Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to resuming the pause to self-referrals for those aged 71 and over as soon as it is feasible. The Breast Screening Programme Board (BSPB) agreed that the option for women over 70 to self-refer into the breast screening programme should resume once all screening centres are able to offer those aged 53-70 their breast screening appointments within 39 months of their previous screening. However, in recognition of the anxiety the pause is causing, the screening programme is exploring whether there are other options that will accelerate the restart without unduly impacting appointment times for the eligible screening population. Any decision will be informed by clinical advice and the on-going pandemic.

In the meantime, the programme is working hard to increase capacity, including by deploying additional mobile units and offering appointments at evenings and weekends.

Regardless of their age, women should remain symptom aware and report any symptoms to their GP immediately for these to be investigated.

a) There are six breast screening centres across Scotland. For women aged 53-70 years who were screened between 1st April 2020 and 31st January 2021, the average interval between screening episodes was 41 months across Scotland.

The average interval between screening episodes, broken down by screening centre, was as follows:

East – 46 months

North – 40 months

North East – 42 months

South East – 41 months

West – 38 months

South West – 39 months

b) It is not possible to provide information on the current longest interval between screening episodes; however, within the period between 1 April 2020 and 31 January 2021, 2% of those screened had an interval between screening rounds of greater than or equal to 51 months.

It should be noted that the data provided to answer this question is management information that has not been subject to quality checks applied on an official publication.

This information is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government does not create investment plans for specific healthcare facilities in particular health board areas. The creation and implementation of such plans is properly the role of the local health board, in this case NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. The Scottish Government's NHS Capital Investment Group meets on a monthly basis to consider investment proposals submitted by health boards. The Scottish Government understands that Port Glasgow Health Centre is one of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's priorities for investment in community infrastructure. However, no proposals have been submitted to the Scottish Government to date. We will review any proposals which are submitted in due course. The member may wish to seek further information directly from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde as regards its plans for the delivery of healthcare facilities in Gourock and Port Glasgow.

We are committed to improving outcomes for people living with diabetes across Scotland. Our Diabetes Improvement Plan contains specific commitments to support increased access to diabetes technologies, with significant focus on equity of access to care and services.

Our national policy is to further increase access to diabetes technologies for everyone who would benefit from these life changing therapies, and we expect NHS Boards to provide insulin pumps and flash glucose monitors to all clinically suitable children and adults.

We are aware that children and adults from the most deprived areas are less likely to use diabetes technologies and we are committed to understanding the reasons for this. We are working in partnership with Diabetes Scotland and the Alliance to ensure that the needs of people living with diabetes are fully understood. In December 2021 we launched a lived experience network through the Alliance, to ensure that the experiences of those living with diabetes are taken into account when shaping policy. We are working to ensure that to the membership of this panel is as diverse as possible.

We will take targeted action to ensure equity of access across Scotland and share progress of this using data from SCI-diabetes.

There is no requirement for the direct measurements of CO2 via calibrated flow meters and calibrated CO2 CEMS in SEPA permits for municipal waste incinerators (MWI) in Scotland. The requested information is therefore not available either in total, or as a breakdown by proportion derived from fossil fuel and proportion derived from biogenic sources.

Permit holders are however required to report their annual CO2 emissions via the Scottish Pollutant Release Inventory (SPRI) and SEPA can therefore provide this data for the last reported year although this may include CO2 from additional sources to those from the incineration process eg. standby generators. This data can be found in SEPA’s SPRI data tool informatics.sepa.org.uk/SPRI/ . This is usually estimated using emission factors. There is no requirement in SPRI for MWIs to further breakdown their reported CO2 emission data into the proportions derived from fossil fuel or biogenic sources so this data is not available.

Additional funding of £14.6 million was allocated to NHS Boards in January 2022 to support increased access to diabetes technologies, including closed loop systems.

The Scottish Government also provides baseline funding to NHS Boards and it is for individual Boards to determine how best to utilise this funding to meet the needs and priorities of their local populations. This includes offering closed loop system technologies to all those for whom they are deemed clinically appropriate.

I welcome the report from Royal Society of Chemistry on making Polymers in Liquid Formulations (PLFs) more sustainable, helping to embed circular economy in to this area.

The Scottish Government is committed to building a fully circular economy as part of our work to tackle the climate emergency.

To make the most of this opportunity, we are working with industry, including construction and demolition sectors, local government, environmental groups and wider stakeholders to develop a Route Map to deliver our waste and recycling targets to 2025 and beyond. Through the Route Map and the forthcoming Circular Economy Bill we will consider how best to take forward waste reduction and ensure circular economy approach across a range of waste streams.

In year one, the Fund will be split evenly between Capital and Financial Transactions. Detail of what each can be used for is available in HMT’s consolidated budget guidance, the most recent version of which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/consolidated-budgeting-guidance-2021-to-2022

The data is not available in the format requested as the Scottish Breast Screening Programme (SBSP) is delivered from six screening centres, each covering a designated population. The SBSP should offer an appointment to women within 36 months of their previous screening episode.

On average, the West and South West screening centres are offering women aged 53-70 a screening appointment within 39 months of their last screen.

The National Screening Oversight, Scottish Screening Committee and Breast Screening Programme Board (BSPB) continue to work with health boards to increase the number of available appointments, including through deploying additional mobile breast screening units and providing additional appointments during evenings and at weekends.

It should be noted that this data is unpublished management data that has not been subject to the standard quality checks that are applied to statistical publications.