Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-28136 on 26 June 2024. 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/Cancer Research UK funded Paediatric Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC) in Glasgow has been involved in a number of initiatives aimed at maximising the number of opportunities for children and young people with cancer to participate in clinical trials.

The Glasgow Paediatric ECMC leads the Northern Paediatric ECMC Network that includes all Scottish Principle Treatment Centres (PTC’s), together with centres in the North of England and Northern Ireland. The Network holds weekly Regional Relapse Discussion Panel (RRDP) meetings which facilitate the identification across an extended geographical area of clinical trials suitable for individual patients.

This approach has been extended to clinical trials in the Teenage and Young Adult (TYA) patient cohort, with the Glasgow ECMC a participant in the UK ECMC TYA Network. This group is currently actively considering the development of a UK-wide national complex case TYA multi-disciplinary team (MDT) approach to enable availability of early phase trials across as wide a patient population base as possible.

There has been an expansion of 68 posts in Clinical Radiology specialty training since 2014. Clinical Radiology is a competitive specialty which has historically filled posts at 100%. The 2025 expansion process is currently underway and will conclude later this year. This will consider the need for expansion in all medical specialties, including clinical radiology and clinical oncology, with the overall aim of ensuring Scotland has a sufficient supply of trained doctors coming through the system to meet anticipated future demand.

Consultant radiologists have increased by 34.2%, from 304 headcount ten years ago (March 2014) to 408 headcount in March 2024 .

An Oncology Task and Finish Group was established in May 2024 to improve access to safe, quality oncology services by planning, on a population basis across Scotland, a safe and sustainable operating model for NHS Scotland Oncology Services.

NHS National Services Scotland as commissioner of hyperbaric services and NHS Grampian who provide and co-ordinate the Hyperbaric Medical Unit in Scotland completed a full risk assessment exercise. Within this they reviewed the impact of the service level agreement with the NHS hyperbaric facility in Oban coming to an end.

This assessment is a matter for NHS National Services Scotland and NHS Grampian and information regarding it is not held centrally by Scottish Government.

The Chief Medical Officer met with the Royal College of Radiologists on 14 December 2023 and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer met with them on 16 May 2024. A representative of the Royal College of Radiologists is a member of the Oncology Task and Finish group that is developing a sustainable operating model for NHS Scotland oncology.

There are no meetings arranged with NHS England.

Development of the Partnership is progressing, with work on-going to identify membership from a wide range of organisations from across the Public, Private and Third Sector. As outlined in the Heat in Building’s Public Engagement Strategic Framework, we have made a commitment to set-up the Partnership during 2024 and will provide further details in the coming months.

As stated previously in answer to S6W-28153 on 25 June 2024, there has been an expansion of 68 posts in Clinical Radiology specialty training since 2014. Clinical Radiology is a competitive specialty which has historically filled at 100%. The 2025 expansion process is currently underway and will conclude later this year. This will consider the need for expansion in all medical specialties, including clinical radiology and clinical oncology, with the overall aim of ensuring Scotland has a sufficient supply of trained doctors coming through the system to meet anticipated future demand.

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 no current plans to amend the Forced Marriage etc. (Protection and Jurisdiction) (Scotland) Act 2011. Forced Marriage is illegal in Scotland and there are protections under civil and criminal law for any victims or potential victims.

Section 11 of the Forced Marriage etc. (Protection and Jurisdiction) (Scotland) Act 2011 imposes a duty on Scottish Ministers to give guidance on the effect of Part 1 that Act. Section 11(3) states that a person exercising public functions to whom guidance is given under section 11 must have regard to it in the exercise of those functions.

The statutory Forced Marriage Guidance, which is currently being refreshed, outlines the responsibilities of relevant public authorities for developing and maintaining local procedures and practices to enable their practitioners to handle cases of forced marriage effectively. The guidance makes clear that staff may have limited opportunity to speak to a potential victim and as such, must be aware of their responsibilities when they come across forced marriage cases.

There has been an expansion of 15 specialty training posts in Clinical Oncology (and an additional 6 in Medical Oncology) since 2014. The 2025 expansion process is currently underway and will conclude later this year. This will consider the need for expansion in all medical specialties, including clinical radiology and clinical oncology, with the overall aim of ensuring Scotland has a sufficient supply of trained doctors coming through the system to meet anticipated future demand .

Consultant oncologists have increased by 50%, from 102 headcount ten years ago (March 2014) to 153 headcount in March 2024 .

Internal Medicine Training is a pre-requisite for Clinical Oncology. The Scottish Government has provided funding for the creation of 64 additional Internal Medicine Specialty Training posts since 2021 in order to bolster the front-end supply into oncology.

The Scottish Government is also working with NHS Education for Scotland to increase visibility of careers in clinical oncology.

Any form of violence against women and girls is abhorrent and we recognise that minority ethnic women can experience culturally specific forms of abuse and violence, including from perpetrators outside of their immediate family.

We have established a network of experts to support and inform our work to address violence against BME women and girls, including consideration of any further action that may be required. This group will ensure the voices and needs of BME women are heard, and the specific issues they face, such as extended family abuse and honour-based abuse, are effectively tackled.