Chamber and committees

A report on the STEM Education and Training Strategy will be published on the Scottish Government website today - www.gov.scot/isbn/9781804353592

The report highlights progress made on a range of STEM-related education and training initiatives; including those areas where progress has been more challenging. Among other things the report notes recent work on responding to the Logan Review of the Scottish Technology Ecosystem, progress on the Young STEM Leader awards initiative and a new round of STEM education grants.

The report also sets out our intention to continue to operate under the current STEM strategy until 2025, and we will continue to publish annual reports until then.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland is working to provide updated advice to NHS Boards to enable routine prescribing of sapropterin. We now expect this to be in place in June. In the meantime, doctors can request access to medicines that are not generally available on the NHS on an individual case-by-case basis through local health board medicine governance processes.

We launched the Fisheries Climate Change survey in November 2021 during COP 26 to assess the fishing sector’s readiness/ preparedness to respond to the climate change challenge. We said then that the results will be used to inform a stakeholder workshop in 2022.

The analysis is complete and we are now in the process of compiling a summary of the responses received and we will be publishing the summary shortly.

We are also in the process of planning the stakeholders workshop where we will present and discuss the results from the Fisheries Climate Change survey.

We are grateful to all those staff who supported the delivery of Scotland's Covid-19 vaccination campaign, a significant number of whom were already employed across primary care services or drawn from substantive roles across NHS Scotland. All those individuals deployed in roles normally undertaken by substantive staff were employed by NHS Scotland for the duration of their involvement.

To enable a sustainable vaccination workforce, funding has been made available to Boards, which enables those on fixed-term contracts to be recruited to permanent posts. The Scottish Government expects Boards to support where possible, the redeployment of staff, to retain the valuable skills and experience that this workforce has developed.

Whilst Scottish Ministers set the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland, responsibility for service delivery rests locally with Health Boards. Scottish Ministers expect satisfactory specialist and condition-specific support and care to be delivered for the benefit of all patients.

The requisite education and training to support people with neurological conditions, including MS, is provided to NHS Western Isles specialist nursing staff, in collaboration with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Neurology Service.

The Board's Lead Nurse for Specialist Nursing provides leadership and management to its neurology service, to ensure that clinical standards are met and the caseload is effectively managed.

To support the delivery of the Neurological Framework, the Scottish Government has commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to support quality assurance of the implementation of the HIS General Standards for neurological care. Condition-specific third sector organisations will be an integral part of this evaluation and will help us understand how these standards are being implemented for people across Scotland.

The following table represents a breakdown of the current ScotRail rolling stock by class of train, year built and approximate age. There is no single lifespan for a train: any decision to replace a train fleet is based on multiple evaluation criteria. While there are no expiry dates attached to the current train fleet, the Rail Passenger Services Decarbonisation Action Plan commits to all diesel trains (both multiple unit types and High Speed Trains (HSTs)) being replaced by 2035.

To enable the building to be commissioned, the hospital will be fully equipped to treat orthopaedic patients around 3 months prior to the opening date.

The Scottish Government has committed a further £20 million over the parliamentary term to our Detect Cancer Early Programme, which aims to provide greater public awareness of signs and symptoms of cancer to improve earlier diagnosis rates.

Significant funding has also been targeted at increasing diagnostic capacity across NHS Scotland. This includes our Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal plan to specifically support scope based diagnostics backed by £70 million and our £1bn NHS Recovery Plan which sets out our plans and ambitions for the next five years.

The NHS remains under sustained pressure as a result of COVID-19, with the number of people awaiting diagnostic tests now at the highest level since 2018. Patients continue to be seen based on their clinical urgency, for example those referred with an urgent suspicion of cancer continue to be prioritised for key diagnostic tests.

Our manifesto committed to opening NTC Ayrshire and Arran in 2025. We are currently finalising the design of the hospital and we are exploring and reviewing timelines associated with the NTC with a view to having the centre operational earlier than our manifesto commitment.

Transport Scotland is continuing to engage with operators, delivery partners and other key stakeholders on the current Scottish Government Covid-19 guidance and recommended safe behaviours to ensure that the appropriate messaging is cascaded across the transport network. This engagement, which includes promoting the Scottish Government`s National “Covid sense” campaign, is supporting passengers to return to public transport with confidence as more people begin to return to workplaces and travel for leisure purposes more often.