Chamber and committees

Safe access zones have been established by national legislation in Northern Ireland, and in some local authority areas in England using Public Spaces Protection Orders. The Scottish Government has given careful consideration to both approaches, and has engaged with officials from these administrations to learn from their experiences of implementation. Officials also continue to engage with UK Government counterparts as they work to bring national legislative provisions into force that will establish safe access zones in England and Wales, as well as with officials from the Republic of Ireland, where a bill to establish zones is currently making its way through the National Parliament (Oireachtas).

This consideration and engagement has informed the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill; however, the Bill reflects Scotland’s particular circumstances and requirements.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

On 09 October 2023, there were 36 cells, containing two or more individuals across the prison estate, which had a living space of less than 7m²: 1 cell at HMP Dumfries and 35 cells at HMP Edinburgh.

Information on how many hospital pharmacists have been employed in each NHS board area in each year since 2012, can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at https://turasdata.nes.nhs.scot .

Data is not held from before 2012. The following figures include all pharmacists working in any territorial board, in Acute, Mental Health, or in a Community Hospital setting. It excludes ‘central staff’ since some of these were employed in primary care, but includes Golden Jubilee National Hospital and National Waiting Times Centre staff. Figures provided are head count.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) data is provided below on numbers of patients receiving abortion treatment in a Health Board other than their Board of residence.

It is not possible to distinguish how many patients had to receive treatment in another Health Board or how many chose to do so.

Number of terminations where Board of treatment is different from Board of residence, Scotland, 2019 to 2022.

The Scottish Government has engaged extensively with stakeholders to ensure as wide a range of views as possible were taken into consideration during the development of the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill. While there has been no engagement between Ministers and their counterparts across the United Kingdom, there has been regular contact at official level.

We continue to monitor the impact and effectiveness of the Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) and keep this under review.

Since the publication of the Respiratory Care Action Plan for Scotland (RCAP), the Scottish Government has established the Scottish Respiratory Advisory Committee (SRAC) to oversee its implementation.

Since publication of the Plan, the SRAC identified three initial areas of focus: child to adult transition, pulmonary rehab and respiratory data.

The Child to Adult Transitions subgroup has produced a set of recommendations to ensure children with asthma and other respiratory conditions have the best possible care and treatment as they move into adult service.

We are continuing to focus on improving access to pulmonary rehabilitation. The British Thoracic Society recently published a refreshed quality statement on pulmonary rehab . We are working closely with services across Scotland to identify improvements in delivery and to ensure more people have access.

Public Health Scotland have been commissioned to begin scoping work to develop a respiratory audit programme. This will allow us to monitor the delivery of the RCAP and ensure people are receiving the best possible care, treatment and support for respiratory conditions.

In addition, the Respiratory Specialist Delivery Group (SDG) at the Centre for Sustainability Delivery (CfSD) is progressing significant improvements across a vast range of services, teams, and NHS Boards. This work aligns with the commitments in the RCAP, and we are working closely with the CfSD to ensure that these links continue.

The Scottish Government is working to take forward the action in the Women’s Health Plan that seek to enable all patients to access mid-trimester abortion care locally or regionally. Progress has been made, with all mainland NHS Boards now offering services up to at least 20 weeks’ gestation as recommended by the 2022 Healthcare Improvement Scotland Sexual Health Standards.

The Scottish Government commissioned NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) to develop a specification to deliver a national service for abortions between 20 to 24 weeks gestation within Scotland. NSS has been discussing its specification with NHS Boards and is also exploring other delivery options for the service.

We are also working with individual NHS Boards to support clinicians who wish to receive training to deliver later stage abortions to be granted funding to do so, and to encourage NHS Boards to ensure that patients close to 20 weeks’ gestation are prioritised for appointments.

The Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) has been available since July 2021. We ask NHS Boards to report on the number of young inpatients (and therefore families) who benefit from the Fund.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-16109 on 3 April 2023 in relation to families supported through YPFF in 2021-22.

Since YPFF was established in 2021 NHS Boards reported that 6887 families were supported through YPFF.

The priorities for any future Women’s Health Plan are not yet determined. Future aims and priorities will be developed in collaboration with women and girls, including our lived experience stakeholder group, clinical experts and relevant stakeholders alongside the most up-to-date evidence base.