Chamber and committees

National Services Scotland are currently developing a Primary Care Data and Intelligence platform, which will provide a modern digital infrastructure to unlock the value of data from general practice, including prevalence data on neurological conditions. The platform will be delivered by March 2026, in line with commitments in the Care in the digital age: Delivery plan 2023-24 .

The First Minister's letter to the Prime Minister of 10 January was published on the Scottish Government website at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/first-minister-letter-prime-minister-post-office-horizon-cases/

Letters I sent to the Secretary of State for Justice, Alex Chalk MP, and the Minister for Enterprise, Markets and Small Business, Kevin Hollinrake MP and the letter which the Deputy First Minister sent to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations concerning legislation to reverse convictions that may have resulted from the use of Post Office Horizon evidence are available on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/publications/post-office-horizon/letters-to-uk-government.

It is for the UK Government to decide whether to publish letters sent with an expectation of confidence by UK Ministers to the Scottish Ministers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-25624 on 18 March 2024. 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 .

The Scottish and UK Governments are collaborating with the Regional Economic Partnerships for the Glasgow City Region and the North East of Scotland, as they develop compelling and complementary propositions for Scotland’s two Investment Zones. The proposals are still in development, but once finalised they will provide detail of sector, geography, and chosen interventions. We expect to have more information when that process completes.

Under the SQUIRe regime, Transport Scotland audits and scores ScotRail under set Service Schedules which include station staff and station tickets offices along with other important aspects like cleanliness and CCTV.

In each Service Schedule there are many aspects in which a failure notice may be attributed including staff uniform or ability to retail all tickets. In order for a pass to be granted it requires ScotRail to meet all aspects of the Schedule.

It is therefore correct that should ScotRail fail to meet the demands of each Service Schedule aspect that a failure notice is served thus affecting the score of that Schedule.

The SQUIRe regime is one of the toughest performance regimes in the UK with many of the target levels set at 90% or higher. ScotRail is required to address any issues identified during inspections as quickly as possible.

The Scottish Government is working collaboratively with the UK Government to establish a monitoring and evaluation framework to cover the Investment Zones in Scotland.

The information and metrics included within the framework will be determined by the detailed proposals provided by the Regional Economic Partnerships in Glasgow City and North East Region. The proposals are currently in progress, but will focus on the overall policy goals including innovation and fair work, and will link to the outcomes set out in the Investment Zones Technical Document , published on 8 December 2023.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in Wales and Northern Ireland, have noted the petition PE1997: Introduce mandatory braille labelling for food products sold in Scotland and the interest in Scotland around progressing this issue under the UK Food Compositional Standards and Labelling Common Framework. Defra have indicated that the UK Government has no immediate plans to initiate a public consultation on policy proposals for the introduction of mandatory braille labelling on food products, citing several factors that need to be explored before policy development can be considered on a UK-wide basis. This includes how viable braille labelling would be on a wide range of packaging, as well as the relative effectiveness and associated costs alongside using alternative different digital technologies. FSS intend to initiate stakeholder engagement in this respect during the 2024-25 business year and will keep the other UK lead departments updated at Common Framework discussions.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-26075 on 18 March 2024, which outlines the progress the Scottish Government has made in moving towards a targeted lung cancer screening programme.

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 .

The most recent discussions that Transport Scotland has had with East Ayrshire Council regarding Bellfield Interchange were in 2022. Transport Scotland has engaged with the Council throughout the preparation of the forthcoming second Local Development Plan (LDP2), which has identified that a package of works is required at Bellfield to facilitate development in East Ayrshire.

Officials have been consistent in their advice to the Council that any potential impact to the trunk road network, as a result of development, will require to be mitigated to an acceptable level.

Notwithstanding this, I have written to East Ayrshire Council in August 2023 and March 2024 offering a meeting with officials at Transport Scotland to discuss Bellfield Interchange.

The Scottish Government has welcomed the recommendation from the UK National Screening Committee (NSC) that the 4 UK Nations should move towards implementing a programme of targeted lung screening for those between 55-74 with a history of smoking.

The Scottish Expert Advisory Group (SEAG) was established to assess the specific challenges and opportunities for a Scottish programme. The SEAG met for the first time in August 2023. Further meetings are scheduled in the coming months as part of work to develop a business case.

The complexity of the challenge means a national screening programme is likely to take years rather than months to implement. Until the business case is complete, we cannot provide timings for implementation or specifics relating to implementation and annual running costs.

Lung cancer remains a national priority, which is why the Scottish Government has a dedicated chapter in our £114.5 million National Cancer Plan, and last December we redesigned lung cancer diagnostic services to help ensure patients receive faster access to treatment.