Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-09235 on 18 July 2022. 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.

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. NHS dental services are provided by independent contractors/high street dentists and any management information on waiting times will be held by each practice. There is no central consolidation of this information, nor definition of waits in dentistry.

The Scottish Government has not been requested to research an 8,000 headcount reduction in the Scottish civil service.

The Scottish Government regularly reviews its workforce numbers to ensure affordability, and that the organisation is delivering for the people of Scotland as efficiently and effectively as possible.

The UK Government has not provided details on how their plans to reduce the number of civil servants by 91,000 will affect their staff working in Scotland. There are around 24,800 [1] Civil Servants who are part of the reserved Public Sector in Scotland.

The UK Government plans do not have a direct impact on civil servants who serve the Scottish Government, as the responsibility lies with Scottish Ministers and the Permanent Secretary when it comes to determining our workforce size.

[1] Source: Public Sector Employment In Scotland Statistics For 1st Quarter 2022 .

As outlined in the Programme for Government 2021 – 22 A Fairer, Greener Scotland: Programme for Government 2021-22 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) published in September 2021, the Scottish Government is committed to establishing a dignified and compassionate miscarriage service. As part of this, the Scottish Government wants to ensure that NHS Boards are able to provide dedicated facilities for women who are experiencing unexpected pregnancy complications.

As part of delivering on this commitment the Scottish Government will support the development of individualised care plans after a woman’s first miscarriage and take forward specific recommendations made in the Lancet series on miscarriage published on 26 April 2021 https://www.thelancet.com/series/miscarriage .

A scoping exercise into the availability of services within NHS Boards for miscarriage and unexpected pregnancy complications is underway. The results of this exercise will be analysed over the summer and will inform improvements to miscarriage services.

We welcome the Together for the One in Six report produced by the Neurological Alliance of Scotland (NAoS). We are determined to improve the provision of neurological care which is why we funded the NAoS to help facilitate this survey in Scotland.

It is vital that people with neurological conditions feel enabled and involved in their care. Understanding the perspectives of those who access health care in Scotland will enable us to work together to identify good practice and drive up standards.

We continue to implement the commitments of the Neurological Care and Support - a National Framework for Action, as a priority. We will continue to work with the Neurological Alliance of Scotland to ensure that all people living in Scotland with a neurological condition are able to access the best possible care and support throughout and beyond the lifespan of the Framework.

Public Health Scotland will publish their final report on Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) in summer 2023.

The sunset clause within the Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Act 2012 means that this policy is only in effect until 30th April 2024 unless an affirmative Scottish Statutory Instrument is approved by Parliament to continue MUP beyond that date. As the sunset clause is set out in legislation it is not possible to extend the period of time before it comes into force.

In the last ten years, the Scottish Government's Chief Scientist Office has provided £889,000 in funding towards Motor Neurone Disease (MND) research.

NHS Employer and Staff Side representatives discussed the temporary increase at a meeting on 7 July and agreed to extend the enhanced rates for a further 4 months, until 30 November 2022. This was confirmed to the service on 12 July.

The National Care Service will allow us to improve standards across the whole of the social care sector. The current model of securing care services will be replaced by a model of ethical commissioning and ethical procurement.

As part of this the entire adult social care workforce experience fair work, introducing national pay bargaining to deliver more equitable terms and conditions. The National Care Service will design its services locally to ensure individual needs and local circumstances are taken into account. This will include continuing to work with specialist charity and third sector providers of care services.

The Scottish Government has no plans to widen the statutory remit of the Care Inspectorate to include working with other public bodies to take assets into public ownership. However, we intend to strengthen the Care Inspectorate’s enforcement powers. This will include the introduction of enhanced fitness of provider requirements and financial sustainability monitoring to act as an early warning system for the deterioration of service quality or failure. These will enable the regulator to more quickly take action on poor performing services, and drive up the consistency and quality of care expected across all social care services in Scotland.