Chamber and committees

The expansion and retention of our specialist genomic workforce is an important part of the Scottish Government’s genomic medicine strategy and is critical to the delivery of both diagnosis and treatment across the NHS.

The Scottish Strategic Network for Genomic Medicine is working to capture not only our current workforce needs but those of our future service as we move towards an expansion in testing.

In doing so, we are working closely with NHS Education Scotland, our partners across the UK and national networks, acknowledging the many interdependencies between genomics, pathology and radiology in delivering diagnostic information needed by clinicians.

The Scottish Government is aware of the impact that branch closures are having on people in Scotland, particularly in rural areas and our island communities.

The reply to the 2024 PQ S6W-30359 was interpreted as seeking cost information for the Digital Waste Tracking project. The Electronic Duty of Care (edoc) system was a wholly separate project to the ongoing “Digital Waste Tracking” project. As such, edoc was not referred to in the response to PQ S6W-30359 on 16 October 2024.

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 anticipated full year spend (12 months from opening, not the financial year) is £2.3 million. This funding is largely to cover the staffing of the facility. Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership have funded the building works and furnishings.

The Scottish Government regularly meets with the Scottish Funding Council to discuss a wide range of matters, including sectoral skills initiatives.

For example, skills officials recently met with SFC to discuss the co-led Tertiary Pathfinder Programme which, among others, includes the NESA Energy Transition Skills Pathway pilot project.

The Scottish Government welcomes the opportunity we have been given to contribute to the ongoing Strategic Defence Review. Whilst Defence is a reserved matter, the decisions made within it can have far reaching implications for our Armed Forces community in Scotland, as well as devolved areas of responsibility such as industry, public services and the economy.

We will look to publish our submission to the review in the near future, once we have fully consulted with the relevant stakeholders on any sensitivities around the material included within it.

Equitable and consistent access to appropriate and timely diagnostic services and expertise are core requirements within the NICE NG47 guidelines cited within the recent Blood Cancer UK Action Plan.

We are aware of a gap analysis carried out by the Haematology and Transfusion Scotland and Scottish Strategic Network for Genomic Medicine networks on the genomic testing needed in Scotland, and we are working to address this as part of the overall implementation of the Genomics in Scotland strategy.

Work is also underway to better support integrated diagnostic reporting through the development of a national Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) in a programme of work led by a consortium of NHS Boards.

The updated Vessels and Ports Plan was published on 1 February 2024 as part of the Islands Connectivity Plan. This includes a plan to replace the current Sound of Harris vessel.

CMAL has commenced work on phase two of the Small Vessel Replacement Programme which includes a replacement vessel to serve the Sound of Harris route. Design work from phase one will be expanded upon with lessons learned applied to phase two. CMAL will shortly launch a procurement process to appoint a naval architect consultant to develop the concept design.

Since 2020-21 the Scottish Government has not received a specific allocation of the Apprenticeship Levy revenue. Scotland receives a Barnett Formula share of funding via the block grant in the usual way.

Our Equally Safe strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls (VAWG) emphasises the importance of challenging the underpinning attitudes which enable such violence to take place.

Our Equally Safe at School (ESAS) project, developed by Rape Crisis Scotland and Zero Tolerance, applies a whole school approach to inequality and gender-based violence in schools. Rape Crisis Scotland have reported that currently 116 schools are registered with an ESAS account.

The Scottish Government also funds and supports other education-based programmes and initiatives aimed at tackling violence against women and girls and the attitudes which perpetuate it such as Mentors in Violence peer education programme, the preventing and responding to gender based violence: a whole school framework, Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning and Rape Crisis Scotland’s national sexual violence programme for secondary schools.