Chamber and committees

Funding for the redevelopment of the North Hanover Street car park site was withdrawn after a review of priorities following the Capital Spending Review in 2020. Network Rail was tasked at that time with sourcing alternative funding and a consideration of options.

Network Rail continues to work with Glasgow City Council development and regeneration team on viable options for the site. It is worth noting that a planning application submitted by Network Rail in May 2021 was determined by the Council in December 2024.

Within the Scottish Government policy responsibility for Health and Care Research sits with the Chief Scientist Office (CSO)

CSO is engaged with the MESSAGE (Medical Science Sex and Gender Equity) project, a UK-wide initiative which aims to improve the integration of sex and gender considerations across data collection, analysis and reporting in Biomedical, Health and Care research in the UK. MESSAGE brings together stakeholders from across the UK to co-design a sex and gender policy framework for funding and regulatory organisation and supporting policy implementation across the UK research sector. Medical Science Sex & Gender Equity

The co-designed framework was launched at the end of 2024 and introduced new recommendations for scientific practice which aim to enhance the quality of UK science at each stage of the research pipeline. CSO contributed to the development of the framework and is working to align its practices with the MESSAGE recommendations.

Through the Women’s Health Plan 2021- 2024 work has been ongoing to map the data on women’s health in Scotland. We have published a ‘Review of the Data Landscape’ that sets out some of the routinely published data on women’s health currently available in Scotland and highlights key gaps. The Care and Wellbeing Dashboard, which provides access to the latest data on population health outcomes and the wider determinants of health in Scotland, will also include breakdowns by sex where this data is available.

Our ambition is that ‘women and girls enjoy the best possible health, throughout their lives’. This remains the ambition of the Scottish Government, and will continue to be our guiding principle as we consider the next phase of the Women’s Health Plan.

ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper submit their forward forecasts as part of annual budget processes. Forward forecasts of ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper revenue and the level of subsidy required are subject to ongoing discussions between the train operating companies, Transport Scotland and Scottish Rail Holdings.

Work on the five-year review of Parts 1 to 3 of the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018 is in progress and the Scottish Government will publish the review as soon as possible.

The Women’s Health Plan set out actions which aim to address women’s health inequalities by raising awareness around women’s health, improving access to health care for women across their lives, and reducing inequalities in health outcomes for women and girls.

Through the Plan we have appointed Scotland’s first Women’s Health Champion; created a Women’s Health Platform on NHS Inform, commissioned NHS Education for Scotland to create bespoke training packages on menstrual health for general practice and there is now a menopause and menstrual health workplace policy for NHS Scotland.

In addition we funded the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland to deliver our Women’s Health Plan lived experience programme. This has included webinars, videos, a toolkit and our Lived Experience Stakeholder Group to raise awareness of women’s health topics and ensure women and people with lived experience are meaningfully involved in decision making and priority setting.

Our Women’s Health Plan 2021 - 2024 Final Report on progress provides further details of our work to date.

Our ambition is that ‘women and girls enjoy the best possible health, throughout their lives’. This remains the ambition of the Scottish Government, and will continue to be our guiding principle as we consider the next phase of the Women’s Health Plan.

Since March 2021 and each financial year thereafter, the following number of people aged 16-years and over resident in Scotland have registered an opt out decision on the NHS Organ Donor Register:

2021-22 17,539

2022-23 12,264

2023-24 4,558

2024-25* 3,514

*1 April - 29 December 2024

As at 29 December 2024, the total number of people resident in Scotland, aged 16-years and over, who have registered an opt in decision on the NHS Organ Donor Register since its inception is 2,738,077.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-32827 on 16 January 2025. 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

Social Security Scotland routinely releases information on Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods applications and payments.

Since the introduction of the Early Learning Payment in April 2019, 126,840 payments with a combined value of £34,465,468 were paid to eligible clients throughout Scotland by 30 September 2024.

Whilst the latest statistics do not contain the number of payments issued broken down by local authority area, the total value of payments issued to clients in Aberdeen City was £1,099,329 over the same period.

The next Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods publication, covering the period to the end of December 2024, will be published on 25 February 2025.

Local authorities are responsible for developing and delivering flood protection schemes and the Scottish Government provides funding to support this.