Chamber and committees

This information has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre under BiB No. 64319.

There are several components to the DRS evaluation. This includes the consumer survey which is based on a three phase nationally representative sample where efforts will be made to ensure urban and rural/island areas are sufficiently accounted for within the sample design. Litter Monitoring System survey (funded by Scottish Government and developed by Zero Waste Scotland in partnership with Keep Scotland Beautiful and other stakeholders) will be used to collate litter data with the aim being to cover all Local Authority areas. Data from Management information will also be used to monitor and evaluate DRS, and this will include both national level and local authority level data. Given the recent changes and announcements the monitoring and evaluation plans for DRS may need revisiting to bring them in line with any changes made to the objectives of the scheme.

Gender reassignment surgery is a specialised field of surgery, accessed by a small number of patients each year. Given the highly specialist nature of this surgery it is carried out in the UK under a four-nations contract, managed by NHS England.

NHS Scotland monitors the number of surgical referrals to the service. Patients referred for assessment do not necessarily proceed to surgery. A patient’s surgery will not necessarily take place in the same year as the referral.

We continue to work on this issue and will provide an update to Parliament on this commitment when appropriate.

Civil servants operate flexibly across a range of policies and programmes according to the specific requirements of the work at any time. They do not, as a matter of course, record the proportion of their time that they spend working on particular matters. It is therefore not possible to say specifically how many hours were spent by civil servants involved in this work.

The design of the ship is the responsibility of Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow. We are aware that detailed design of Hull 802 will draw upon lessons learned during the design and build of MV Glen Sannox.

Ministers continue to have regular dialogue with Trade Unions. Trade Union Representatives have welcomed the Written Authority as they acknowledge the Port Glasgow yard’s importance to the local community.

An Islands Community Impact Assessment was not completed as part of the due diligence exercise. Previous analysis of the value to island communities of ferry services was however considered.

Current funding of £30.8 million is allocated for NHS Pharmacy First Scotland. This includes £10 million of new funding which was invested between 2020-21 and 2022-23.

This funding provides a monthly base payment to every pharmacy for provision of the service as well as activity payments for specific interventions. These pharmaceutical care interventions are Advice, Referral or Treatment.

Any quotations received during this process would be regarded as commercially sensitive and therefore not appropriate for disclosure.