Chamber and committees

Glasgow Prestwick Airport operates on a commercial basis and at arm’s length from the Scottish Government and Ministers do not intervene in operational matters. Additionally, statistics regarding arrests in any location at a matter for Police Scotland.

Glasgow Prestwick Airport operates on a commercial basis and at arm’s length from the Scottish Government and Ministers do not intervene in operational matters.

Information about the progress to date against each of the priorities in the Women’s Health Plan can be found in the Women’s Health Plan Final Report.

As we move into the next phase of the Women’s Health Plan, we will consider how best to monitor and evaluate progress over time, which includes engagement with women who have lived experience of endometriosis.

As set out in the Women’s Health Plan, we know that there is a lack of data on women’s health – including endometriosis. Improving data has been one of the key priorities of the first phase of the women’s health plan, to understand the data that are available, the gaps and how we might address them.

The recently published data landscape review sets out a range of publicly available data on the health of women in Scotland and highlights where there are gaps which need to be addressed, including endometriosis. This is just the start of our work to improve women’s health data. Further work will be undertaken to explore the data sources and gaps in more detail.

We are committed to ensuring those living with endometriosis are able to access the best possible care and support and that they benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care. Endometriosis will continue to be a priority as we develop the next phase of our Women’s Health Plan.

The Chief Scientist Office’s project and fellowship funding schemes continue to welcome applications from across the clinical spectrum, including in Endometriosis.

This funding source is well known across the women’s health research community. Applications looking at the diagnosis, treatment and management of Endometriosis are welcomed and (in common with all other applications) go through CSO’s rigorous independent expert review process to allow funding decisions to be made.

We have recently increased the number of research funding programmes run by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) open to researchers in Scotland from 4 to 9 Scottish Researchers to be able to access further NIHR research funding – Chief Scientist Officeand have worked to ensure researchers across Scotland are aware of these opportunities. Most of these programmes are open to research across the clinical spectrum, including in Endometriosis.

CSO continues to fund the NHS Research Scotland Reproductive Health and Childbirth Network which supports the delivery of a number of Endometriosis-related clinical studies across the NHS hereStudy Portfolio | NHS Research Scotland | NHS Research Scotland.

As stated in question S6W-32172 more information on women’s health data can be found in the recently published data landscape review. It sets out a range of publicly available data on the health of women in Scotland and highlights where there are gaps which need to be addressed. This is just the start of our work to improve women’s health data. Further work will be undertaken to explore the data sources and gaps in more detail.

The Endometriosis Care Pathway for NHS Scotland supports healthcare professionals to provide a holistic approach and timely care for those with endometriosis and endometriosis-like symptoms.

While there is no specific routine screening for Endometriosis, the pathway is clear and advises healthcare professionals to suspect endometriosis in women who present with one or more symptom (including in young women aged 16 and under).

Clinicians are advised to assess women’s individual information and support needs and take into account their circumstances, symptoms, priorities, priority for fertility, aspects of daily living, work and study, cultural background, and their physical, psychosexual and emotional needs.

All NHS Boards should be taking steps to implement the pathway.

The Scottish Government continues to support community pharmacies, including rural pharmacies, by delivering the largest ever increase to funding two years in a row. This has delivered a total of £422 million in guaranteed funding for community pharmacies across Scotland in this financial year.

In addition, there is a Guaranteed Minimum Target Income for essential small pharmacies, most of which are rural, and a pharmaceutical needs weighting payment which acknowledges both demographics and deprivation- associated with a patient’s postcode. Both of these measures help support rural pharmacies by ensuring they are not disadvantaged because of their location.

When community pharmacies close or transfer ownership this is a business decision taken by the community pharmacy owner. The Scottish Government has not undertaken an impact assessment on closures. Health Boards are the bodies responsible for ensuring that there is adequate provision of NHS pharmaceutical services within their area.

There is a wide range of education and training programmes for those delivering palliative care suitable to their role. These training programmes encourage those delivering palliative care to be aware of cultural factors and how these can impact on individuals and their families.

Our draft palliative care strategy aims to build on this work and includes a number of recommended actions for the provision of palliative care education and training to support all healthcare professionals delivering palliative care services.

Scottish Government implements a number of measures to support rural NHS Boards’ digital infrastructure. These include:

• The Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN)
• A Strategic Digital Fund -For a number of years the Scottish Government has provided additional non-recurring funding to support local strategic digital developments, with a particular emphasis on ensuring continued funding for Highlands and Islands Boards to protect rural services
• Access to the Scottish Government/COSLA Digital Maturity Assessment platform - a standardised management tool for digital transformation. This platform enables NHS Boards to document progress, analyse results, identify priorities, and align with local and national digital and data strategies.
• Recent analysis of data from the Scottish Government/COSLA Digital Maturity Assessment shows both progress in electronic records management and areas for development at organisational and system wide level.
• The Scottish Government and COSLA have also developed a range of resources to increase the digital capabilities of the leadership and workforce thereby improving the ability to identify digital transformation opportunities and implementation.
• A Records Management Code of Practice was published in August 2024.

Community organisations in rural areas and elsewhere are uniquely placed to identify and address the issues that keep individuals in their local communities healthy.

A place-based approach is the foundation of Community-Led Local Development (CLLD). Communities are empowered and supported to design and implement the solutions to the challenges and opportunities they identify in their local area, which can include community led health and social care provision.

Through the Communities workstream within the wider Place and Wellbeing programme we are also working with the community and voluntary sector to enhance the capacity of community organisations (in rural areas and elsewhere) to complement the actions of the public sector in keeping people well. As part of the Communities Workstream we are exploring how we can increase the influence of local community organisations in the decisions that impact on the health and wellbeing of their communities.

We have also introduced participation requests as part of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, which provide a mechanism for communities to seek dialogue with public service providers including NHS Health Boards on their own terms and become meaningfully involved in local service delivery.

This information is provided in Glasgow Prestwick Airport’s annual accounts.

Glasgow Prestwick Airport has published annual accounts for each year since the shareholding was acquired by Scottish Ministers. It is a statutory requirement that these are laid in Parliament.