Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is aware of the situation regarding the withdrawal of the advanced doctor-led Medic One prehospital critical care service (PHCC) within NHS Lothian, which forms part of the wider Scottish Trauma Network (STN) for the Southeast of Scotland.

It is the responsibility of NHS Boards to make appropriate operational decisions to ensure a high level quality of emergency medical care for the members of their communities and we are aware that NHS Lothian and the Scottish Ambulance Service have interim emergency arrangements in place while they develop a business case for a replacement service.

The national Centre for Sustainable Delivery (nhscfsd.co.uk) has undertaken significant work over the past year to diagnose the key challenges within Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

Along with each local board across Scotland, NHS Lothian has a set of bespoke action plans which will bring about the greatest opportunities to create capacity in the system, resulting in lower occupancy and increased flow through the hospital. The Scottish Government will work with NHS Lothian to determine what support is required to embed these plans into business as usual that will allow sustainable improvements.

In terms of assessment of any impact of A&E pressures at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on the provision of pre-hospital critical care, the Scottish Government receives weekly performance reports which include details on response times to the most critical calls to the Scottish Ambulance Service and times for turnaround of ambulances at A&E departments throughout Scotland, including the Royal Infirmary. Clear escalation plans are in place for all Boards should pressures on A&E be impacting on any level of patient care and mechanisms in place for any escalation to be reported to us.

The Scottish Ambulance Service is responsible for the harmonisation and provision of consultant doctor-led Emergency Medical Retrieval Services across NHS boards which are implemented through the Scottish Trauma Network. They work collaboratively with pre-hospital trauma teams and boards across the country to deliver consistent high-quality person-centred and equitable critical care to the most seriously injured patients.

Whilst the Scottish Government meets regularly with the Scottish Ambulance Service on operational matters, we have had no recent discussions with them regarding advanced, doctor-led, pre-hospital critical care capabilities in NHS board areas, including NHS Lothian.

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government as it is a matter for local Health Boards. Health boards carry out annual asbestos monitoring surveys and asbestos management plans are in place across the NHS estate.

In October 2023, communities were invited to explore and develop proposals for their local area to be considered for designation as Scotland’s next National Park. The nomination phase closed on 29 February and nominations were received from Galloway, Lochaber, Scottish Borders, Tay Forest and Loch Awe.

The appraisal process considered all nominations against six published criteria. Introduction - New National Parks: nominations guidance and appraisal framework - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . These were:

? outstanding national importance

? size, character and coherence

? meeting the special needs of the area

? strategic contribution

? visitor management and tourism

? local support

The appraisal process concluded in May and the appraisal panel’s report has been published on our website: National Parks - Landscape and outdoor access - gov.scot ( www.gov.scot )

Following the conclusion of the appraisal process, I am pleased to inform Parliament ahead of a public announcement that will take place later today that we are proposing to move to the next stage in the process to establish a new National Park in Galloway.

The nomination from the Galloway National Park Association and the Galloway and Southern Ayrshire UNESCO biosphere highlights the area’s outstanding natural and cultural heritage and it sets out the potential benefits that designation could make to the environment, the economy and to local communities. The proposal also provides evidence of support for a new National Park from local communities, stakeholders and businesses. The report of the new National Parks appraisal panel concluded that the nomination from Galloway meets all of the published criteria.

The proposal for a new National Park in Galloway has been laid in Parliament this morning and it will be published on the Scottish Government website.

On behalf of the Scottish Government, I would like to offer our thanks for the considerable time, effort and commitment that all the nominating groups and members of these local communities have invested in exploring and developing their nominations.

The next stage in the process will begin with a ‘Reporter Phase’ in which communities will be asked if they want a National Park in the Galloway area. A ‘Reporter’ – in this case NatureScot – will now lead further work on the Galloway proposal, including extensive consultation and engagement with local residents, communities, community councils, local authorities, businesses, relevant public bodies and interest groups. This will include engagement and consultation with the agriculture, forestry and other land-based sectors given their importance within the area. The Reporter’s work will investigate, develop and test the National Park proposal in light of local views and circumstances, taking into account all views expressed during the consultation.

The Reporter is required to provide its findings to the Scottish Government on the proposal by 28 April 2025 and the report will be laid in Parliament. If we decide to proceed with the National Park proposal – with or without modification - secondary legislation will need to be developed, consulted on and approved by Parliament in order to designate a new National Park in Galloway.

I provided an update on our plans to introduce multi-year funding for the third sector in my letter to the Social Justice and Social Security Committee on 20th May. As noted in that letter, we remain committed to embedding a multi-year grant approach on third sector grants by 2026 including delivering increased numbers of multi-year funding awards, where possible and appropriate.

While it is very challenging to deliver in the current financial context, I have asked officials to do further work and have confirmed I will write to the committee again to update on progress.

There are no plans for the Scottish Government to publish open data on grant funding using the non-governmental 360 Giving Standard database. Existing reporting covering monthly spend over £25k is published on the Scottish Government website, providing details of payee and description. Government spend over £25,000: monthly reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

In the 2023/24 Programme for Government we committed, as part of developing an approach to fairer funding for the third sector, to deliver improvements in grant-making arrangements, including providing greater clarity and consistency of practice.

Expanding on this, the Former First Minister committed to specific delivery goals for 24/25 in his speech at the Gathering third sector conference including a) prompt notification of funding to third sector organisations (before 31 March for funding due to commence on 1 April) b) an increase in the number of multi-year arrangements, where possible and c) a review of grant conditions.

I wrote to the Social Justice and Social Security Committee on 20 May to report on our progress against these delivery goals and our progress towards Fairer Funding more generally, setting out the challenges that we have met in the current financial context. I have committed to providing a further update as our work progresses.

Reporting covering monthly spend over £25k are published on the Scottish Government website Government spend over £25,000: monthly reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . In addition, annual budget documentation setting out spending plans by portfolio and programme are included in the annual accounts, Consolidated Accounts: year ended 31 March 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) also available from the Scottish Government website. Whilst current annual reporting does not give the analysis proposed, the monthly reporting provides detailed information. The Scottish Government is currently undergoing a transition of its financial reporting functionality, that will allow for financial reporting developments in the future.