Chamber and committees

In reaching their decision, Scottish Ministers will determine applications in accordance with legislative requirements and relevant policy. Our Just Transition Plan is just one of many policy documents which is considered as appropriate in the decision-making process.

The cap of £86,000 proposed by the previous UK Government had been due to come into force in October 2025, however, on the 29 July 2024 the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that these reforms (and thus the cap on care costs) would not be taken forward in October 2025.

It should be noted that the proposals put forward by the UK Government were for personal care costs and did not include “hotel costs” - accommodation, food, energy bills, lifestyle and wellbeing and consumables etc. In Scotland personal care costs for adults who have been assessed as requiring such personal care do not pay for this service, regardless of their condition or means. Nursing care is also free at the point of delivery. The Local Authority pay for these elements of the residential care for all those assessed as needing them.

There is no lack of emergency access to any specialty over winter.

Our planning for this winter builds on the effective measures which have supported our health and social care services through previous years. However, we stand ready to take additional measures, if necessary, with all specialties, including urology.

We have developed our winter plan with input from the whole Health and Social Care system which brings together best practice and improvement work which we know works from lessons learned in previous winters, to ensure that the most appropriate care is received in the right place and at the right time.

Waits often occur due to a wait for an inpatient bed – in these circumstances patients will have been assessed by emergency department staff and their condition will be monitored while they remain in the department.

The relationships, sexual health and parenthood consultation report is now being prepared for publication. I am grateful for the extensive contributions to the consultation and the report will be published shortly.

To accompany the launch of changes to the dental payment system from November 2023, Scottish Government ran a marketing campaign via commercial radio, social media and surgery posters to highlight the changes to patients and direct them to NHS Inform for more information on a range of oral health matters.

NHS Inform is Scotland’s national health information service and supports people in making informed decisions on all aspects of their health. Information on oral health and dental care includes typical scenarios which patients can expect in attending the dentist, including the importance of regular attendance. In addition to this national resource, each individual dental practice is required to display its policy for late cancellations and non-attendance at scheduled appointments.

Capitation payments are paid monthly per patient to NHS dentists to help ensure that patients remain registered. Where a patient does not attend for examination or treatment for a period of greater than 3 years the monthly payment for that patient falls to 20% of the full rate.

This arrangement incentives dentists to re-engage with patients who have not attended for some time to better manage their oral health. There is no intention to review this arrangement.

Research into the implementation of the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 is underway and is scheduled to be published in early 2025. The findings of this research will include both qualitative and quantitative data which has been gathered from stakeholders from across the single-use items value chain.

There is already existing discretion within NHS arrangements for dentists to charge patients for late cancellations and missed appointments, in accordance with their business need.

As circumstances may vary considerably between practices with respect to demography, registered patient numbers and other key determinants for the viability or necessity of additional charging, it would not be appropriate to implement a national policy on such matters.

In order to ensure the efficient and timeous processing of dental payments to contractors all claims require to be submitted for payment within 3 months of the completion date of the claim.

This reflects the period from the closure of the claim for the care and treatment undertaken. As this requirement is widely understood within the sector there are no plans to review this.

Our Cancer Strategy for Scotland 2023-2033 makes clear that Mental Health Support forms part of an individual’s basic care. Individuals requiring support should have access to this at the point of clinical need.

To help understand the demand and capacity for cancer related psychological care and support, a national scoping exercise was conducted as part of a Macmillan Psychology and Support Project with findings published in November 2024. The findings are being considered by Scottish Government.

We also published the Psychological Therapies and Support Framework for People Affected by Cancer to support Health Boards in considering the services which should be available to those affected by cancer, including psychological support.

The Framework includes quality statements and self-assessment tools for organisations providing support to benchmark themselves on an annual basis and develop local action plans as appropriate. The benchmarking exercise was carried out across Scotland for the first time in 2024 with Regional Cancer Networks coordinating the activity and Scottish Government looks forward to receiving findings.