Chamber and committees

Health data is shared, typically in an aggregated and anonymised format, with trusted third parties through trusted research environments known as ‘Safe Havens’. These Safe Havens comprise of a national Safe Haven within Public Health Scotland and four regional Safe Havens associated with NHS Grampian, Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Lothian, and Tayside.

Safe Havens play a crucial role in protecting personal data, providing a secure space, and supporting the secure use of NHS data for researchers to access and analyse healthcare data without compromising individual privacy. Within Safe Havens researchers can work with anonymised or pseudonymised data, reducing the risk of re-identification of individuals. By implementing robust security measures and access controls, Safe Havens ensure that only authorised individuals can interact with the data, and that they can only access the level of data that is appropriate and proportionate.

The existing Scottish Government Records Management Health and Social Care Code of Practice (Scotland) 2024 has guidance on managing health records of people who identify as transgender. This links to guidance from the Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland, the General Medical Council and NHS National Services Scotland (NSS). It was recognised in 2020 that it was an area under development, and subsequently the Scottish Government's Chief Statistician issued guidance for public bodies on the collection of data on sex and gender in 2021. The Records Management Code of Practice for Health and Social Care 2024 incorporates the Chief Statistician's guidance along with feedback from stakeholders, providing further guidance to NHS Boards.

Neurology trainees are provided with training in immunology and virology. The curriculum for neurology training, published by the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board, includes Capabilities in Practice (CiPs) on managing inflammatory and infectious disorders.

These CiPs make clear expectations upon neurology trainees regarding:

• understanding of the underlying anatomy and pathophysiology of inflammatory and infectious diseases of the nervous system, including the treatments and their side effects
• ability to select, request and interpret relevant investigations including serology, genetic testing, imaging of the brain and spine, neurophysiology, tissue culture and histology in order to diagnose and manage such disorders
• ability to work with other relevant clinicians both in treating and monitoring patients and in referring them to other disciplines as appropriate.

There is robust educational Governance through NHS Education Scotland (NES) for neurology training in Scotland. NES does not consider it necessary to require neurologists to be experts in either immunology or virology, but to be able to clinically assess, investigate and manage people with neuroimmunological conditions and neuroinfectious disease using an evidence-based approach.

The Scottish Government understand the importance of sport and physical activity for women and girls in Scotland and the positive impact that has on their physical, mental, and social health, across all stages in life.

We believe there should be no barriers to participating in sport and physical activity, and we should all feel included, and able to take part and access the benefits of sport.

sportscotland’s Fit for Girls (FFG) and Young People’s Sport Panel (YPSP) tutors lead conversations and workshops on menstrual education as well work to increase awareness of the barriers to physical activity.

sportscotland’s Institute of Sport delivers tailored support services for athletes. Their internal working group, the Female Athlete Performance Group, have developed a range of resources specifically for female athletes. These are designed to support anyone working with girls and women in sport and include e-learning on the menstrual cycle in sport. These resources are available for free to all, with the ambition that all within the sporting system are comfortable having conversations about female athlete health and understand the impact on training and performance.

The 2024-25 budget that was used as the comparator included a number of transfers that occurred at Autumn Budget Revision. The main transfer related to the inclusion of deferred Coastal Communities payments from 2023-24, this was a one-off occurrence which resulted in a net increase of £5 million from the 2024-25 starting budget position.

In comparison to the 2024-25 starting budget there has been a £1.6 million increase in the overall resource budget available to Marine Directorate in 2025-26 which when excluding depreciation is an additional £2 million of resource funding.

The Clyde closure is in place to maximise the opportunity for cod to reproduce and hence recover the stock. The closed area was defined according to extensive published literature on the types of seabed substrate on which cod prefer to spawn, and data on substrate type distribution provided by the British Geological Survey (BGS). This information has not changed since the closure was put in place.

When the Sea Fish (Prohibition on Fishing) (Firth of Clyde) Order 2024 was made, it was accompanied by a Business Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA).

Following the 2025 closure there will be a public consultation on future management. That consultation will assess any changes that have happened since 2022 and make recommendations for the future on that basis.

The Marine Directorate is aware of this report and recognises its findings. The conclusions of the paper are very similar to those presented annually in the Scottish Sustainable Fishing Index (SFI, Sustainability of Fish Stocks | National Performance Framework).

The SFI has increased from 37% in 1992 to 71% in 2023, highlighting an overall improvement in Scottish commercial fish stocks that is very similar to that presented in the Shetland Fishermen’s report.

Marine Directorate scientists would however recommend interpreting this report with some caution due to methodological issues which depart from the normal way in which stocks are assessed by the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) and on which basis international advice is derived for international negotiations and setting of total allowable catches.

Artificial intelligence is already proving itself to be a force for good in our health and social care service, providing a range of healthcare solutions that are transforming services for the better and in a number of cases, saving lives. An example where AI activity is already taking place in rural areas is through the North of Scotland AI Strategy for Health and Social Care.

Neil Gray: Since 2021, we have provided three permanent CT scanners to support core diagnostic imaging capacity within Boards, including a mobile CT pod which is deployed flexibly to Boards that require additional capacity. In addition, one further mobile CT and seven mobile MRI scanners are being used across multiple NHS Boards to provide additional capacity.

In the last 2 years, the Scottish Government has supported the North Imaging Alliance to:

• Test a regional mobile MRI service, hosted within one of the North region boards, with the potential to be used anywhere in the North or across Scotland.
• Provide additional capacity (over and above existing mobile MRI arrangements) to accelerate work on reducing waiting times for MRI.

During 2024-25:

• The regional mobile MRI van is anticipated to remove circa 3,700 patients from waiting lists in the North, participating boards are Grampian, Highland, Orkney, and Tayside.
• 2,408 patients have received scans to date and have been removed from waiting lists
• This has saved NHS Orkney approximately £180k and meant 313 patients were able to receive scans locally rather than having to travel further afield.

Significant additional activity is already underway following the allocation of £30 million funding to target reductions to the national backlogs that built up throughout the pandemic. This includes over 40,000 extra diagnostic procedures.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-33751 on 29 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