Chamber and committees

As of 3 November 2021, the Scottish Ministers have received two applications for an exemption from the obligation to operate a return point under Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme.

We are committed to ensuring that people with chronic pain are involved in decisions about the services they use. We have established a Patient Reference Group for Chronic Pain, convened and run by the Health and Social Care ALLIANCE, to ensure that the views of those with lived experience are included in Government policy development and service improvement work.

Representatives from the Group are members of the National Advisory Committee for Chronic Pain and have been equal contributors (alongside third-sector groups, researchers, NHS decision-makers and those on the frontline delivering pain management services) in developing a new Framework for Pain Management in Scotland.

Any claims of bullying and intimidation of patient representatives on the Committee by officials are untrue. All members of the National Advisory Committee are free to make whatever contribution they wish to discussions. However, all committee members must abide by the behaviours set out in the Terms of Reference, including the values of respect and mutual collaboration. The National Advisory Committee last met in May 2021 and since then we have communicated with members by correspondence, including reminding them of the behaviours set out in the Terms of Reference.

We will be reviewing how we can best engage the chronic pain community in order to help inform implementation of the Framework to ensure we improve services, support and outcomes for people with chronic pain.

Ministers are not responsible for individual staffing decisions. However, I am confident that the officials involved in supporting our policy development for chronic pain are suitably trained and equipped to do so as set out in my response to question S6W-02871 on 21 September 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03808 on‎ 8 November 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

The Scottish Government is working with retail businesses, trade unions, academia, public sector and trade organisations to develop a Retail Strategy that will enable the retail sector in Scotland to play its part in creating a fairer, greener and stronger Scotland. The Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth Building made a statement to Scottish Parliament on 26 October confirming that the Retail Strategy will be published later this year.

There were no crimes of female genital mutilation recorded by Police Scotland in 2020-21.

Scottish Government officials have a weekly call with NHS Tayside’s Cancer Team to track all patients on an urgent suspicion of cancer (USC) pathway and update on service delivery, including workforce.

To support Cancer and Diagnostic services the Scottish Government has invested £10 million to support cancer services during and beyond the pandemic. This will support increased access to cancer diagnostics and staffing. A further £9 million will also be allocated this year to support diagnostic imaging capacity. We have also invested in mobile units located in NHS Highland and NHS Tayside to increase capacity.

The following table shows, in relation to deaths in prison where the deceased was aged 25 or younger, the average and longest time taken to conclude an FAI in each of the last five years. Days are calculated from the date of death to the date evidence at the FAI was concluded.

We are engaging HM Treasury and HMRC to ensure that VAT is not applied to deposits charged under Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). Any cost associated with VAT would be part of the operating costs of DRS, and would be borne by drinks producers in line with the principle of producer responsibility.

There has been no discussion between the UK and Scottish Governments over the introduction of a digital sales tax in Scotland. The Scottish Government is closely monitoring the UK Government’s planned forthcoming consultation on the arguments for and against an online sales tax, as announced in its final report to their fundamental review of business rates published alongside the UK Budget on 27 October.

In December 2019 we published "Neurological Care and Support - a National Framework for Action". Over 5 years we will invest £4.5 million to implement the Framework’s 17 commitments.

Some of these commitments aim to improve access to new medicines for people living with progressive forms of MS, such as our commitment to support the neurological research agenda by promoting the work of the Chief Scientist Office, third sector organisations’ research and Scottish neurological research networks; and encouraging opportunities for people with neurological conditions to become involved in research trials.

In September 2020, the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) accepted siponimod (Mayzent®) for routine use in NHS Scotland. Mayzent® is the first oral Disease Modifying Therapy (DMT) for active secondary progressive MS. The SMC Horizon Scanning Team have also identified several DMT’s in development for the treatment of progressive forms of MS which are predicted to enter the UK market within the next 5 years.