Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government can investigate complex cases in relation to future broadband connections delivered through Scottish Government funded programmes such as the Reaching 100% (R100) programme. Through our online checker at www.scotlandsuperfast.com , members of the public are able to check if their property will receive a connection through the R100 contracts or if it is eligible for a voucher worth up to £5,000 through our R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS). There is an online enquiry form to contact the R100 team directly for additional information.

In cases where members of the public have issues related to connections being delivered by commercial suppliers, it falls upon Ofcom as the UK’s telecoms regulator to investigate any such matters: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/contact-us .

Table 1 presents the latest available statistics on the total waiting list size for patients covered by the Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG) and the number of ongoing waits for treatment within an inpatient or day case setting at 31 December 2022, broken down by waiting times of over (a)two years (104 weeks), (b) two years and six months (130 weeks), and (c) three years (156 weeks) for an orthopaedic procedure.

Table 1 - Number of ongoing waits for an inpatient or day case admission for orthopaedics by length of wait in NHS Scotland, at 31 December 2022

Information on Social Care Eligibility and Waiting times is collected and published by the Scottish Government, and includes the waiting times between first contact with services and the completion of a community care assessment. The latest data are publicly available via the following link: Social Care Eligibility Criteria And Waiting Times, Scotland, 2020-21 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Many Local Authorities have reported difficulty in providing the information asked for in this data collection, which has had a significant impact on the robustness of the information available for analysis. We are working with Public Health Scotland (PHS) to consider the future of this data and are developing plans to capture waiting times data within existing Social Care collections returned to PHS, aiming to make it more straightforward for partnerships to provide data, and in turn resulting in more complete and consistent data in the future.

For those able to provide data for 2020-21, around 58% of people aged 65 and over waited less than 2 weeks between first contact and completion of a community care assessment (based on 16 LAs) and 21% waited longer than 6 weeks. For people aged 18-64, just over half (53%) waited up to 4 weeks (based on 19 LAs) with 36% waiting more than 6 weeks. (See annex 3 of the tables which accompany the release).

Officials have met with the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland (REHIS) to discuss attracting more people to apply for environmental health courses and to work in local authorities.

The Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health is due to meet with REHIS soon to discuss these themes.

The Waste Industry Safety and Health (WISH) Forum develops and promotes health and safety guidance for the waste management industry with input from industry experts and other bodies, such as the Health and Safety Executive.

Existing WISH guidance offers advice on eliminating or reducing the risk of serious injury associated with the handling, storage and disposal of unwanted or unidentifiable gas cylinders (‘orphaned’ cylinders) that may appear in the waste stream.

WISH has also advised that it is developing new guidance on how Material Recovery Facilities can address the dangers of gas cylinder and aerosol explosions.

Following discussion at the Waste and Resources Sector Forum, waste sector stakeholders are considering any other actions that could be taken to address key fire safety risks. We will continue to work closely with the sector to consider any further actions required to ensure safe recycling and disposal of nitrous oxide canisters.

I am unable to commit to a date for delivering this journey time. The costs and benefits for delivering this need to be considered against those for delivering alternative rail enhancement projects, notably those that will contribute towards the decarbonisation of Scotland’s railway, within constrained funding.

In the meantime, as set out in our response on 16 March 2023, to PQ S6W-14784, Transport Scotland is, alongside industry partners, exploring options for lengthening passing loops on the Highland Main Line to enable longer and more frequent freight and passenger services.

Transport Scotland will consider these, and further infrastructure enhancements that would enable future journey time savings between Inverness and Edinburgh and Glasgow, within the constraints of available funding and subject to a robust business case.

The Scottish Government has worked collaboratively with partners, patients and third sector organisations in recent months to develop a ten year cancer strategy for Scotland.

Due to publish Spring 2023, the strategy will take a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways, from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care. It aims to improve cancer survival and provide excellent, equitably accessible, care across Scotland, including those affected by brain cancer.

A new earlier diagnosis vision will feature within the strategy and will include similar actions to those outlined in the Brain Tumour Charity’s report. This includes continuing to deliver our Detect Cancer Earlier Programme, working with primary care clinicians to ensure they have direct access to diagnostic tests and quality education sources; optimal cancer diagnostic pathways are designed and implemented across NHS Scotland; and public campaigns educate and empower those with possible symptoms to act early.

Further to the answer provided to question S6W-11404 issued on 4 November 2022, I can confirm that all Health Boards now have access to Clinical portals within acute services.

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 Scottish Government is aware that there has been and are challenges in delivering complex surgery (such as ovarian) across all regions. Regional action plans have been developed to address the specific issues in those areas.

The NHS continue to prioritise emergency, urgent and cancer care, and where there is an urgent suspicion of cancer, they make every effort to ensure a patient is seen as quickly as possible, with the majority receiving appointments within the appropriate time frame.

Significant pressures may result in longer waiting times and efforts are being made to reduce waiting times and support patients to be seen as quickly as possible.

The Scottish Government publishes an update on progress on all major capital investment projects every 6 months in its Infrastructure Investment Plan and includes information on the following the projects:

• NHS Grampian - Aberdeen Baird Family Hospital and ANCHOR Centre
• National Waiting Times Centre Board - Hospital Expansion Programme - Phase 2
• NHS Lothian - National Treatment Centre
• NHS Highland – National Treatment Centre
• NHS Forth Valley - National Treatment Centre
• NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde - North East Hub
• NHS Ayrshire & Arran - Foxgrove (National Secure Adolescent Inpatient Service)
• NHS Tayside - Ninewells Electrical Infrastructure Zone 3
• NHS Ayrshire & Arran - National Treatment Centre - Ayrshire & Arran

The full report is published here:

Infrastructure Investment Plan 2021-22 to 2025-26: Major capital projects progress update (September 2022) - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)