Chamber and committees

In 2018, a new national evidence-based pathway for coeliac disease was launched across four health boards (NHS Lothian, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Tayside). It was funded by Scottish Government’s Modernising Patient Pathways Programme (MPPP) and co-produced in partnership with key stakeholders including Coeliac UK, and people living with coeliac disease and clinicians.

Recently, Maree Todd MSP, the then Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health & Sport attended ‘Coeliac Disease: The Challenge of Underdiagnosis’ in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday 9 March 2023. The event was supported by Coeliac UK and included a presentation from a patient representative.

We know the pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing structural inequalities within our society, putting some communities and groups within the population disproportionately at risk for more adverse impacts on their mental health. That is why we have committed to making the mental health of these groups a priority.

We have established an Equality and Human Rights Forum to help influence and deliver measurably improved outcomes for minority ethnic groups. The forum will set out actions to address racialised mental health inequalities in the upcoming Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and Delivery Plan and will build on our existing work.

We are also considering the report from the Scottish Mental Health Law Review which included recommendations to improve monitoring and address ethnicity in rates of detention and compulsory treatment. We intend to set out our initial response to the report, including priority actions, by summer 2023.

There are 17 owned buildings on the Scottish Government Core Estate. 11 have EPC ratings lower than C.

This year we will publish a Public Engagement Strategy setting out how we will raise public awareness and understanding of the changes we all need to make to our home heating to meet the net zero targets by 2045.

We will need to communicate in a coordinated way across all levels, including nationally and through trusted grassroots and local messengers.

This will include taking a place-based approach through working with local government to communicate to the public what the transition will mean for them, informed by upcoming Local Heat & Energy Efficiency Strategy Delivery Plans. This will help to ensure that people know whether they can expect to connect to a local heat network or will need to install renewable technologies such as a heat pump, the steps involved and how they can access any support available. We will use a range of tactics to achieve this, including multi-channel marketing and community engagement initiatives.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17797 on 17 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

Three agencies have been opened outside of the Lothian region since 2007 with no relocations during this time. There is one Agency located in the West Scotland region.

There have been multiple changes to Scottish Government Directorates over the last 15 years. Available data would not provide accurate assessment of the number of Directorates relocated or opened outside of the Lothians over the period.

Directorates particularly in DG Net Zero and DG Communities continue to be located outside of the Central Belt in locations close to their stakeholders and operations.

The Scottish Government welcomes the work of organisations like Coeliac UK who are already undertaking communications work to increase awareness and knowledge of coeliac disease. We supported their messaging on Coeliac awareness week by sharing their twitter campaign raising awareness of lesser-known symptoms of the disease.

NHSinform.scot provides clear and accessible information on Coeliac Disease including, symptoms, causes, diagnosis, and treatment.

The NHS Research Scotland (NRS) Cancer Network is funded by the Scottish Government to increase, support and sustain clinical trial activity in cancer care within NHS Scotland. The fundamental aim of NRS Cancer is to support the recruitment of cancer patients into clinical research and to thereby contribute to improving the quality of cancer care for patients across Scotland, including those diagnosed with ovarian cancer. https://nhsresearchscotland.org.uk/research-areas/cancer

The Scottish Government also works with Cancer Research UK to support the Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres (ECMC's) in Glasgow and Scotland. These are part of a UK-wide ECMC Network of 18 adult centres and 11 paediatric locations https://www.ecmcnetwork.org.uk/ Glasgow’s Adult ECMC and Paediatric ECMC, together with Edinburgh’s Adult ECMC receive around £1 million annually to help doctors and scientists develop the cancer treatments of the future for both adults and children, including in ovarian cancer. The funding is split 50:50 Scottish Government / Cancer Research UK

On 13 February 2023 we published an Independent Report on Improving Equity of Access to Cancer Clinical Trials. We will be working closely with the cancer research community here to prioritise the report’s recommendations.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/improving-equity-access-cancer-clinical-trials-scotland/

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17748 on 18 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

The right to public assembly is an important human right that the Scottish Government is committed to uphold.

We have no plans to extend the provisions in the Public Order Act 2023 which create new offences and new police powers relating to protests in England and Wales. In May 2022, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans wrote to the Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Probation and confirmed that the Scottish Government would not be requesting that any of the provisions in the Public Order Bill be extended to Scotland.