Chamber and committees

Many specialist medicines, often referred to as "biologics", and including the disease modifying medicines for multiple sclerosis (MS), are normally managed by secondary care specialists, but supplied to patients in their homes, most often by homecare medicines (HCM) suppliers. A number of these companies operate in the Scottish market.

The national HCM dataset is a relatively new resource and is still developing as new suppliers come onstream and start providing data (including, where available, retrospective data from January 2019). As a new resource, and because these medicines can have multiple supply models, work is being undertaken to validate the completeness and accuracy of the national HCM dataset in comparison with local registries, where local registries are available.

It is anticipated that, in the future, the national HCM dataset, either itself or through linkage with other datasets, will become a valuable resource in helping to better understand treatments pathways and the beneficial outcomes or otherwise from these types of medicines, as well as helping to identify any unwarranted variation in clinical practice or access to treatment.

Over 13,100 families have benefited from the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) programme since it began in 2010 with, on average, over 81% of mothers offered the programme taking it up.

Social Security Scotland routinely releases information on Funeral Support Payment including applications received, application outcomes and payments.

The following table shows total applications processed and the application outcomes by financial year since 2021-22.

The Scottish Government published the Funeral Support Payment evaluation in July 2022, which found that the payment reduced the need for people to borrow money to arrange a funeral.

Social Security Scotland’s annual client survey monitors the impact of benefit payments. Respondents to the most recent survey in 2022-23 rated Funeral Support Payment an average of 8.7 out of 10 when asked to rate how much benefit payments had helped make a difference to their lives.

We are committed to continually improving Scottish benefits. As a result of evaluation findings and learnings since Funeral Support Payment was launched in 2019, we have recently introduced regulations into Parliament to make improvements to the payment, further supporting bereaved people.

Social Security Scotland routinely releases information on Funeral Support Payment including applications received, application outcomes and payments.

The latest statistics show that 6,100 payments were made in 2021-22 financial year, 5,020 payments were made in 2022-23 financial year and 6,735 payments were made in 2023-24 financial year. The latest published statistics cover to 30 June 2024 and show that 1,510 payments had been issued in the first three months of the 2024-25 financial year.

The latest statistics publication for this benefit can be found at: Social Security Scotland - Funeral Support Payment Statistics.

The Family Nurse Partnership has been carefully scaled up with quality since its introduction in 2010 and Scotland became the first country in the world to deliver FNP at scale in 2018.

The programme is delivered in 11 mainland health boards as follows:

• NHS Ayrshire and Arran
• NHS Borders
• NHS Dumfries and Galloway
• NHS Fife
• NHS Forth Valley
• NHS Grampian
• NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
• NHS Highland
• NHS Lanarkshire
• NHS Lothian
• NHS Tayside

Scottish Ministers are under an annual statutory duty to consider and report on the impact of inflation on the rate of Funeral Support Payment, and to bring forward legislation to increase the payment in line with that report. In 2024-25 the flat rate was increased by 6.7%, in line with September CPI. The higher flat rate payment is £1,257.75 and the lower flat rate is £153.50.

The UK Government equivalent, Funeral Expenses Payment, does not increase annually in line with inflation.

The Scottish Government is committed to providing financial support for bereaved people on a low-income.

Funeral Support Payment has provided £51.1 million of support to over 26,000 people since launching in September 2019. The average award for 2024-25, up to 30 June 2024, is £2,065. There is a statutory duty to uprate the payment and in 2024/25 we increased the flat rate payment by 6.7%.

We are committed to continually reviewing and improving Funeral Support Payment; we substantially widened eligibility compared to the UK Government’s Funeral Expenses Payment at launch and have recently introduced legislation to make further improvements.

The Small Vessels Replacement Programme (SVRP) Phase 2 will primarily focus on the Berneray–Leverburgh and Barra–Eriskay routes with a vessel on each of these routes. The third vessel’s deployment is still to be confirmed and is subject to fleet cascades following the successful deployment of the planned 7 new vessels of SVRP Phase 1.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29878 on 27 September 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.