Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to S6W-11396 on 1 November 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 .

Cancer services do not sit in silo, they cross-cut numerous specialties and teams which have been greatly affected by the pandemic, including diagnostics. While those referred as an urgent suspicion of cancer (USC) continue to be prioritised and more patients were treated on a 62-day pathway in the latest published quarter (Q2 2022) compared to pre-COVID, clearly recovery will take time. This is why we published our NHS Recovery Plan in August 2021. It reinforces our commitment to continue to invest in cancer pathways - £10 million was released to Boards in August 2022 – and our ambition to maintain the 31-day standard and achieve the 62-day standard on a sustainable basis.

Our National Cancer Plan set out to recover and redesign cancer services, with 68 individual actions across the patient pathway to improve patients’ experience of care, and roll-out innovative treatments. The plan adopts a ‘Once for Scotland’ approach to cancer services and ensures that access to care and treatment is equitable across Scotland.

A number of women have been assessed at the specialist service in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and have subsequently requested onward referral to the independent providers. It is the responsibility of the patient’s local Health Board to make that referral and, in a number of cases, this has already occurred whilst, in others, preparations for referral are ongoing.

Neither the Scottish Government nor NHS National Services Scotland are able to confirm specifically when any patient will travel to the USA or Bristol for treatment, as the scheduling of surgery is dependent on clinical review by the provider and their subsequent acceptance of the case in question.

In light of the small number of patients referred, it would not be appropriate to disclose exact numbers due to the potential risk to patient confidentiality.

The reimbursement scheme established under the Transvaginal Mesh Removal (Cost Reimbursement) (Scotland) Act 2022 is concerned with the reimbursement of costs associated mesh removal surgery arranged by women privately, where such arrangements were made on or before 3 June 2022. The scheme has no function in relation to the commissioning by NHS Scotland of mesh removal surgery from independent providers.

Mesh removal surgery commissioned from independent providers by NHS Scotland, in the UK or elsewhere, is arranged under Health Boards’ general powers, and there is no time limit on such arrangements being made.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11635 on‎ 14 November 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

Evidence and data play an important part in efficient policy delivery. Our commitment to continue to improve on our data and evaluation efforts is highlighted as part of the revised evaluation strategy to tackle child poverty. The Scottish Government publish child poverty estimates by detailed ethnic group and since March 2022, time series for ethnicity breakdowns have also been published, including for child poverty estimates by detailed ethnic group. The Scottish Government is happy to support CRER – and any stakeholders – with finding our published data and producing ad-hoc analysis.

Whilst recognising the important role of detailed statistical data, our tackling child poverty delivery plan is clear that an intersectional approach is needed to support priority families. Beyond statistical analysis, our action to tackle child poverty is based on a strong evidence base identifying the main drivers of poverty, as the CRER report acknowledges. To design policies that specifically help minority ethnic families, further evidence has been published to widen our understanding. This includes a detailed focus report on minority ethnic families, a summary update on drivers of poverty for all priority family types which fed into the development of ‘Best Start, Bright Futures’ and detailed understanding of what works to tackle child poverty.

Please see the details of contracts awarded to private companies to undertake work regarding the establishment of a National Care Service in the following table.

We awarded a contract through a competitive tender for independent VAT advice from Anderson Anderson & Brown LLP. AAB have been commissioned to provide advice and support to Scottish Government employees on VAT implications, to produce an options paper exploring the VAT implications of different NCS scenarios, and to produce a final report on the considerations of VAT and eventual outcome. This work is ongoing.

We awarded a contract through a competitive tender for independent VAT advice from Anderson Anderson & Brown LLP. AAB have been commissioned to provide advice and support to SG on VAT implications. This work is ongoing. We will engage with the wider sector and HMT prior to any decision being taken which would have a VAT impact.

After competitive tender, a contract was awarded to Anderson Anderson & Brown LLP to obtain expert independent advice on the implications of VAT on the NCS and associated Care Boards. No decisions have been made at this point and a full understanding of the impact of all options will be considered.

In 2022-23, funding of £18 billion is provided for health and social care. This substantial investment is already benefitting a range of services that are supporting the needs of people living with long COVID.

Health funding for 2023-24 will be confirmed through the forthcoming budget process.

We engage with NHS Boards on a regular basis regarding their capacity needs, and will continue to do so in order to inform the allocation of the long COVID Support Fund.