Chamber and committees

Work is ongoing to establish the most effective means of further expanding access to thrombectomy, to maximise the number of patients able to benefit from this treatment, including eligible patients in NHS Forth Valley.

Our new Stroke Improvement Plan includes a commitment to publish a plan and timeline for the further development of the thrombectomy service in the second half of this year.

This is a matter for NHS Health Boards. The information requested is not held centrally.

To support scope based diagnostics we have published an Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan which is backed by a £70m investment. The plan focuses on key areas such as: Balancing Demand and Capacity; Workforce Training and Development; Infrastructure; and Innovation and Redesign.

In recognition of the pressures on Colposcopy services specifically, we have provided over £660,000 of additional funding to NHS Ayrshire & Arran, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, NHS Highland, NHS Lothian and NHS Tayside to support activity and free up capacity nationally.

This funding was used to enhance capacity through recruitment and additional clinics, including at weekends, to allow increased activity and to reduce demand.

The Scottish Government continues to prioritise investment in frontline services and provided an increase of over £730 million to NHS Boards in the 2023-24 budget, taking total investment in NHS Grampian to over £1.1 billion – an increase of almost 94% since 2006-07.

Additionally, we are providing a further £200 million to NHS Boards to support financial sustainability and address financial challenges in year. NHS Grampian will receive over £17 million as part of this support.

We will continue to work with all Health Boards, including NHS Grampian, to address financial and workforce pressures across the system. Our Sustainability and Value programme has been established to deliver essential reform and sustainable services that are fit for the future, whilst prioritising patient safety .

Each of the cancer screening programmes are monitored by their respective Programme Boards, who report to National Screening Oversight (NSO). NSO is responsible for system wide oversight of the quality and effectiveness of the programmes and subsequently reports to the Scottish Screening Committee (SSC). Regular updates are provided at the SSC meetings regarding recovery and overall performance of the screening programmes.

All of the programmes are now operating in line with pre-COVID performance, and we continue to work with the organisations that oversee screening in Scotland to ensure full capacity is recovered and maintained.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who reply in writing within 20 days.

The comment I made during the members’ business debate on motion S6M-09174 on 22 June 2023, was in reference to contributions to the Scottish Government consultation Land Reform in a Net Zero Nation.

An analysis report of responses to the consultation has now been published and is available to view at: Landreform in a Net Zero nation: consultation analysis . In particular, section 2 of the analysis report (Criteria for large-scale holdings) and section 11 (Assessing impact) consider responses to the proposed threshold, and any potential unintended consequences of the policy. In addition to this analysis report, where permission was granted by respondents, consultation responses have been published in full .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19190 on 27 June 2023. 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 .

My officials will meet with Police Scotland on 20 July to discuss the next steps.

Under the current constitutional arrangements in the United Kingdom the application process for all immigration routes is fully reserved to the UK Government and is dealt with by the Home Office. If a displaced person from Ukraine has been issued a visa, including under the Scottish Super Sponsor Scheme, they are free to travel anywhere within the UK or to leave and re-enter the UK when they wish, as long as they are meeting the conditions within their visa. The cross border geographical movement, within the UK, which includes that between Scotland and England is not monitored and the data requested is therefore not available.

The R100 programme is expected to be completed by March 2028 when the final connections in the R100 North contract are delivered.

Around 99% of the connections being delivered through the R100 contracts are full-fibre, capable of delivering speeds of 1,000 Megabits per second (Mbps) – more than 30 times faster than our original superfast commitment.