Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has committed to introducing a Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity Bill to ensure that the rights of autistic people, people with learning disabilities, and neurodivergent people are respected and protected.

Final decisions on the exact timing of a formal public consultation will be taken by Cabinet and announced in due course.

The number of C-peptide tests taken by people with type 1 diabetes since 1 November 2021 can be found in the following table. The information on the number of c-peptide tests being offered to those with type 1 diabetes is not held centrally.

Delivery of the Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy 2021-2026 is undertaken by a number of organisations who make up the Save a Life for Scotland Partners.

Recent updates include:

• The launch of the Play your Part campaign by Save a Life for Scotland which seeks to make CPR training inclusive for individuals living with a disability: More information can be found here Accessible CPR Resources - Save a Life for Scotland .
• The launch of GoodSAM, an app that allows the Scottish Ambulance Service to notify volunteers to attend and provide CPR at a cardiac arrest before the ambulance arrives. More information and sign up details can be found here: GoodSam - Save a Life for Scotland .
• Scottish Government provision of funding for Chest, Heart & Stroke Scotland and the Research Resuscitation Group (Edinburgh University) to deliver a pilot project of aftercare support for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest bystanders.

The Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture and I meet regularly with Creative Scotland to discuss our shared priorities, including funding for cultural organisations during the cost of living crisis which was discussed at the most recent meetings in June and October.

The Scottish Government is in regular dialogue with the sector, and will continue to work with it to identify barriers to immediate and long-term recovery, and to do everything within our powers and resources to help those most affected by current economic challenges.

The Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture and I hosted a virtual roundtable with public bodies and representative groups on 10 November. The Scottish Government will be hosting further roundtable discussions with the sector this winter.

Digital pathology services have traditionally been the responsibility of individual Health Boards. Recognising the potential for a national approach, a Digital Diagnostics Group was established in April 2022 by the Scottish Government. This group is providing strategic oversight for a number of diagnostic services, including pathology services.

The first phase of this national approach has seen investment of £777,000 during 2022-23 provided to NHS Ayrshire & Arran, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Highland. These three Board's are currently at the implementation stage and the learning from this work will shape plans for a national rollout across all boards in Scotland from 2023-24 onwards.

We are developing a new 10 year cancer strategy to launch in Spring 2023, which will take a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care.

Blood cancer charities have been engaged throughout the development of the cancer strategy including responding to the public consultation (to which there were a total of over 250 responses) and in further meetings with the Third Sector.

Yes, as set out in our recent Waste and Circular Economy Route Map consultation, we intend to set new circular economy targets for the period to 2030 which go beyond weight-based criteria.

We must ensure that any future targets correspond to our Environment Strategy and overall vision for a circular economy, alongside the principles we set out in the consultation. One of these key principles is that any future targets should help to ensure that we deliver a sustainable international material footprint.

The feedback from the First Minister’s Environmental Council will be considered along with responses to the Route Map consultation, which are currently being analysed.

The Scottish Government have allocated £1 million to support local authorities to date to cover the costs of welcome activities, such as access to meals, translation services and trauma support. We recognise that costs arising may go beyond the £1 million initially made available, and we are working with COSLA and local authorities to ensure that reasonable costs associated with the super sponsor scheme are met by the Scottish Government. The full costs are yet to be determined.

To date, just under £6.1 million has been paid out under the fund. It is worth noting that grants awarded by the Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Fund (KTIF) are drawn down by recipients in arrears. As such, the fund is scheduled to pay out an additional £1.4 million under its current commitments.

The KTIF awards funding to a range of national organisations operating across a wide range of local authorities in Scotland. Therefore, a breakdown is not appropriate or something officials can offer to give an accurate distribution of funding across the authorities.

The decision not to procure Evusheld ® at this time has been taken based on clinical advice, rather cost.

The RAPID C-19 group is a collaborative UK-wide partnership between the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) and others. To date, the RAPID C-19 group and the COVID-19 UK expert panel have both considered a full range of evidence, including clinical trial data, in vitro (in the laboratory) analysis and observational studies and have advised that there is insufficient evidence available at this time to support the procurement and deployment of Evusheld ® .

The Scottish Government continues to closely monitor the outcome of further research to ensure that any decisions to make Evusheld ® available to patients in Scotland in the future are based on the best available evidence.