Chamber and committees

The SPCB provides a free school engagement programme. Our Education Services staff deliver sessions and tours at the Parliament, online, and visit schools across Scotland. Digital and outreach education sessions are popular and especially appreciated by those who don’t want to travel to Edinburgh or who find coming to Edinburgh to be too challenging. Last school year, we reached schools in 69 out of 73 constituencies, and expect to reach all constituencies by the end of June 2024.

The SPCB commissioned a review into how best to deliver our education services in the most effective and inclusive way post Covid. As part of this review, our education team has engaged with schools from across Scotland to fully understand their barriers to accessing our services.

We know from this that the cost of travel can be a significant barrier, and similarly so can time out of the classroom, support availability, and transport options.  There is no single solution that addresses all barriers and we have asked officials to undertake some further work. The SPCB will consider the matter again later in 2024.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring safe and equitable access to screening for the eligible population. In collaboration with NHS National Services Scotland, NHS Scotland, and representatives from the third sector and academia, the Equity in Screening Strategy 2023-2026 was published in July 2023. The strategy commits to exploring opportunities to offer a greater variety of service provision, including appointments outwith core hours and in a variety of locations. An action plan is currently in progress, and a group has been established to take the recommendations within the Strategy forward.

In addition, the Breast Screening Modernisation Board is taking forward recommendations from the Major Review of the Breast Screening Programme , published in 2021. This includes increasing the convenience of appointments, such as providing more regular evening and weekend appointments for those who find it hard to adjust weekday commitments or rely on support from others.

Most cervical screening is performed within GP practices, and therefore the appointment times are dependent on their opening hours. However, the Scottish Government is committed to exploring the potential for implementing self-sampling in the home for cervical screening and acknowledges that it has the potential to increase uptake levels and reduce barriers to cervical screening.

The introduction of self-sampling within cervical screening is dependent on a recommendation by the expert UK National Screening Committee (NSC), based on an assessment of the available evidence. We are aware that the UK NSC is currently considering this actively.

The average time taken to determine planning applications for major housing developments is provided Table 1.

The Scottish Government sympathises with those who are experiencing financial uncertainty as a result of delays in this development, either due to a change in personal circumstances or having to arrange a new mortgage agreement. We are aware that the increase in mortgage rates will make it more difficult for many purchasers across the housing market to both obtain mortgage lending or access it due to a decreased number of products available, even with the financial assistance available through New Supply Shared Equity.

The Community Hospital group has met in its current format since June 2023. The membership comprises professional advisors, NHS and HSCP clinicians, managers and leaders, and Scottish Government officials. It last met on 24 January 2024. The attendees discussed ongoing improvement work in different health board areas, and time was allocated for collaboration and networking to facilitate sharing of experience and good practice across Scottish community hospital settings.

The Scottish Government has not had any correspondence with Sanctuary or Cruden regarding delays to The Victoria development in Glasgow. Glasgow City Council receives funding for its affordable housing supply programme (AHSP) from the Scottish Government through the Transfer of Management of Development Funding (TMDF) arrangement. Working in partnership with local housing providers, the Council is responsible for the management and delivery of the housing programme, which includes The Victoria development, on behalf of Scottish Ministers.

The Scottish Government has not provided any funding to Garnethill Multicultural Centre since 2019, therefore, no objectives have been set.

The Scottish Government works closely with the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) to support delivery of improvement programmes, including the Urgent and Unscheduled Care collaborative, to ensure sustainable ways of delivering services, improving access for patients, and reducing unnecessary demand for services. While we monitor progress through discussion with CFSD and NHS Boards, we will provide updates on progress against specific pathways in our NHS Recovery Plan annual update.

Following open competition, the Picker Institute has been awarded the contract to evaluate the Redesign of Urgent Care pathway. The cost of the project was £90,000 and final report will be published on the Scottish Government website in the summer.

I thank the Member for their question. The SPCB will consider this suggestion in due course.

Of the 36,100 premises connected so far through the R100 contracts, 1,600 have been connected through Fibre To The Cabinet broadband which can provide a minimum of a superfast service. The remaining 34,500 connections have been delivered utilising Fibre To The Premises which is capable of delivering a gigabit broadband service.