Chamber and committees

(a) The Scottish Government engages with the General Medical Council (GMC) on its regulatory functions as a matter of routine. Many of those operational discussions will have touched upon issues relating to physician associates and anaesthesia associates since the decision was taken that the GMC would be their regulator. The answer to FOI requests 202400422610 and 202400441146, published on the Scottish Government website, provides information on written communications between the Scottish Government and the GMC.

Surgical Care Practitioners, also a Medical Associate Profession, are not regulated by the GMC.

(b) The GMC has no functions in respect of the design of services in NHS Scotland. Health Boards are responsible for determining the services appropriate to the needs of their local populations, and the skills mix necessary to ensure their delivery.

The Scottish Government is progressing the Public Sector Reform Programme to ensure public services are sustainable, efficient and effective. Our work in this area is expected to save up to £280 million over a two year period by the end of 2024-25.

We have already streamlined the public sector landscape by reducing the number of Scottish public bodies under our control from 199 in 2007 to 131 as at 1 December 2024.

Accountable Officers for all public bodies have a personal responsibility for the propriety and regularity of the finances under their stewardship and for the economic, efficient and effective use of all related resources. This includes being personally answerable to Parliament for the exercise of their functions. This is set out in the Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000 and the Scottish Public Finance Manual.

The Scottish Government is supportive of a gradual and carefully managed expansion of physician associate (PA) and anaesthesia associate (AA) roles, underpinned by robust evidence of the benefit that can be derived from these roles in specific settings and contexts.

In order to achieve this, we have established a national Programme Board to advise on key aspects of the roles and NHS Scotland’s approach to their deployment. This work builds on action already undertaken to introduce statutory regulation of the roles which we consider is vital for patient safety. GMC regulation has, for the first time, introduced UK-wide standards for education, training and professional practice with meaningful consequences when these are not met.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Decisions regarding the employment of individual members of staff are a matter for each NHS Scotland Board.

The total number of public bodies from 1999 until the present day has been captured in the following table.

Please note that prior to 2010 it was not common practice to capture Executive Agencies, Non-Ministerial Departments, Other Significant National Bodies, or Parliamentary Commissioners & Ombudsmen as part of the list of public bodies. Data prior to 2010 is limited to Executive Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs), Advisory NDPBs, Tribunal NDBs, Health Bodies, Nationalised Industries (no longer used) and Public Corporations. The exception to this was in 2007 when a more extensive collation of public bodies was completed as part of a Simplification Programme. This included all of the aforementioned classifications of public bodies as well as 7 proposed public bodies yet to be established. The inclusion of proposed public bodies yet to be established to the total is unique to 2007.

The Scottish Government and its enterprise agencies have provided £1,354,000 for the development of carbon capture and storage technology in 2025.

The Scottish Government has committed £2m of grant funding support to the National Gas Transmission SCO2T Connect Project and to date, £1,345,000 of this funding has been provided.

The Scottish Government remains wholly committed to supporting the development and deployment of CCUS, including the Acorn Project and the Scottish Cluster. Unfortunately, the UK Government continue to delay making a final decision on the Acorn Project which is risking billions of private sector investment and thousands of jobs.

Public bodies are reviewed quarterly as part of the Scottish Government’s Assurance cycle to ensure they are operating efficiently and effectively.

One of the key aims of our Public Service Reform (PSR) programme is to drive efficiency and effectiveness across government and public bodies, making sure we have the public body landscape to deliver the services the people of Scotland need. As part of this, we have commissioned data on expenditure on corporate functions to identify where there is duplication and are working with public bodies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our services.

The Scottish Government’s policy is that any new public body should only be set up as a last resort and after consideration of all other delivery mechanisms has been exhausted. The Ministerial Control Framework ensures any Scottish Government proposal to establish a new public body is based on evidence and value for money, with approval from Cabinet before any decision is made.

The implementation of regulation has not prevented physician associates (or anaesthesia associates) who are currently practising from continuing to do so, nor has it prevented NHS Boards or other employers from designing services around, and recruiting to, these professional groups.

As set out in Section 19(1)(b) of the Anaesthesia Associates and Physician Associates Order 2024, from December 2026 it will be an offence to practise as a PA or AA in the UK without holding registration with the General Medical Council (GMC).

Surgical Care Practitioners, also a Medical Associate Profession, are not regulated by the GMC.

Community benefits from renewable energy developments are voluntary arrangements between communities and developers. Despite the powers to mandate community benefits being reserved to the UK Government, Scotland has made significant progress with a voluntary approach through our Good Practice Principles. Over the past 12 months, renewables developers have offered more than £30 million to local communities.

We are currently consulting on our Good Practice Principles for onshore and offshore renewable energy developments, to ensure we continue to support sustainable and meaningful outcomes for people in Scotland. This includes seeking views on local, regional and national approaches to community benefits. The consultation closes on the 11 April and we will consider all responses as we work towards updating the guidance by the end of 2025. We want to gather a wide range of views from across communities, industry, the third sector and public sector partners, and encourage everyone to take part.

The Scottish Government is supportive of a gradual and carefully managed expansion of physician associate (PA) and anaesthesia associate (AA) roles, underpinned by robust evidence of the benefit that can be derived from these roles in specific settings and contexts.

In order to achieve this, we have established a national Programme Board to advise on key aspects of the roles and NHS Scotland’s approach to their deployment. This work builds on action already undertaken to introduce statutory regulation of the roles which we consider is vital for patient safety. GMC regulation has, for the first time, introduced UK-wide standards for education, training and professional practice with meaningful consequences when these are not met.