy is that any new public body should only be set up as a last resort and after consideration of all other delivery mechanisms has been exhausted. The Ministerial Control Framework ensures any Scottish Government proposal to establish a new public body is based on evidence and value for money, with approval from Cabinet before any decision is made.

The Scottish Government continues to identify opportunities to remove unnecessary duplication across the public bodies landscape.

In July 2024, public bodies were asked to provide information to identify opportunities for delivering services in alternative ways and to increase efficiencies across corporate functions. A report of the findings from this commission was published on 15 November 2024, and can be found at Public Bodies Expenditure: Supplementary Report of Data Commission - gov.scot.

A key strand of the Public Service Reform (PSR) programme is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our public services for the people of Scotland. As part of this, we continue to engage with public bodies to progress the programme and deliver long term fiscal sustainability.

The information requested on how many (a) physician associate and (b) other medical associate profession roles were recruited by NHS Scotland in 2023-24 is not centrally held. Information on how many whole-time equivalent physician associates and other medical associates are in post can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence.

The Scottish Government has written to NHS Scotland Boards noting the closure of the Managed Voluntary Register previously operated by the Faculty of Physician Associates and encouraging the early registration of Physician Associates (PAs) with the General Medical Council following the introduction of statutory regulation of the role in December 2024.

The Scottish Government continues to engage regularly with the PA workforce, including through dialogue with the Scottish Physician Associate Network which is represented on our national Medical Associate Professionals Programme Board.

The Scottish Government is supportive of a gradual and carefully managed expansion of physician associate (PA) and anaesthesia associate (AA) roles, underpinned by robust evidence of the benefit that can be derived from these roles in specific settings and contexts.

In order to achieve this, we have established a national Programme Board to advise on key aspects of the roles and NHS Scotland’s approach to their deployment. This work builds on action already undertaken to introduce statutory regulation of the roles which we consider is vital for patient safety. GMC regulation has, for the first time, introduced UK-wide standards for education, training and professional practice with meaningful consequences when these are not met.

Four Scottish Government civil servants are working on delivering the actions set out in the Artificial intelligence strategy: trustworthy, ethical and inclusive.

The Scottish Government’s £10 million long COVID Support Fund was announced in September 2021 and resource has been allocated from the fund from the financial year 2022-2023 onwards. The following table provides an overview of funding recipients from the start of the financial year 2022-23 to 28 February 2025. Allocations to NHS boards are made in tranches across the financial year to account for any slippage in programme delivery. It is anticipated that further allocations will be made to NHS boards from the fund before the end of this financial year, and in the financial year 2025-26.

The 2025-2026 budget outlines £7.586 million for the ‘Long Covid, ME, Chronic Fatigue and other similar conditions’ budget line. This represents a £4.5m uplift to the 2024-2025 long COVID budget line.