Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people living with lower gastrointestinal symptoms in Scotland are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care.

We have funded the Modernising Patient Pathways Programme (MPPP) which has a specific workstream continuing to promote improvements in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) care for patients across Scotland in partnership with third sector and people with lived experience. Scotland’s national IBD Steering Group has identified priority areas for work over the next two years. This includes consideration of referral pathways and models of IBD care to drive a more standardised and equitable service across Scotland. Work on the pathways started last month and should be completed next year.

Scotland already has the most generous childcare offer anywhere in the UK. We offer 1140 hours of high quality funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) to all 3 and 4-year-olds and eligible two-year-olds, regardless of the working status of their parents.

New Leadership: A Fresh Start ( Supporting documents - Equality, opportunity, community: New leadership - A fresh start - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ) sets out our ambition to go further by building a system of school age childcare and developing a funded early learning and childcare offer for 1 and 2 year olds, focusing on those who need it most.

I will soon set out further detail of my plans for further expansion of our childcare offer. We are already developing our plans for younger children, starting in this Parliament, by building the evidence base for funded early learning and childcare for 1- and 2-year-olds. Ministers are considering carefully the financial implications of the UK Budget for Scotland, but we need to be clear that the total additional funding made available falls far short of the costs of delivering a significant expansion to our funded childcare offers.

The Scottish Government received £199 million in Barnett Consequentials in respect of the UK Government’s 75% relief for Retail, Hospitality and Leisure sectors in 2023-24.

The Scottish Government needs to consider its funding availability in totality and not by isolating each and every line of UK consequential funding. Decisions in the budget are taken in that context and the Scottish Budget delivered the number one ask of the business community by freezing the non-domestic rates poundage.

Delivering the freeze in the poundage came at a forecast cost of £308 million, in contrast with only £169 million of Barnett consequentials received for the equivalent policy in England. Despite this, the Scottish Government continues to deliver a number of other reliefs that are not available to businesses in England including Day Nursery relief, Fresh Start relief, the Business Growth Accelerator relief, and the UK’s most generous relief package for the renewable energy-generating sector.

The following table sets how many Gastroenterology training posts were advertised and filled in Scotland in each year since 2019. The 2023 recruitment cycle is currently underway; results will be available later in the year.

There are 111.9 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) Gastroenterology consultants in post in Scotland, with 10.1 WTE vacancies. This data is accurate as of December 2022.

There are 47 training posts across all years of the Gastroenterology training programme, all of which are filled. There are no vacant training posts. This data is accurate as of December 2022.

The following table includes data on the number of Gastroenterology trainees who have completed training and attained a CCT (Certificate of Completion of Training) in each year since 2019. Trainees must obtain a CCT in order to practice as a consultant.

Transport Scotland on behalf of Scottish Ministers is responsible for managing, maintaining and improving Scotland’s trunk road and motorway network. The statutory responsibility for local roads improvement, maintenance and repair lies with local road authorities.

Trunk road works are developed and planned to minimise disruption to businesses, local communities and the travelling public. For major capital projects or maintenance works, road closures and operations at peak times are avoided where possible, with works often planned overnight. Other key matters that are balanced in scheduling works include the safety of the public and operatives, environmental issues, impacts on the surrounding transport networks and local stakeholder feedback.

Depending on the size, duration, traffic management proposals or expected disruption from a project or scheme, formal consultation is undertaken with affected groups and feedback incorporated where safe to do so. Advance notice of road works is conveyed through press releases, local/national radio, social media and road signage to enable road users to plan their journeys accordingly during times of disruption. Disruption is then monitored by Traffic Scotland and works contractors, with information being passed to the public via radio and website updates and on variable message signs. Traffic management arrangements are reviewed and amended where possible to mitigate significant delays.

This commitment to our customer-focussed approach is key to safely and effectively operating the trunk network during periods of essential works.

For environmental impacts, all projects and maintenance works on the trunk road network are robustly assessed for their potential effects. Proposals are screened by environmental specialists and a record of the assessment is prepared, which includes the mitigations that will be implemented in order to avoid or minimise any environmental impact. The assessment process ensures that legislative requirements are met and best practices are implemented to minimise any environmental effects.

All of our major trunk road projects are subject to detailed review and assessment work to ensure we keep impacts on the environment to the absolute minimum. Compliance with environmental commitments is monitored as construction work progresses.

Delivery partners are responsible for awareness raising and promotion of Scottish employability services, and use a variety of channels for this including social media. The Scottish Government’s Employability social media promotional activity to date has not used the TikTok platform.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water [and this data is not held by Scottish Government] I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

In respect of published guidelines on reporting, Scottish Water is not currently required to report the number of days for which overflow event monitoring is unavailable. Overflow events are calculated in January using available telemetry data downloaded throughout the year.

As part of Scottish Water’s annual reporting of overflow events, a lack of data available would be noted within the commentary along with any additional explanatory information.

As outlined within Scottish Water’s Improving Urban Waters Routemap, there is significant investment underway to increase data monitors on our overflows by 2024. As part of this work, data capture and availability is being reviewed to allow further enhancements. In due course, we will publish information on the number of days for which monitors are unavailable to support the reporting of 2023 overflow events in January 2024.