Chamber and committees

Any large infrastructure organisation that provides an essential service requires significant access to cash to maintain its activities and to respond to unforeseen events. Scottish Water’s cash balances each year are largely a function of when the business borrows from the Scottish Government relative to when capital investments are made; unlike similar infrastructure businesses, Scottish Water does not have access to any other credit facilities. Some of that capital investment will be on projects not delivered in the preceding regulatory period. Furthermore, at any point in time Scottish Water has on-going investment projects and hence has contractual commitments with its delivery partners and it must ensure it has sufficient funds to meet those contractual commitments. At 31 March 2022 Scottish Water had contractual capital commitments of £455.6m and at 31 March 2021 this figure was £541.4m, hence my comments in the Scottish Parliament on 18 May 2022 that Scottish Water's cash balance is ''substantially allocated at any time to investment projects''.

NHS Scotland and the Scottish Government remains focused on delivering high-quality care in the safest possible way for patients of all cancer types, including blood cancers.

The National Cancer Plan, published on 9 December 2020, includes actions to improve access to treatments for all cancers.

The Covid-19 National Cancer Medicines Advisory Group (NCMAG) was established to oversee interim governance arrangements for cancer medicines in response to the impact of Covid-19 on the health service. These arrangements include two new medicines approved for use with patients with leukaemia, a type of blood cancer.

We have established the Scottish Cancer Network, which is a dedicated national resource to support and facilitate a ‘Once for Scotland’ approach to cancer services. Its aim is to enable equitable access to care and treatment across Scotland.

Lastly, an updated Framework for Effective Cancer Management was published on 3 December 2021. It supports clinicians and NHS managers to drive improvements in cancer pathways, including blood cancers, providing Health Boards with the tools to effectively manage cancer patients and ultimately recover waiting times.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11011 on 4 October 2022. 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11011 on 4 October 2022. 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

Ministers’ charging policies and Objectives for the water industry are clearly set out in the key framework documents that can be found on the Scottish Government’s website. Current circumstances facing the industry, indeed the country at large, are undoubtedly challenging and the Scottish Government will maintain regular dialogue with Scottish Water to support the continued delivery of all of Ministers’ Objectives over the current regulatory period. The affordability of charges is a matter for Scottish Water’s Board to consider alongside the requirement to meet its other statutory obligations. WICS has no powers to require a particular outcome in the charge setting process beyond setting the charge caps which are established to protect customers.

No plans were made for the First Minister, or any other Minister, to attend the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

The Minister for Environment and Land Reform represented Scotland at the Under 2 Coalition General Assembly, held during the recent 'Climate Week NYC'. Further details of this engagement will be reported to Parliament shortly.

Overseas visits undertaken by Scottish Ministers help protect and enhance Scotland’s interests, improve global networks, unlock new economic and trading opportunities and create domestic opportunities and benefits for the people of Scotland. For security reasons we do not comment on the future travel plans of the First Minister.

The Scottish Government is aware that the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) now recommend that the four UK countries should move toward the implementation of a targeted screening programme for lung cancer in adults aged 55-74 with a history of smoking.

The Scottish Government welcomes this recommendation, though notes that the UK NSC also acknowledges the significant complexities that must be worked through ahead of implementation. Scotland will play an active part in that work. The Scottish Government will also follow the advice of the National Screening Oversight (NSO) and Scottish Screening Committee (SSC) who will consider how the recommendation can best be taken forward in Scotland.

In the meantime, we have agreed to fund a one year extension of the University of Edinburgh’s feasibility study, LungScot, into targeted lung health checks for high risk individuals. This will help to inform future approaches.

I refer the member to the answer to S6W-10989 on 3 October 2022. 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 .

I refer the member to the answer to S6W-10989 on 3 October 2022. 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 .