Chamber and committees

I refer the Member to the answers given in questions S6W-33618 and S6W-33681 on 27 January 2025. In addition, I also refer the member to the General Ophthalmic Services Statement which is available at: https://www.eyes.nhs.scot/media/1765/statement-of-gos-remuneration-and-cpd-allowances-241023.pdf

The Scottish Government provides an additional fee to practices for the provision of domiciliary care to eligible patients.

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

Healthcare support workers in Scotland, by agreement from their employers, can enrol on the HNC in Healthcare Practice at their local college and can then progress to the nursing degree programme currently provided by the Open University, enabling them to remain in the workforce in their local Board area whilst studying. The Scottish Government provides a salary backfill payment to employers to compensate for time away from the workplace for both the Open University and HNC programmes.

Within our 24/25 Programme for Government we committed to working across the four nations on banning the sale of single use vapes (SUV) as well as the UK Tobacco and Vapes Bill.

SUV’s have been linked to a rapid increase in the number of young people vaping, particularly due to their low price. The SUV ban will be implemented from 1 June 2025 in line with the rest of the UK.

If passed the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, will restrict the promotion, advertisement and brand sharing of vapes.

Our Scotland-wide ‘Take Hold’ marketing campaign educated parents, carers and children about the dangers of vaping and increased the awareness of the harms and risks of nicotine addiction. It also contained a school toolkit.

We continue to work with Young Scot to support young people to understand the risks of using tobacco and nicotine products, and raise awareness of available cessation services and avenues to support young people to stop smoking/vaping.

The Scottish Government is committed to developing a sustainable health and social care system that ensures people get the right care, at the right time, in the right place.

Our vision is for ‘a Scotland where people live longer, healthy and fulfilling lives.’ is supported by four key areas of work: improving population health, a focus on prevention and early intervention, providing quality services, and maximising access, all underpinned by a person-centred approach.

The majority of health boards across Scotland have all, or some of their constituent population in a rural area. Health Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships take account of the diverse needs of their populations and plan their service provision according to that need.

Officials engage with Health Boards and HSCPs on a regular basis to review health outcomes.

The Scottish Government does not share this view.

Public Health Scotland publishes annual data on NHS eye examination on their website at: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/ophthalmic-workload-statistics/ophthalmic-workload-statistics-statistics-as-at-year-ending-31-march-2024/

Women’s Health is key priority for this government which is why Scotland was the first country in the UK to publish an ambitious Women’s Health Plan in August 2021. Timely access to gynaecology services will remain a priority as we continue to develop our Women’s Health Plan.

The Budget we set out on 4 December 2024 will throw the weight of the government behind performance improvements with almost £200 million to reduce waiting lists and help support reduction of delayed discharge. By March 2026, we expect no one to be waiting longer than 12 months for a new outpatient, inpatient treatment or day case treatment.

We have already invested £30 million to reduce waiting lists that built up throughout the pandemic. This funding is being targeted at a series of national and local plans to reduce backlogs by maximising the use of local and national resources across Scotland. As part of this, we have allocated additional funding to Gynaecology services which we expect to deliver around 3,500 new outpatient appointments.

The Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults is distributed in all 32 local authority areas of Scotland by Third Sector Interface (TSI) organisations who, working in collaboration with other local partners, are responsible for determining and allocating the funding to local community initiatives which support mental health and wellbeing.

TSIs are provided with overarching national guidance for the Fund, which is set by the Scottish Government in consultation with TSIs and the Fund’s National Oversight Group prior to each funding round.

The guidance sets out the broad parameters for how funding should be allocated to community organisations, including criteria around who can apply and what type of project can be funded; in line with the Fund’s aim to tackle mental health inequalities and benefit grassroots groups. The guidance is reviewed annually based on feedback and evidence emerging from monitoring and reporting on the Fund, which is collated by the Scottish Government.

Crucially, it is designed to be flexible in order to allow local partnership groups to identify their own priorities for spend within the terms set out and in line with their local partnership plans.

The list of successful applicants for Year 3 of the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults was published in November 2024. This provides details of the local authority where the organisation is based, the name of the project and the amount of funding awarded by the local This Sector Interface.

The list of successful applicants can be found within the following link.

Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults Projects awarded funding Year 3 - 2023/2024

Year 4 of the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults opened for applications on or before 30 September 2024 and is well under way. Third Sector Interfaces will submit their End of Year reports in Spring 2025. A full list of the successful applicants will be published thereafter.

The requirement for Directors of companies registered in the United Kingdom to prepare and publish annual audited financial statements, subject to certain exemptions, arises from the Companies Act 2006 and not from contractual conditions.