Chamber and committees

While the Scottish Government’s role is to set the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland, NHS Boards and healthcare professionals locally have responsibility for both service delivery and people’s care. NHS Boards are expected to ensure that patients, including those who require care and support for ME/CFS, have access to a range of professionals to provide the appropriate management of their condition.

We recently commissioned an independent organisation to engage with third sector and clinical stakeholders and people with lived experience, to discuss how we move forward in implementing the National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE) guideline recommendations on ME/CFS in Scotland, and in identifying priorities for service improvement. We are currently preparing to publish the final stakeholder consultation report and are considering its findings.

I was pleased to meet with #MEAction Scotland representatives in March 2022, to hear their views on improving the access to care and support for people affected by the condition.

The Scottish Government, through the Chief Scientist Office and NHS Research Scotland, has invested approximately £40 million per year in clinical research infrastructure since 2012. This funding supports Health Boards, researchers, clinicians and industry to improve the quality, efficiency, coordination and impact of clinical research, and provides state of the art facilities to conduct clinical trials.

The Scottish Budget for 2022-23 confirms funding of £4 million to deliver the Young Patients Family Fund.

The Chief Scientist Office (CSO) provides funding to support and facilitate high quality applied research across a wide health and care remit

CSO Approach to Funding – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)

This includes funding in support of research in areas of public health, or health and care where delivery may be outside of clinical settings

CSO's annual budget from 2012-13 to 2022-23 is provided below:

2012-13 £67.9 million

2013-14 £68.3 million

2014-15 £68.5 million

2015-16 £66.8 million

2016-17 £64.8 million

2017-18 £64.4 million

2018-19 £67.2 million

2019-20 £69.9 million

2020-21 £69.9 million

2021-22 £75.4 million (includes £3.5 million non-recurring COVID-19 funding)

2022-23 £78.4 million

The Young Patients Family Fund provides valuable financial support to eligible visitors of inpatients up to the age of 18. There are currently no plans to extend eligibility for outpatient treatment.

The Young Patients Family Fund provides valuable financial support to eligible visitors of inpatients up to the age of 18 who are being treated in Scotland.

We recognise it is not possible to deliver all services and treatments in all locations. That is why, where patients are required to travel we already expect boards to take a patient centred approach and to have in place arrangements to allow and support people to receive treatment elsewhere. In addition, financial support for travel is available for patients and authorised escorts attending hospital appointments, in line with eligibility criteria and medical requirements.

The Young Patients Family Fund provides valuable financial support to eligible visitors of inpatients up to the age of 18. There are currently no plans to extend the age range.

Those aged between 18 – 25 years old continue to have access to the Patient Travel Expenses Scheme or the Highlands and Islands Travel Scheme, both of which provide eligible claimants with support to meet travel costs associated with outpatient appointments.

In its first year of operation, a total of £2,056,179 was paid out to Scotland’s 14 territorial Health Boards for the Young Patients Family Fund in 2021-22.

Scottish Government does not yet hold data on how many individual people have benefitted so far.

The status of a landfill site can be described as either ‘Operational’, ‘Closure’, ‘Definite Closure’ or ‘Aftercare’.

Landfill sites are not considered formally closed until they reach ‘Definite Closure’ status. Sites in the Closure phase are those which are no longer accepting waste, but could potentially be made operational again in the future.

The Landfill (Scotland) Regulations 2003 outline the formal legal process behind the closure of landfill sites to achieve Definite Closure.

As per these regulations, closing procedures to achieve Definite Closure begin when either the conditions specified in the landfill permit are satisfied; when SEPA initiate closing procedures following a request from the landfill operator; or following a reasoned decision of SEPA set out in a closure notice.

Closing procedures will not be completed until the reports from the operator, as required by SEPA, have been submitted to and assessed by SEPA; a final on-site inspection is carried out by SEPA; and SEPA have given the operator notice in writing that it approves the closure of the landfill site.

Once Definite Closure has been established the site is considered to be in its aftercare phase. The aftercare phase will continue until such time as an application to surrender the permit is approved. The site is regulated and monitored by SEPA throughout the operational, closure, definite closure and aftercare phases.

Further information can be found in SEPA guidance WST-G-56 ‘Guidance on Closed Landfill Regulated under Pollution Prevention and Control’.

The Scottish Government is clear that there is no place for harassment or abuse in any form in the workplace and that everyone has the right to go to work without fear of intimidation. All employers have a duty of care to protect the health, safety and welfare of their workers.

Health and Safety legislation, as well as Equality Law and Employment Law, is reserved to the UK Parliament. Only with the devolution of further powers will the Scottish Government have the full set of levers to take real action on workplace injustices.

Not with-standing that we recognise the important role Scottish Government has in promoting Fair Work policy and actions to make workplaces fairer and more inclusive. We encourage all employers to have in place robust workplace policies for handling issues such as bullying or harassment.

As part of our Equally Safe strategy, we are providing over £330,000 in funding to Close the Gap to develop “Equally Safe at Work”, the first accreditation programme to focus on gender equality at work. This funding will allow for the expansion of Equally Safe at Work into additional local councils.

The programme is also being piloted in the NHS, third sector organisations and the Scottish Government. The programme address themes such as leadership, data and workplace culture and supports organisations to improve employment practice, advance gender equality and prevent violence against women.