Chamber and committees

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.

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.

Policy development was taken forward to determine which courses were available. It was concluded that, due to a number of factors, that it would not be taken further, not least due to the inhibitions of the current devolution settlement.

The following table shows how much funding the Scottish Government allocated to NHS Education for Scotland for experiential learning for undergraduate Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) students in the years requested

Health Boards received core capital funding of £453 million as part of their 2025-26 budget allocation from the Scottish Government, which is an increase of £139 million on 2024-25. This will be primarily focussed on delivering improvements to existing facilities and upgrading medical equipment. It will also allow the plans to complete the Baird Family Hospital and ANCHOR Cancer Centre in Aberdeen and for plans to replace the Belford Hospital in Fort William to be taken forward.

In the last 5 years, the Scottish Government have successfully delivered facilities that support remote and rural healthcare such as Badenoch and Strathspey Community Hospital and Broadford Hospital in Skye. There has been substantial investment in national treatment centres which serve all of Scotland, including the NTC Highland which is located in Inverness.

NHS Board’s baseline revenue allocations are set out annually in the Scottish Budget, as published on the Scottish Government’s website. In addition, resource and capital spending limits are reported in Board’s annual accounts, which are published on their websites.

The Scottish Government allocates funding to territorial NHS Boards based on the NRAC formula. The NRAC formula takes into account factors in addition to population levels, including excess costs of delivering healthcare in remote and rural areas.

Since 2006-07, baseline funding for health and social care has increased by 120% in cash terms and 37% in real terms.

Since 2012-13, over £3.5 billion of additional funding has been committed to those NHS Boards below their NRAC parity levels, ensuring all Boards remain within 0.6% of parity.

More information on the NRAC formula is available at: Resource Allocation Formula in Scotland - Finance - Data & intelligence from PHS (isdscotland.org)

The requested information on how many vacancies for (a) GP's there currently are in rural areas is not centrally held. However this information is available by health board and can be found on the following link:

General Practice Workforce Survey 2024 | Turas Data Intelligence

The requested information on how many vacancies for (b) nurses and (c) allied health professionals there currently are in rural areas is not centrally held. However this information is available by health board and can be found on the following link: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-33527 on 27 January 2025. 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 does not hold information on how many GP practices in rural areas have closed in each of the last five years. NHS Boards are responsible for managing their contracts with GP practices and determining, with Health & Social Care Partnerships, whether to replace any practices that have closed.

Telemedicine is essential to supporting care across Scotland. Access to services has shifted significantly over the past 5 years and we expect this to continue as we roll out improved ways to engage with health and social care services. Digital services are supporting people across Scotland to reduce unnecessary travel whilst also saving time, cost and uncomfortable journeys.