Chamber and committees

Public Health Scotland (PHS) leads on the data monitoring of emergency department opt-out blood borne virus testing programme, including ensuring that appropriate data flows and reporting systems are in place. We are working with PHS and the Boards to ensure that IT systems are suitable for delivering opt-out testing.

The funding package for implementing emergency department opt-out testing for blood borne viruses has been confirmed with all three participating NHS Boards. This includes funding for tests and laboratory costs, staff and support for patients. Funding has also been made available to support Boards with any start-up costs.

All Warm Homes Plan funding was announced in the UK Government's Autumn Budget on 27 November 2025.

I refer the member to my response to S6W-34484 on 25 February 2026 which clarified that The Cass Review only considered services offered by NHS England. It also outlined how the Scottish Government considered its recommendations in the context of NHS Scotland services and the work underway at the time.

Since then, a number of workstreams have progressed:

In September 2025, the ‘Task and Finish Group, led by the Chief Operating Officer’s Directorate and supported by NHS National Services Scotland (NSS), signed off on a new Target Operating Model (TOM) for young people’s gender identity services in Scotland. NHS Board Chief Executives are currently considering how they will support the implementation of the new model.

On 28 October 2025, Public Health Scotland published for the second time a set of nationally collated data on NHS gender identity clinics waiting times. This follows the first ever publication of such data in UK in November 2024. Both publications include data on the young person’s gender healthcare service.

Finally, following the publication of Transgender Care Knowledge and Skills Framework (Framework) for adults, NHS National Education for Scotland is now taking forward an annex to the Framework for staff supporting children and young people.

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 Government continues to work closely with colleagues in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lothian to support the implementation of emergency department opt-out testing for blood borne viruses. Both Boards have made substantial progress in preparing for the safe and effective roll-out of this important intervention, including putting in place robust digital solutions to support test ordering and results management. Due to the challenging nature of some of these IT solutions, and existing Board pressures, it has taken longer than expected to implement this programme however it is vital we do so in a sustainable and robust manner. Subject to final operational readiness, opt-out testing is now expected to go live in both NHS Boards by the end of June 2026.

As part of the first phase of implementation, NHS Grampian commenced opt-out testing in the emergency department at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in October 2025.

The financial position remains challenging – to ensure that available capital funding can be directed to best effect, we are working with all health boards to develop an NHS whole system infrastructure plan for Scotland to inform investment priorities. The 2025-26 Budget confirmed our capital investment priorities for the next 5–7 years. The NHS whole system infrastructure planning work will inform our capital investment priorities beyond that.

The first phase of this was identifying immediate building maintenance and equipment replacement priorities to support service continuity. Boards submitted their risk-assessed priorities in January 2025 and, following review, Boards have received confirmation of which items can be progressed.

The next stage will consider long-term investment priorities and Boards – including NHS Grampian – have been instructed to undertake strategic assessments with returns required during 2026-27 and by not later than 31 March 2027.

A key part of this work is the development of an infrastructure investment strategy programme for primary care as announced in the Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline on 13 January 2026. An initial tranche of 12 projects has been selected for their health, population demographic and estate needs. Work on three initial projects will start immediately to create and pilot a standardised approach towards design and procurement – this will be used to improve the efficiency of delivery of all future schemes. It is intended that there will be further, future tranches of investment across the primary care estate, which will consider other areas of need.

I last met with the Scottish Veterans Commissioner (SVC) on 4 December 2025 to discuss matters relating to veterans housing.

At that meeting, several actions were agreed, which are now being taken forward by Scottish Government officials. These include, updating the housing guide for service leavers on the Scottish Government website and working with the Scottish Veterans Housing Group on the top priorities for the veterans’ homelessness prevention pathway.

All organisations, including local authorities, must meet their obligations under the Equality Act 2010, including the duty to avoid placing deaf people at a disadvantage when making decisions about services. The Scottish Government continues to engage with Edinburgh City Council to ensure appropriate services remain in place. The Scottish Government has provided more than £1.7 million to improve access to services for deaf people across Scotland since 2021.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-44081 on 13 March 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.

The Scottish Government has received assurance from the Chief Executives’ Offices of both NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lothian that implementing emergency department opt-out blood borne virus testing is a high priority within their Boards. Teams in both NHS Boards have committed to ensuring the safe and effective roll-out of this important intervention in their areas by the end of June 2026.