Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has not yet committed further funding for the pilot Pancreatic and Hepatocellular Cancer Pathway Improvement Project. Initial evaluation is scheduled to take place over the summer with outputs due to be reported in September 2023. Decisions on long term funding will be made as the pilot’s impacts and outcomes are fully evaluated.

Following the March 2023 gateway review we established an expanded governance framework with representation from all key stakeholders. This includes a Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group, which sits above the already established Executive Oversight Group and Sector Specific Working Groups.

I refer the member to my answer to S6W-18538 on 15 June 2023 that noted end to end testing was planned as part of CSL’s Programme Delivery activity to ensure successful completion of agreed outcomes. The testing was planned prior to the UK Government’s decision on 26 May 2023 not to agree a full exclusion, removing glass and imposing unworkable conditions on Scotland’s scheme, leaving the Scottish Government with no other option than to delay launch until October 2025 at the earliest. 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 .

A total of 255 substantial refurbishment projects were completed between 2016-17 and 2021-22. These figures do not include new-build schools. Figures for 2022-23 are not yet available.

Table 1 shows the breakdown by local authority. Only refurbishments with a cost of £500,000 or more for primary and £1 million or more for secondary and special are included. School extensions meeting the cost thresholds are counted as substantial refurbishments.

A breakdown by individual year is available from Table 7.2 in the school estate statistics supplementary data tables https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-estate-statistics-2022/documents/ .

Table 1: Substantial refurbishments by local authority between 2016-17 and 2021-22.

The Scottish Government has commissioned the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) to identify treatment options for patients across Scotland, including in NHS Tayside, who are currently on waiting lists for the following urogynaecology procedures:

• Urethral Bulking
• Laparoscopic Colposuspension
• Fascial Sling

Working Collaboratively with clinical colleagues across NHS Scotland and CFSD we have agreed a plan that sets out how and when these patients will be treated by adopting a national approach to clear the waiting list. We aim to ensure all patients requiring a procedure is appointed and treated by late summer.

To provide future resilience, the national unit, based in CFSD, will support increased capacity for treatment within NHS Scotland and enable the development of training to build future sustainability within this highly specialist clinical area.

In terms of NHS Tayside, there are eleven patients waiting who required fascial sling surgery. These patients now have a treatment plan and will be seen by Spire Healthcare, Edinburgh. Spire Healthcare is expect to be able to treat all eleven patients by the end of August 2023.

I refer you to the answer to oral parliamentary question S6O-02452 on 29 June 2023 available on the Scottish Parliament website: Written question and answer: S6O-02452 | Scottish Parliament Website.

Pupil Equity Funding allocations are updated and published annually to take into account new, closed and merged schools of that year. The 2023-24 Pupil Equity Funding allocations are currently being finalised and will be communicated to local authorities shortly with publication in due course thereafter. All previous allocations can be found here: Pupil attainment: closing the gap - Schools - gov.scot (www.gov.scotwww.gov.scot) .

For 2022-23, over £130m of Pupil Equity Funding was to allocated to 97% of schools in Scotland, schools in South Lanarkshire Council received over £8.9m, and of which £1,916,375 was allocated to schools in the G74 and G75 postcodes. The breakdown of 2022-23 allocations for these schools can be found in the following table.

From academic year 2023-24, the Scottish Government have updated the residency criteria for home fees status and student financial support in Further Education and Higher Education. This update means we can now consider applications for tuition fees, bursaries and/or loans from students with all forms of leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom providing they meet the other eligibility tests set out in Regulations. This extension of support has seen more groups of students become eligible, including those students granted leave on the British National (Overseas) visa route.

The Scottish Government does not have any immediate plans to waive the requirement for 3 years ordinary residence in the UK for this group.

Scottish Ministers are committed to re-opening the Independent Living Fund (ILF) 2015 Fund on the basis of affordability and sustainability. The Scottish Government will continue to actively consider re-opening the Fund as part of the annual budget setting process. Stakeholder engagement opportunities are planned in the coming months to strengthen communication, explain the funding position and stress that future options for the ILF Scotland 2015 Fund would be developed in co-design with disabled people and their representative organisations.

Scottish Government officials meet regularly with the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) to discuss a range of improvement programmes that support service innovation and redesign, including new pathways of care that are more efficient and provide sustainable solutions for the future.

The CfSD was first approached about urogynaecology waiting times on 19 May 2023 and a plan to identify treatment options for long waiting patients across Scotland, including NHS Tayside, was agreed on 5 June 2023.

As the information requested is personal data of a third party, disclosing the list of attendees at these meetings would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Professor Graham Ellis, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, met separately with Dr Pamela Johnston, Operational Medical Director of NHS Tayside, on 11 May 2023.

A new edition of the Scottish Ministerial Code was published on 20 July 2023 and is available here: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781835210567 .