Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-01691 on 10 August 2026. 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

Officials across the Justice and Environment and Forestry Directorates are currently working with stakeholders before taking the required action needed to commence section 61 of the Crofting and Scottish Land Court Act. This work will be completed in due course.

This matter is under active consideration by the Scottish Government, and Parliament will be kept informed of the outcomes of those considerations – including the potential for planning guidance – in due course.

On 29 June, I met with women affected by Depo-Provera® to listen directly to their experiences and concerns. I was grateful for the opportunity to hear their accounts and to better understand the challenges they face.

At that meeting, I agreed that the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer would issue a letter directly to healthcare professionals in Scotland to ensure that they (1) are aware of the risks associated with the long-term use of Depo-Provera®, (2) describe these risks clearly to women, (3) review prescribing of Depo-Provera® every two years, in line with the Faculty of Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare guidance, and (4) are aware of any actions they should take in the event that a meningioma is suspected.

The letter will also emphasise the importance of Yellow Card reporting of Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs). The MHRA’s UK-wide Yellow Card reporting system collects data on ADRs and the MHRA monitors these as part of its pharmacovigilance responsibility. Healthcare professionals and/or any member of the public who suffers a suspected ADR should complete and send a Yellow Card report which is used to identify and monitor medicine safety.

The Scottish Government has been working closely with Health Boards to ensure a wide range of actions are in place to reduce waiting lists for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). This includes increasing funding over recent years to expand service capacity and provide over 320 additional staff, and enabling the system to manage over 10,000 additional cases. We are also continuing to support NHS Boards to redesign their services to improve efficiency and access.

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of CAMHS teams across Scotland, national performance against the 18-week CAMHS standard has been sustained for over a year, with 91% of children and young people starting treatment within 18 weeks of referral and one in two children and young people referred to CAMHS start treatment within 6 weeks. Most Health Boards have now eliminated waits of over a year, and the total number of children and young people waiting more than 52 weeks is at its lowest level since June 2015 and now account for only 0.5% of all children and young people waiting.

We do, however, recognise there is more to do. Some young people and families are still waiting too long. We continue to work closely with all Boards, providing enhanced support where performance needs to improve, ensuring Boards have robust improvement plans in place to deliver results.

The Scottish Government is also investing in early intervention and community-based supports, such as school counselling and third-sector services, to support children and young people and their families to address mental health issues earlier in order to reduce demand for specialist CAMHS.

The regulation and licensing of medicines is reserved to the UK Government and is a matter for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

The decision to market a product in the UK rests with the pharmaceutical company. Neither the MHRA nor the UK or Scottish Governments can compel a pharmaceutical company to seek a marketing authorisation for, or supply, a product in the UK market.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer (CPO) for Scotland has discussed the issue with Pfizer representatives who advised that the company is continuing to assess whether it will pursue a UK marketing authorisation for its Solu-Cortef Act-O-Vial® 100 mg/2 mL injection.

We are continuing to work with NHS Boards, local authorities, COSLA, the third sector and other delivery partners to improve access to neurodevelopmental support for children, young people and adults across Scotland, including in the Highlands and Islands parliamentary region.

For children and young people, this includes delivering the actions set out in the implementation review of the National Neurodevelopmental Specification for Children and Young People through our work with COSLA and the Children and Young People’s Neurodevelopmental Taskforce.

For adults, we are working with partners to take forward the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland’s four-tier national pathway for neurodevelopmental conditions, helping ensure people can access support based on need, whether or not they have a formal diagnosis.

Over £2.9 million of funding in 2025-26 is supporting projects to improve access to neurodevelopmental support across Scotland, while the £2.5 million Autistic Adult Support Fund continues to support autistic adults in communities across the country. The 2026-27 Budget includes additional investment of £7.6 million to enable improvements in neurodevelopmental support for children and young people.

The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 established the framework for integrating health and social care services in Scotland. It required local authorities and NHS boards to create Integration Authorities responsible for the governance, planning and funding of integrated services.

Integration aims to improve care and support for people who use services, their carers and their families. It does this by putting a greater emphasis on collaboration, joining up services, and focussing on anticipatory and preventative care. We support Integration Authorities to do this through regular dialogue between officials, myself, the Cabinet Secretary and the networks of Integration Authority Chief Officers, Chairs and Vice-chairs.

For 2025-26, we provided £144,812.30 in Scottish Government funding to Health and Social Care Scotland (HSCS) for their work supporting key networks, including IJB Chief Officers. HSCS work closely with IJBs and Chief Officers to promote good practice, strengthen IJB leadership networks, support meaningful engagement with communities and the third sector, and enhance independent sector involvement in local governance.

More recently I met with the leadership of the IJB Chief Officer network to discuss current priorities and challenges facing integration authorities, and to support continued collaborative working across the health and social care system. I look forward to continued engagement with them.

We do not centrally collect data on the number of appointments undertaken to assess sleep apnoea across NHS Boards. This level of information would be held by individual NHS Boards.

The commitments set out in this year’s budget, published on 4 March 2026, will deliver a record £22.5 billion funding for health and social care in 2026-27, supporting delivery of planned care for patients across Scotland to increase capacity and address backlogs of treatment as we work towards achieving the 12-week treatment time guarantee.

From 1 April 2026, shared services previously provided by National Services Scotland – including the national procurement framework – are managed and overseen by the new national body, Public Services Delivery Scotland (PSD Scotland). While PSD Scotland is sponsored by Scottish Ministers in order to ensure proper oversight and discharge of function, Scottish Government does not hold any information with respect to the particulars of individual contracts. This is instead held by PSD Scotland and its commercial partners.