Chamber and committees

On 29 June, I met with women affected by Depo-Provera® to listen directly to their experiences and concerns. I was grateful for the opportunity to hear their accounts and to better understand the challenges they face.

At that meeting, I agreed that the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer would issue a letter directly to healthcare professionals in Scotland to ensure that they (1) are aware of the risks associated with the long-term use of Depo-Provera®, (2) describe these risks clearly to women, (3) review prescribing of Depo-Provera® every two years, in line with the Faculty of Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare guidance, and (4) are aware of any actions they should take in the event that a meningioma is suspected.

The letter will also emphasise the importance of Yellow Card reporting of Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs). The MHRA’s UK-wide Yellow Card reporting system collects data on ADRs and the MHRA monitors these as part of its pharmacovigilance responsibility. Healthcare professionals and/or any member of the public who suffers a suspected ADR should complete and send a Yellow Card report which is used to identify and monitor medicine safety.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of understanding the factors that can affect men's health and wellbeing, including depression, separation from family and substance use. These issues can be complex and interconnected, and we continue to support research and evidence-gathering activity through collaboration with Public Health Scotland, academic institutions and other partners to improve understanding of their causes and impacts.

The Scottish Government invests in a range of services that support mental health, recovery from substance use, and people experiencing adverse life circumstances and trauma. This includes working with partners across the public and third sectors to improve outcomes for men.

Through the Delivering Equally Safe Fund, we are supporting the Men’s Advice Line, which provides practical advice and emotional support to men experiencing domestic abuse. More broadly, community-based organisations across Scotland provide targeted mental health and wellbeing support for men, including peer-support and suicide-prevention services. This includes funding the Changing Room: Extra Time programme, which uses football as a hook to help men learn about and understand their mental health and wellbeing together with their peers.

We are continuing to work with NHS Boards, local authorities, COSLA, the third sector and other delivery partners to improve access to neurodevelopmental support for children, young people and adults across Scotland, including in the Highlands and Islands parliamentary region.

For children and young people, this includes delivering the actions set out in the implementation review of the National Neurodevelopmental Specification for Children and Young People through our work with COSLA and the Children and Young People’s Neurodevelopmental Taskforce.

For adults, we are working with partners to take forward the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland’s four-tier national pathway for neurodevelopmental conditions, helping ensure people can access support based on need, whether or not they have a formal diagnosis.

Over £2.9 million of funding in 2025-26 is supporting projects to improve access to neurodevelopmental support across Scotland, while the £2.5 million Autistic Adult Support Fund continues to support autistic adults in communities across the country. The 2026-27 Budget includes additional investment of £7.6 million to enable improvements in neurodevelopmental support for children and young people.

While a diagnosis can be important for some people and their wellbeing, in line with GIRFEC, GIRFE and our National Neurodevelopmental Specification for Children and Young People, the Scottish Government’s priority is ensuring people receive the right support, at the right time, based on their needs - and not be required to wait for a diagnosis to access help.

In 2025-26, we provided over £2.9 million additional funding to a number of organisations and projects to improve access to neurodevelopmental support. The 2026-27 Budget includes additional investment of £7.6 million to enable improvements in neurodevelopmental support for children and young people. We also continue to invest in community support through our £2.5 million Autistic Adult Support Fund.

The regulation and licensing of medicines is reserved to the UK Government and is a matter for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

The decision to market a product in the UK rests with the pharmaceutical company. Neither the MHRA nor the UK or Scottish Governments can compel a pharmaceutical company to seek a marketing authorisation for, or supply, a product in the UK market.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer (CPO) for Scotland has discussed the issue with Pfizer representatives who advised that the company is continuing to assess whether it will pursue a UK marketing authorisation for its Solu-Cortef Act-O-Vial® 100 mg/2 mL injection.

The Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce considered miscarriage services at its meetings on 26 February and 25 March. The minutes of the Taskforce have been published on the Scottish Government website (Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce - gov.scot)

Ministers are currently considering the role and remit of the Taskforce and how it works alongside the independent review of maternity services which commences in September 2026.

The data collected in March 2025 by SPICe is taken from a request to health boards on estimates of children and young people seeking an assessment. The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of children and young people on waiting lists.

However, we do know that in recent years there has been an increase in people seeking a neurodevelopmental diagnosis, resulting in pressure across a variety of services.

The Scottish Government approach prioritises providing timely access to support that meets children and young people’s neurodevelopmental support needs rather than diagnosis.

The National Neurodevelopmental Specification, which was published in 2021, aims to ensure that children and young people receive the support and access to services that meet their needs at the earliest opportunity. It is clear that support should not be dependent on a formal diagnostic assessment.

Last year, in partnership with COSLA, we undertook a Review of implementation of the Specification. This helped us understand what is working well and where further action is needed – it highlighted the significant pressures facing services and the need for clearer national direction and practical support to deliver timely, neuro-affirming care across Scotland.

Following the Review, we committed to delivering a programme of work to support health boards and local authorities to deliver the aims of the Specification. Delivery is being supported by a cross-sector Children and Young People’s Neurodevelopment Taskforce, bringing together expertise from health, education, local government and the third sector to ensure a collaborative, whole-systems approach is being taken.

Within the Scottish Government, policy responsibility for Health and Care Research sits with the Chief Scientist Office (CSO).

CSO runs a number of research project and fellowship funding programmes. These are open to applications for research across the clinical spectrum, including mesothelioma. These funding opportunities are well known among the health research community in Scotland. All applications go through a rigorous independent expert review process to enable funding decisions to be made.

Response Mode Funding Schemes – Chief Scientist Office

Fellowship Funding – Chief Scientist Office

There are no current projects or fellowships in Mesothelioma.

In 2018, CSO provided approximately £28K in funding support for a Postdoctoral Clinical Lectureship entitled "Manipulating the immune microenvironment in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma" - Dr Claire Rooney University of Glasgow.

In addition to directly funding research projects and fellowships, CSO provides research support infrastructure funding to support the delivery of clinical studies in the NHS in Scotland. The NHS Research Scotland Cancer Network is funded by CSO to increase, support and sustain clinical trial activity in cancer care across Scotland. Cancer | NHS Research Scotland | NHS Research Scotland.

The NRS Cancer Network is supporting the delivery of a number of Clinical Trials in Mesothelioma including PREDICT-Meso which is led by Professor Kevin Blyth from the University of Glasgow.

The aim of PREDICT- Meso to understand how mesothelioma develops and to develop new therapies and tools for new human trials. PREDICT-Meso is funded by CRUK (£5M) and currently involves 230 investigators from 130 institutions in 17 countries https://www.predictmeso.com/.

CAMHS is a specialist service for children and young people with acute mental health needs, and referrals are based on clinical judgement.

Our CAMHS Service specification, published in 2020, highlights that all children and young people should receive support that is appropriate to their individual needs. For many children and young people, such support is likely to be community based, and should be easily and quickly accessible.

Sustained improvements in CAMHS performance mean that the national 18-week standard has been met for over a year. 91% of children and young people start treatment within 18 weeks of referral, with one in two beginning treatment within six weeks.

We are working with Health Boards to ensure that there is compliance with the specification and that they are delivering timely access to appropriate support for children, young people and their families.

We are focusing care for the smallest and sickest babies in three neonatal intensive care units in Scotland. This decision is based on clear evidence that that the outcomes for these babies, who are born at less than 27 weeks gestation, or who need multiple complex life support interventions or surgery, are improved when they are born and cared for in a unit where that specialist care is concentrated, with a high throughput of cases, and where support services are co-located. The vast majority of sick babies will continue to be cared for in local neonatal units, and these units will continue to provide a level of intensive care. It is important that we continue to move forward with implementation of this change, it is what families would expect us to do.

The Taskforce has met three times. A paper on neonatal priorities was shared at the third meeting, however that paper did not propose reconsideration of the location of neonatal intensive care units in Scotland.