Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has committed to undertaking independent research to understand the impact of 20 th century policies on the Gypsy/Traveller community in Scotland. We developed specifications for two research projects to gather further information, with one focussing on archival analysis and the other on community engagement and lived experience. We successfully appointed an appropriate contractor to take forward the archival project, and are working to re-tender the community engagement and lived experience project as no compliant bids were received for this. We expect to receive initial findings from the research next year, at which point we will consider next steps and respond.

Scottish Government has provided free multi-vitamins to all pregnant women, for the duration of their pregnancy, since April 2017. Annual costs are set out in the following table.

The regulations for the licensing, safety and efficacy of medicines are currently reserved to the UK Government and are the responsibility of the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). For a medicine to be routinely prescribed, it firstly needs to receive a licence from the MHRA. It is the responsibility of individual companies to apply to the MHRA for a marketing authorisation (licence). The application process requires a company to provide data demonstrating the quality, safety and efficacy of the medicine.

The Scottish Government has not had any discussions with the UK Government on the licensing of testosterone for women in perimenopause or menopause. AndroFeme ® is not licensed for the treatment of symptoms of menopause in the UK. The prescribing of an unlicensed medicine is a clinical decision by prescribers directly responsible for individual patients. Both its use and the oversight of the patient’s care are the responsibility of the prescribing clinician.

Independent reporters have decided on 493 wind turbine appeals since 2007. 222 of these have been allowed and 271 have been dismissed. The breakdown, in full, of planning authority areas and decision outcomes as requested, is a large statistical document. This information has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre under Bib. No. 64333.

The Scottish Government and National Records of Scotland do not hold this information. The Home Office publish equivalent figures for the UK, but they are not broken down to individual countries. The latest published data for the UK , from the Home Office, is for the year ending March 2023.

This is an operational matter for NatureScot. I have asked their Chief Executive to write with the relevant information.

This is an operational matter for NatureScot. I have asked their Chief Executive to write with the relevant information.

I am carefully considering the Scottish Government’s response to the steering group’s recommendations, including the one which focused on establishing a new organisation to create a dedicated space to address the legacy of colonialism in Scotland. This is an important agenda and we will continue to seek ways of raising awareness of the role Scotland played in slavery and empire and how our museums and galleries can play their part in that.

Scottish Government launched the Neonatal Expenses Fund (NEF) in April 2018 to help support parents to be able to spend as much time with their babies as possible, while they were receiving care within a neonatal unit.

Scottish Government increased funding in July 2021 to form the Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF), which subsumed the NEF to create a single unified fund. This new commitment extended support to families of children and young people receiving inpatient care up to age 18.

The fund is demand-led and the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring sufficient funding to NHS Boards to support all valid YPFF claims. Budgets for both funds are as set out in the following table.