Chamber and committees

This is a matter for SEPA. The information requested is not held centrally. SEPA have provided the following information.

Calls to Pollution Hotline in each year since 2019

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.

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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17049 on 10 May 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 .

Public Health Scotland (PHS) uses the national waiting times warehouse to collect electronic patient records. This data source can be used routinely to identify the specialty of treatment. However, although the records are designed to collect coded information on the procedure that is planned for the patient, this information is often either incomplete, lacking in essential detail and/or its accuracy cannot be assured. In addition, for patients who have completed their wait the procedure(s) that was planned may not always reflect that performed after they were admitted for treatment. The latter is not captured through the warehouse, and as such we would be unable to report accurately on ongoing waits to this level of detail.

Public Health Scotland publishes quarterly statistics relating to the number of ongoing waits, by specialty and health Board of treatment. The latest statistics for Ophthalmology in NHS Shetland are published up to 31 st March 2023, and for new outpatients, this information can be found under Table 1.1 using the link below:

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/media/19970/newop_may23.xlsx .

The Scottish Government welcomes the latest statistics publication from Public Health Scotland that reported a small improvement in screening uptake in the most deprived areas in comparison to last year. However, we recognise that there is still work to be done to ensure that screening uptake in the most deprived areas continues to increase.

Over 2021-22 and 2022-23, we provided £2 million towards projects that tackled inequalities within the cancer screening programmes. In 2023-24, an additional £1 million will be provided to build on this work. The Scottish Government has also helped support the development of a National Screening Equity Strategy that will consider the main causes of inequalities and will outline initial actions to address barriers and facilitate access of underserved groups. This strategy is due for publication this summer. More generally, the breast screening modernisation programme board will be taking forward the recommendations from a major review of breast screening, which will address screening uptake as a whole.

With regard to breast cancer quality performance indicators, Public Health Scotland are responsible for publication and are best placed to advise further.

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.

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.

We are continuing to progress the implementation of the recommendations of the Women in Agriculture Taskforce. As part of this we continue to deliver solutions that deliver positive change for women living and working in Scottish agriculture through the Women in Agriculture Development Programme.

This financial year (2023-24) we are providing £500,000 to support further activity and opportunities for women in agriculture. We also remain committed to increasing our funding to £600,000 per year over the course of this Parliament.

Scotland’s national forests and land are important habitats for many species. For example, Scottish crossbills, goshawks and large populations of songbirds and woodpeckers all use Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) plantations. In advance of any tree harvesting operation, an environmental survey is carried out by qualified FLS environment staff. Any active nests are marked on operational maps and mitigation is deployed. Typically, this involves an alteration to the timing of the operation, or the demarcation of a buffer around a nest, wherein no work can be carried out during the nesting period. Furthermore, during harvesting operations, machine operators and site managers remain vigilant, and any additional nests are protected in the same way. Nest of birds listed on Schedule A1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) are protected and retained.

To inform all this work, FLS liaises with stakeholders on an ongoing basis. For example, FLS environment staff have strong links with local Raptor Study Groups (a good number of FLS staff are members), and FLS is a partner in the Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme. Invaluable information on raptors is therefore shared freely and raptors are very effectively protected. FLS also works closely with a range of other stakeholders, on a range of other bird species – from nightjars and wood sandpipers to black grouse and capercaillie. Managed plantations are crucial for the forestry sector yet are overwhelming beneficial for woodland birds in Scotland. This is something to celebrate.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) has the following plans in place to facilitate the licensed management of species on Scotland’s national forests and land in order to carry out their functions:

A. No.

B. Yes. Where necessary, FLS will work under Licence No. 222884.

C. At present FLS have management plans in place for three other protected woodland fauna (Badgers) for the 2023 breeding season.