Chamber and committees

The information available is in the following table (As of 11 August 2021)

The Scottish Milk and Healthy Snack Scheme replaced the UK Nursery Milk Scheme (UK NMS) in Scotland from 1 August 2021 following further devolution.

3,079 Scottish settings were registered to the UK NMS and claimed from that scheme in the 12 months to 1 August 2021. Initial data shows that 3,101 childcare settings and 116,293 eligible children are registered to the Scottish Milk and Healthy Snack Scheme (out of around 8,395 total childcare settings in Scotland).

The Scottish Government continues to work in partnership with local government and eligible childcare settings to increase registrations to the new scheme during the course of its first year.

(a) NHS Lothian recently submitted an updated Outline Business Case for the development of eye care services. This will be reviewed by Scottish Government’s NHS Capital Investment Group at their next meeting.

(b) The Scottish Government provided a progress update on major capital projects, including NHS infrastructure projects, to the Public Audit Committee by letter dated 23 June 2021 which can be accessed here:

Infrastructure Investment Major Capital Projects Progress Update 23 June 202 | Scottish Parliament Website .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-01706 on
‎ 24 August 2021. 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

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

Information relating to the number of women aged (a) 50 and over and (b) under 50 currently waiting to start treatment for (i) primary and (ii) secondary breast cancer, would be held by individual Health Boards.

A publication by Public Health Scotland on 26th January 2021 showed the total number of GPs in Scotland was 5,134 as at 30th September 2020, a rise of 89 compared to 2019.

Public Health Scotland are currently analysing data collected from the 2019 Workforce Survey, which will show the Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) figure for GPs in Scotland. Scottish Government are planning to collect WTE data on an annual basis going forward.

NHS Scotland’s staffing levels are at a record high and the nursing and midwifery staff group is the largest, accounting for just under 64,000 Whole Time Equivalent (42%) of the workforce, an increase of 5% from the previous year. Information on the number of Clinical Nurse Specialists by specialist cancer fields is not held centrally.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-01706 on
‎ 24 August 2021. 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

The Scottish Cancer Registry, hosted by Public Health Scotland, collects information on registrations for primary cancers. It does not hold information on secondary cancers.

There is work ongoing to develop systems for the routine collection of secondary cancer data, including secondary breast cancer. However, validation of these systems would require clinical time that is being focussed on seeing patients as we continue to prioritise cancer in the NHS. Any national system for the routine collection of secondary breast cancer would take several years to produce the first tranche of data. The Scottish Government’s National Cancer Plan has committed up to £114.5m until March 2023 which will drive a range of improvements across all cancer services.

Cancer continues to be a top priority for this Government. On 28 June I announced £10 million of funding to support cancer waiting times improvements during 2021-22. This funding will support targeted diagnostic activity, including for breast cancer. We have also provided five mobile MRI scanners and four mobile CT scanners to increase diagnostic capacity across NHS Scotland.