Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-00062 on 2 June 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 not undertaken a separate national assessment of emissions associated with gas and diesel back up generation for hyperscale data centres. An assessment of environmental impacts is undertaken aspart of the planning process for individual developments.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-00062 on 2 June 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.

Gynaecology - Waiting to access gynaecology related treatment can cause women anxiety and delays are unacceptable. Last year we allocated £13 million of additional funding to health boards to target long waits for gynaecology. We are beginning to see the impact of that of that investment, with waits going down and we are determined to build on that momentum, ensuring women receive the treatment they need as soon as possible. Phase Two of the Women’s Health Plan was published in January 2026 which includes specific actions and steps to help reduce waiting times.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) publishes statistics on stages of treatment waiting times for gynaecology by board and length of wait. The most recent report was published on 26 May 2026 and can be found at: Stage of treatment waiting times – new outpatients, inpatients and day cases 26 May 2026 - Stage of treatment waiting times - Publications - Public Health Scotland.

Menopause - We do not hold data on waiting times for menopause related treatment.

However we want all women to have timely access to menopause support and services when required. Through the delivery of the first Women’s Health Plan, published in 2021, we took action to improve menopause care and support for women.

Phase Two of the Women’s Health Plan published in January 2026, has menopause as a focus of that plan with targeted actions to raise awareness and provide reliable information; commission research; ensure more support for complex menopause care and continuing to deliver education and training for healthcare professionals to help them best support their patients.

Chronic Pain - The Scottish Government understands the impact waiting for treatment can have on people with chronic pain. NHS boards are continuing to effectively deliver pain management services during extremely challenging circumstances over the last few years. We know that performance is not where it needs to be and we continue to work closely with the boards facing the greatest challenges, to drive down waiting times and improve services for patients and staff.

We remain committed to improving the experience of those living with long term conditions in Scotland. That is why we will continue working with people with lived experience, the third sector and clinicians to develop our way forward for long term conditions, including chronic pain.

This will build on the work undertaken by the Long Term Conditions Advisory Groups established under the previous government. We are now carefully considering their recommendations to inform our way forward.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) publishes quarterly official statistics on waiting times for pain management services, reported against the national 12 week new outpatient standard. The most recent report was published on 10 March 2026, for the quarter ending 31 December 2025, and is available on the PHS website. However, these data are not disaggregated by sex so we are unable to provide this. The full data set can be found here: Waiting times for pain management services - Quarter ending 31 December 2025 - Waiting times for pain management services - Publications - Public Health Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-00062 on 2 June 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.

We will review the Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline (2026-27 to 2029-30) at each Spending Review. It is a live document and new projects and programmes will be added to the pipeline at future updates as investment plans are agreed.

We want women and girls in Scotland to experience the best possible health, throughout their lives. However, it remains an unwelcome reality that communities across Scotland experience health, quality of life and even life expectancy differently depending on their circumstances.

In order to tackle this challenge, the Scottish Government and COSLA, in collaboration with our wider partners, published Scotland’s Population Health Framework in June 2025. This takes a cross-government and cross-sector approach to improving the key building blocks of health and addressing the broad, interrelated issues that shape health outcomes across the population. These building blocks include a focus on: good early years and education; good work and income; healthy places; and equitable health care.

To further augment this approach, Phase Two of the Women’s Health Plan has a renewed focus on Optimising Future Health, supporting improvement in women’s healthy life expectancy, so they can enjoy longer healthier lives with better health, in later years.

The Scottish Government recognises that one of the most effective ways of tackling child poverty is by enabling parents and carers to enter sustainable work, supporting them to increase their income from employment.

We have therefore committed to investing £90 million in devolved employability services for each year of the Scottish Spending Review, running to 2028-29. In 2026-27, this includes over £40 million for Parental Employability Support, and £5 million for the delivery of Specialist Employability Support, ensuring parents continue to receive targeted, person-centred help to move towards, enter and progress in employment.

Delivered through the No One Left Behind approach, our Parental Employability Support offer is in place across all 32 Local Authority areas with support available to low-income parents. Key-workers provide tailored, one-to-one support to help reduce barriers to employment, identifying flexible work opportunities and linking to wrap-around services.

Of the 101,943 people who started to receive support from April 2020, 32,005 (31%) were parents. 29% of parents who have started receiving support have entered employment. Additionally, 9% have been supported to enter further or higher education or training, 19% gained a qualification, 4% started work experience and 3% started volunteering.

Bringing Hope, Building Futures: Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2026-2031 sets out our commitment to drive further progress by investing up to £19 million in 2026-27 to develop a new Transport to Employment offer. This support aims to reduce costs for low-income parents and enhance pathways into work at a local level by addressing challenges of accessibility, availability and affordability of transport.

Development of the training package for internationally-qualified dentists is being delivered by Public Services Delivery Scotland and we anticipate this will be introduced in the current financial year.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-00312 on 4 June 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.