The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people with respiratory conditions receive the best possible care and treatment to enable them to live longer, healthier, and more independent lives. Through our Respiratory Care Action Plan for Scotland, we have supported national work to strengthen prevention, diagnosis, care and support for people living with respiratory conditions.

The Scottish Government has embedded the prevention of respiratory disease into wider policy through the launch of the Cleaner Air for Scotland Strategy, Warmer Homes Scotland Scheme and the refreshed Tobacco Action Plan.

National clinical pathways for severe asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and interstitial lung disease are being developed through the Centre for Sustainable Delivery. This work includes enhanced referral triage and innovations in the diagnosis and management of sleep apnoea, helping to ensure that people receive the right care at the right time.

We also published the Quality Prescribing Guide for Improvement, which aims to keep people at the centre of their treatment, and promote safe, evidenced based, sustainable prescribing. A core component of this has been to create user friendly digital tools for both people living with lung conditions and healthcare professionals

To improve access to pulmonary rehabilitation, a key intervention for people with chronic respiratory conditions, we are working in partnership with Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland to develop a digital first model. This will provide self-management tools, resources and videos that can be accessed anywhere in Scotland and will be hosted on the My Lungs My Life platform.

We recently published the Scotland's Population Health Framework and the Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework in which we outline our shared, long-term vision for reforming and renewing health and social care services to ensure they are more sustainable, preventative, and equitable.

We are exploring a Long-Term Conditions Framework to ensure equitable and sustainable access to services that everyone with long term conditions needs, such as those living with a respiratory condition. A series of advisory groups, including respiratory, will be established to make initial recommendations to the Scottish Government and these will produce an authoritative set of recommendations to inform the new government’s work on long-term conditions.

We will continue to work with clinicians, NHS, Boards, and national delivery partners and the third sector to ensure that people with lung conditions can access timely diagnosis, effective treatment and ongoing support as part of safe, high quality respiratory care.

Health Boards might arrange treatment for some patients outwith NHS Scotland in exceptional circumstances. In all cases, the originating Health Board retains responsibility for funding consultation, diagnosis and treatment for their patients and we expect Scottish NHS Boards to have appropriate processes in place to enable this access.

The Scottish Government wants people to be treated as close to home as clinically possible. However, it may not always be possible for Health Boards to provide access locally for all patients and for all services where Health Boards are, for example, constrained by geography or specialist services. In addition, some patients may be offered alternatives out with their local health board area to reduce their waiting time.

We continue to work with NHS Boards to limit the need for travel where possible and clinically appropriate. This includes through increased use of digital and technological solutions, such as Near Me, to improve flexibility of care.

Where travel is necessary, the Scottish Government expects local Health Boards to work collaboratively with each other and transport providers to make suitable arrangements to ensure that the necessary treatment can be provided in a patient-centred way and that disruption to key appointments is kept to a minimum.

Financial support for travel is available for patients and authorised escorts, according to eligibility criteria and medical requirements.

All Boards are expected to support patients and their families in identifying and accessing available support and Board patient travel contacts can provide advice on eligibility and assistance available with bookings and advance payments, where necessary.

The consultation closed on 27 October last year. Analysis of the responses has now been completed and a summary of the responses has been published on the Scottish Government Website

Respondents to the consultation provided a wide variety of views in relation to options to amend the existing permitted development rights (PDR) for the conversion of agricultural and forestry buildings to residential use.

There was limited support for, and significant opposition to, the introduction of PDR for new-build homes in rural areas.

The vast majority of respondents opposed the idea of introducing PDR for ‘town centre living’, although some respondents supported the option.

After carefully considering all of the responses received, we have decided not to make changes to the permitted development rights at this time.

Child Disability Payment (CDP) provides financial support to help families with the additional costs of being disabled or living with a long-term health condition. Entitlement is not dependent on a specific diagnosis and a child or young person with long COVID could be eligible if it significantly impacts their care or mobility needs. Being disabled impacts people in different ways and awards relate to the levels of needs that reflect individual circumstances.

Pre and post-campaign surveys provide essential insight into the performance of marketing activity and help ensure campaigns are targeted and cost-effective. The two surveys related to the Tackling Stigma campaign together cost £7500.

Data from the pre-campaign survey directly informed the campaign’s development and design, including media activity, social media content, and stakeholder toolkit. The results of campaign surveys will be used to evaluate the campaign’s overall impact and improve performance of future activity.

Under the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018, the Scottish Government has a statutory duty to promote the take-up of devolved benefits. The Poverty Alliance’s Get Heard Scotland report (2024), commissioned by the Scottish Government, highlighted the impact of stigma on benefit take-up and recommended a public awareness campaign to normalise social security as a human right and improve awareness of entitlements. The Tackling Stigma campaign was developed in line with the Poverty Alliance’s recommendations.

Decisions on any future national strategy will be for the new administration to consider after the Scottish Parliament election in May.

Under the current administration, we have been working to improve prevention of young sudden cardiac death (SCD) through delivery of the Heart Disease Action Plan (2021) and the Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy (2021-2026).

We funded the West of Scotland Inherited Cardiac Conditions Service to strengthen the SCD pathway, including screening first-degree relatives affected by SCD. This project has received national scale-up funding from the British Heart Foundation.

The Scottish Government has provided funding to Save a Life Scotland to purchase and deploy the equipment. Save a Life for Scotland will work with partners on decisions regarding defibrillator placement. All defibrillator placement as part of the scheme will be evidence-based and ensure they are placed in areas of greatest need.

Since 7 March 2026, all relevant pelagic vessels wishing to operate in Scottish waters have been required to carry and operate a fully validated REM system onboard. All applicable pelagic vessels in Scottish waters, regardless of national origin, are required to adhere to the REM requirements as set out in the Sea Fisheries (Remote Electronic Monitoring and Regulation of Scallop Fishing) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2024/165/body/made).

The introduction of the remote electronic monitoring (REM) measures reinforces our commitment to ensure that fishing remains accountable and sustainable. Throughout the development and implementation of the REM legislation and technical specifications the Scottish Government engaged with other fisheries administrations to share learning and promote areas of future alignment on REM. Decisions on whether or not to make REM mandatory on board fishing vessels is a matter for individual authorities.

The following table sets out the total number of premises currently contracted to receive connections through the R100 North contract by 2028, the number of premises connected as of 31 January 2026 and the number of premises yet to be connected as of the same date. Further information can be found on the Scottish Government’s Data Insights webpage at https://digitalconnectivity.campaign.gov.scot/data-insights.

Our demand-led R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) remains available for those not expected to benefit from superfast broadband through R100 contract or commercial build plans.