Chamber and committees

The information requested on what the current vacancy rate is for physiotherapists within NHS Borders can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence (Vacancy tab).

The 2025-26 Budget provides almost £2.2 billion for social care and integration – including £200 million to reduce waiting lists, help support reduction of delayed discharge and increase capacity– expanding the hospital and home programme to ensure no one waits more than 12 months for a new outpatient appointment or day case treatment by March 2026.

£100 million of this is going on planned care (waiting times) and the remainder is going on a package of improvement and support to improve flow and increase capacity in NHS acute settings.

Patterns of business in the criminal justice system have changed fundamentally since 2007 due to reductions in crime, the increasing availability and use of alternatives to prosecution and trends towards earlier resolution of cases. This means that the demand for criminal legal aid - and so for the services of criminal defence solicitors - has also changed fundamentally.

Comparing the 12 months ending March 2007 with the 12 months ending March 2024, the number of grants of legal aid in relation to summary matters fell by 37%, for solemn legal aid by 13%, for appeals by 86% and the number of accused requiring representation by a duty solicitor fell by 81%. Over the same period, the number of registered solicitors fell by 34%, broadly reflecting the reduction in demand.

The criminal courts are not reporting people unable to get representation, anyone who needs a solicitor at a police station or to appear in court from custody gets access to a solicitor.

The Fund was co-designed and funded between the Scottish Government and the Law Society of Scotland (“the Society”) and was part of an overall support package for the legal aid sector as it recovered from COVID 19 and is due to close at the end of March 2025. As part of the grant funding conditions, on completion, the Society must submit a report to the Scottish Ministers summarising the outcomes and performance of the Fund.

The evaluation will form part of the discussions of the Future of the Legal Profession Working Group. Once we receive the Society’s report and have considered the contents, we will arrange to meet the working group again. The Group consists of senior representatives from the legal professional bodies, the legal profession, wider justice sector and other organisations.

The Scottish Government considers available research to inform improvement work and help improve outcomes.

We recently funded research on domestic abuse and child contact that was published in 2023: Domestic Abuse and Child Contact: The Interface Between Criminal and Civil Proceedings - SCCJR.

Following this research, we have held workshops with key stakeholders to consider how to improve the interaction between the civil and criminal courts in the context of domestic abuse, including the approach taken in family proceedings where there has been domestic abuse.

We held a workshop with justice agencies on 8 May 2024 and a workshop with third sector organisations on 3 October 2024. We are currently considering next steps and will publish notes from these workshops in due course.

The key legislation in relation to contact and residence cases is section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. In deciding whether to make a contact order the welfare of the child must be the court’s paramount consideration. The court is also required to have regard to the need to protect the child from any abuse, or the risk of any abuse, which affects or might affect the child.

Foundation Year 2 (FY2) doctors are encouraged to apply for and start specialty training through a range of initiatives that increase awareness and exposure to specific specialties, including educational and career events and targeted Foundation placements/programmes. Additionally, pay enhancements, including an 8.5% pay rise for doctors in training, help to improve the financial appeal of specialty training.

We are working closely with NHS Grampian on the development of a sustainable plan to support improvements in capacity.

We know that system wide capacity challenges are driving pressure on our Emergency Departments. To address this we have a clear plan to reduce delayed discharges, release acute capacity and bring down A&E waiting times.

The plan will be supported by £200 million targeted investment through the 2025-26 Budget, if approved by parliament, with NHS Grampian receiving a share of this funding. We will focus on shifting the balance of care from acute, to community and will bring about this change by ensuring every A&E department has a frailty unit linked to community re-enablement.

Aimmune Therapeutics, the manufacturer of Palforzia®, had indicated an intention to make a resubmission to the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC), however to date this has not been received. The decision on whether to submit, and the timing of that submission, is entirely for the manufacturer of the medicine to make. If they do resubmit, information on the specific timelines for the reassessment will be available via the search facility available on the home page of the SMC’s website here. There is a fast-track resubmission option, which reduces the normal assessment timeline.

In the meantime, Health Boards have procedures in place using the Peer Approved Clinical System “PACS Tier Two” process, for clinicians to request the use of licensed medicines on a ‘case-by-case’ basis for individual patients, when the treating clinician considers that there would be significant clinical benefit for a patient.

The Scottish Government provides the policies, frameworks and resources for high quality healthcare, and it is for each individual NHS Board to decide how best to utilise funding, to meet local health needs. There were 3,538.7 WTE working in physiotherapy in NHS Scotland at the end of September 2024. This represents an increase of 27.5% or 762.8 WTE over the last ten years. AHP numbers by NHS board are available at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

There were 3,538.7 WTE working in physiotherapy in NHS Scotland at the end of September 2024. This represents an increase of 27.5% or 762.8 WTE over the last ten years.

The Scottish Government is committed to developing a sustainable health and social care system that ensures that the people of Scotland are provided high-quality, safe, effective, accessible and person-centred care. However, operational matters including staffing are in the first instance the responsibility of NHS Boards, who will take into account local and national priorities when making recruitment decisions.

The Allied Health Professions (AHP) Education and Workforce Policy Review, which includes physiotherapy, examined workforce and education issues. Progressive career models is one focus of the delivery of the review’s recommendations with the aim to improve and widen access to and increase the AHP workforce. Work is ongoing and an advisory group has been established to oversee the effective implementation of these recommendations.