Chamber and committees

In Scotland, Patient Access Schemes (PAS) offering discounts by pharmaceutical companies to list prices of medicines are considered by the Patient Access Scheme Advisory Group (PASAG) and are commercial-in-confidence. Therefore this information is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government published a national consensus statement in September 2024, to support Health Boards to consider how best to implement these weight loss medicines. It is a matter for individual Health Boards to consider the implementation of any new medicine within their services in order to meet the needs of their local population in a safe and clinically appropriate way. This includes determining which criteria they apply in prescribing obesity medicines to individuals, and for taking appropriate phased steps to make them available across their services.

Workforce planning is undertaken collaboratively with NHS boards and relevant stakeholders, and officials continue to assess workforce capacity, recruitment and training requirements to ensure services can meet demand.

While no formal assessment has been made of the number of hearing care professionals required to reduce waiting lists, the Scottish Government remains committed to supporting the healthcare science workforce and has set out strategic direction for the profession, focused on education, workforce development, and the quality and safety of services. This is further supported by work being taken forward by Public Services Delivery Scotland, focused on mapping the skills and competencies required across healthcare science specialisms to inform future workforce planning.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of ensuring audiology services have sufficient workforce capacity required to meet service demand, both now and into the future. We continue to work closely with NHS boards and other partners to improve audiology services across Scotland and determine how best to move the provision of audiology care into community settings, aligned to strategic ambitions. On 27 August 2026, I wrote to the Health, Care and Sport Committee to provide an update on my meeting with NHS Heads of Service, community audiology providers and other key stakeholders as part of this government’s 100 days prospectus. This meeting centred on a draft proposal for development of a Target Operating Model for audiology, and my letter sets out more detail on the Scottish Government’s immediate priorities for audiology services. It can be read in full here: 20260827 Minister for Community Care to Convener | Scottish Parliament Website

Migrations began in 2022 and we do not hold information on service desk contacts for the full period of the migration programme.

We have provided data from 9 December 2025, when OneAdvanced took over support desk arrangements, to 23 August 2026 showing the number of calls logged to the service help desk broken down by Health Board area.

There were 2,658 issues logged with OneAdvanced .These ranged from routine requests, such as password resets, to more significant issues, including system slowness and disconnections, and include reports from long-term Vision users, new users and recently migrated practices.

The highest numbers of issues were recorded in NHS Lothian (580), NHS Grampian (483), NHS Lanarkshire (469), NHS Tayside (403), NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (372) and NHS Highland (196). Other NHS Boards reported NHS Forth Valley (70), NHS Dumfries and Galloway (59), NHS Orkney (10), NHS Borders (5), NHS Western Isles (4) and NHS Ayrshire and Arran (3) issues. No issues were recorded for NHS Fife, while Public Services Delivery Scotland recorded 2 issues.

The Scottish Government's Transport to Health Delivery Plan, published in October 2024, aims to ensure that access to healthcare is fully considered within NHS Board planning and service delivery.

As part of the commitments set out in the Plan, sections 120 and 121 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 came into force on 22 September 2023. These provisions require Health Boards to engage with community transport providers and to consider the social and economic impacts of non-emergency patient transport services.

We continue to engage with NHS Boards on a range of issues relevant to service delivery, including transport-related challenges, and monitor the ongoing implementation of the statutory requirements. We will shortly write to Boards to seek their next annual progress update.

We recognise that effective collaboration between NHS Boards, Regional Transport Partnerships and other relevant partners is essential to improving transport to healthcare. We therefore continue to work closely with Regional Transport Partnerships to support progress in this area.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the lives of people in Scotland in its first 100 days. I committed to opening the First Homes Fund during a parliamentary statement on 27 May and the Fund itself launched within 4 weeks on 24 June. This is a demand led fund where the criteria is first time buyers who have not previously owned a residential property and have a mortgage in principle. It is a scheme designed to support deposit top ups for first time buyers who are able to sustain a mortgage. All applicants are supported by the scheme administering agents who process applications through to settlement. We will publish First Homes Fund data in due course.

Environmental performance is regulated by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and this would be a matter for them to investigate.

Scottish Water’s recently published annual report and accounts for 2025-26 reported that environmental pollution incidents were reduced from 199 in 2024-25 to 191 in 2025-26. There were only two serious environmental pollution incidents in 2025-26, down from four in 2024-25.

The Scottish Government Bonds Programme was developed following a recommendation from the independent Investor Panel that Scotland should consider issuing debt in capital markets to diversify funding sources, strengthen investor engagement, raise Scotland's profile with investors and establish a market track record.

The Scottish Government Bonds Programme was developed following a recommendation from the independent Investor Panel that Scotland should consider issuing debt in capital markets to diversify funding sources, strengthen investor engagement, raise Scotland's profile with investors and establish a market track record.

The Critical Success Factors in the Outline Business Case were developed to assess options against these aims, as well as requirements relating to affordability, deliverability and achievability.

The Scottish Government has no plans to revisit the Outline Business Case or revise the Critical Success Factors. A wholesale issuance aimed at institutional investors remains the most cost-effective approach for an inaugural transaction and best supports the programme's objectives.

Future issuances may consider alternative structures where these offer value for money and support the programme's strategic objectives.

The Scottish Government notes the conclusions of the report, including its estimates regarding capital flows, but does not agree that they provide a robust assessment of the Scottish Government Bonds Programme or its economic impacts.

The Scottish Government Bonds Programme was developed following a recommendation from the independent Investor Panel that Scotland should consider issuing debt in capital markets.

The Outline Business Case concluded that a multi-year bond programme could represent value for money and deliver a number of strategic and economic benefits, including strengthening investor engagement, raising Scotland’s profile with investors, supporting investment in Scotland and establishing a market track record.

The Scottish Government does not agree that a wholesale bond issuance is inconsistent with the principles of the Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Act 2026.

The Scottish Government Bonds Programme was developed following a recommendation from the independent Investor Panel that Scotland should consider issuing debt in capital markets to strengthen investor engagement, raise Scotland's profile with investors and establish a market track record. The Outline Business Case concluded that a multi-year wholesale bond programme could represent value for money and identified potential economic benefits associated with increased investor engagement and investment in Scotland.