Chamber and committees

The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009, coupled with inclusion in the GI scheme already provides this guarantee and the GI mark is available to be used by producers meeting the specification should they wish.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Scottish Government remains fully committed to tackling food insecurity which can contribute to health inequalities. No one in Scotland should have to compromise on food or other essentials.

Food insecurity is driven by insufficient and insecure household income, which is why we continue to call on the UK Government to deliver an Essentials Guarantee to ensure people have enough money to meet their basic needs, which the Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimate could lift 140,000 people in Scotland out of poverty this year.

Scotland is the first nation in the UK to publish a Cash-First Plan, grounded in human rights, that works towards ending the need for food banks in Scotland. Through “Cash-First: Towards Ending the Need for Food Banks in Scotland”, we are taking forward nine actions over three years, 2023-2026, to improve the response to crisis, using a Cash-First approach so that fewer people need to turn to food parcels. The Trussell Trust and the Independent Food Aid Network agree with our approach.

We recognise the pressure on household budgets which is why the 2025-26 draft budget continues to allocate over £3 billion a year to policies which tackle poverty and the cost of living.

The Scottish Government expects all NHS Boards to provide maternity services that are delivered as close to home as practicable and to offer a full range of birth place options within their region. Service planning and delivery is the responsibility of NHS Boards and it is important that these services are safe, sustainable and meet the needs of local populations.

At a national level, we continue to take forward work to address the challenges faced by maternity services in rural and island NHS Board areas. We are improving the delivery of maternity services in rural areas through initiatives such as implementation of The Best Start and the introduction of continuity of carer; the development of community hubs, and the increased use of Near Me, that allows for remote consultations and appointments where appropriate. We particularly recognise the importance of patient transport and this remains a priority for the Scottish Perinatal Network (SPN), with work commencing to develop guidance on Remote & Rural Intrapartum Transfers. In addition, we continue to support work in Grampian to return obstetric maternity services to Dr Gray's Hospital.

The Scottish Government continue to support all community pharmacy contractors, including rural pharmacies in Scotland by delivering the largest ever increase to funding for two years in a row. This settlement will deliver 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. This helps support rural pharmacies by ensuring they are not disadvantaged because of their location. In our strategy for pharmaceutical care in Scotland ‘Achieving Excellence in Pharmaceutical Care’ (2017) we committed to enhancing access to pharmaceutical care in rural communities, which included use of Attend Anywhere for pharmacist clinics, and use of Near Me to support access to and the delivery of pharmaceutical care in rural communities.

The Scottish Government does not centrally collect data on waiting times for accessing end-of-life care services across Scotland. Referral to specialist palliative care services for people living with serious health conditions and/or those who require specialist palliative care when they are dying is based on individualised needs assessments.

As a wide range of specialist and generalist staff in hospitals, care homes, primary care, social care, hospices and the third sector will be involved in providing palliative care to individuals and their families, and could all be considered as delivering palliative care, it would be challenging to gather this data centrally.

The Scottish Government does not hold this data.

Over the counter medicines for common illnesses can be provided through the NHS Pharmacy First Scotland service, may be prescribed, or may be purchased from community pharmacies, other retailers and online.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) publishes reports on prescribing and dispensing of NHS prescriptions dispensed in the community. These reports include prescribed items as well as those that have been provided via Pharmacy First. The most recent Pharmacy First publication can be found online at NHS Pharmacy First Scotland 8 October 2024 - NHS Pharmacy First Scotland - Publications - Public Health Scotland.

Additionally, the most recent open data on Prescriptions in the Community contains dispenser level data which can be filtered for the relevant rural/urban locations and medicines if required. It can be found online at Monthly prescribing activity data - Data for October 2024 - Monthly prescribing activity data - Publications - Public Health Scotland Data about medicines that have been purchased by individuals is not collected by the Scottish Government or PHS.

In terms of general availability of medicines, shortages can occur at a local, regional, national, or global level. When supply issues relating to individual medicines or devices arise, that information is shared by NHS Scotland with the relevant networks within the service to help prescribers and dispensers meet patients’ on-going medical needs. The NHS Scotland Prescribing Advisers’ Network provides support to prescribers on the use of alternative products.

The pricing and supply of medicines, including the management of medicine shortages, is a reserved matter for the UK Government, and Scottish Government policy officials continue to engage with them to find lasting solutions to minimise the impact of medicine shortages.