Chamber and committees

Decisions on the organisation of diagnostic, treatment and follow-up services rest with individual NHS Boards. The information requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government remains focused on reducing waiting times across Scotland. This year, we have allocated more than £137 million to Health Boards to help tackle the longest waits for appointments and procedures.

Funding has been directed to specialties where it can have the greatest impact against the longest waits, including over £500,000 for Cardiology and £500,000 for Neurology – the specialities most likely to support people with PoTS.

Clinical pathways are designed and delivered by individual NHS Boards in line with local service structures and population needs. The information requested is not held centrally.

Responsibility for service delivery rests with NHS boards which configure services based on local circumstances and the reasonable needs of their populations.

The Scottish Government expects all NHS Boards to provide high-quality, safe and effective person-centred care and support for everyone, including people with postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS).

Self-assessment for income tax is reserved to the UK Government, however given the devolved nature of childminding legislation and regulation, it is disappointing childminders in Scotland were not consulted regarding changes to the administration of the wear and tear tax relief allowance.

Scottish Ministers are considering the concerns raised by childminders and in correspondence from the Scottish Childminding Association and will make representations to the UK Government on behalf of Scottish childminders, recognising the reserved nature of self-assessment for income tax.

Our support for the childminding sector in 2025-26 included a further £1.6m funding for the Scottish Childminding Association to continue delivering a national programme of childminder recruitment and retention.

Childminders are a vital part of our childcare sector providing nurturing, flexible, high-quality care which is why we continued our support in 2025-26 with a further £1.6m funding for the Scottish Childminding Association to continue delivering a national programme of recruitment and retention.

The Scottish Government works closely with the Scottish Childminding Association and other partners across the childcare sector to understand concerns from childminders and other childcare providers so that these issues can be factored into ongoing policy development.

The Scottish Government continually monitors the cyber threat landscape and works closely with public sector bodies to help prevent and mitigate cyber-attacks that may affect digital public services in Scotland.

The public sector delivers a wide range of digital services, and it is essential that these are secure and resilient. The Scottish Government works collaboratively with the UK Government and public bodies, including The Digital Office for Scottish Local Government, Police Scotland and the National Cyber Security Centre to share advice, guidance, threat intelligence and good practice to strengthen cyber resilience across the public sector.

To support this, the Scottish Government set out a revised Strategic Framework for a Cyber Resilient Scotland, providing guidance on how the public sector should:

• Assess their cyber resilience maturity,
• Align with minimum security standards,
• Benchmark performance, and
• Prioritise investment based on risk.

The Scottish Government has in place the Notifiable Scottish Public Sector Cyber Incidents Procedure. This is a voluntary process which encourages all public sector bodies to report cyber incidents to the Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre (the SC3). The process also encourages reporting of cyber incidents to the Scottish Government, National Cyber Security Centre and Police Scotland, where appropriate, to ensure quick response and recovery.

The NHS inform webpage for cervical screening has been updated to highlight that cervical cancer screening cannot detect other cancers of the reproductive system, such as ovarian cancer. In addition, NHS Scotland’s Get Checked Early cervical screening webpage also advises cervical screening cannot detect other cancers.

Public Health Scotland have also confirmed that cervical screening public information resources, such as the information leaflets provided to women invited for cervical cancer screening, will be updated to make it clear cervical screening cannot detect other cancers. These resources are due to be published and distributed later this year.

We want people who need continence support to receive the care that is right for them and their medical circumstances, including those with palliative care needs.

Patient assessment and the subsequent prescription of continence products are typically the responsibility of local continence teams given their specialist knowledge. GPs would not be expected to play a role in the prescription of continence products after a patient has been referred to, and assessed by, the Board’s continence team. Given this, we would expect any changes to a patient’s prescription to be agreed by the continence team to ensure that the new product is appropriate for the patient and will fully meet their needs.

It is also important to reflect that community Practitioner Nurse Prescribers (who are mainly district nurses, specialist community public health nurses (formerly health visitors), and school nurses) with prescribing qualifications known as v100 or v150 qualifications, can prescribe any appliance or reagent in the relevant Drug Tariff from the Nurse Prescribers Formulary (NPF) for Community Practitioners, including incontinence appliances to help ensure that patients are supported appropriately and their dignity is respected. As such we currently have no plans to review prescribing powers.

It is for Health Boards and their planning partners to design, resource and provide services that meet the needs of local people in line with national policies, frameworks and best practice. This includes ensuring that patients have access to the continence products that they require when they need them.