Chamber and committees

Medicines reach community pharmacies, hospitals, GP practices through a supply chain that is privately operated on a UK-wide basis, from manufacturers in the UK and overseas to wholesale warehouses and distributors. The NHS itself does not have a significant logistical role in the supply chain for medicines.

The supply of medicines, including medicines shortages, is a reserved matter and therefore the responsibility of the UK Government’s Department of Health and Social Care. The Scottish Government works closely with the UK Government on all related medicines supply issues and there are well-established and robust processes in place to communicate, address and mitigate any risks to patients as result of any medicines supply issues that occur.

The Scottish Government and NHS Scotland National Procurement have regular engagement with key stakeholders including Health Boards and Community Pharmacy Scotland on any medicines supply related issues to ensure the provision of medicines for patients in both primary and secondary care settings across Scotland.

The First Minister and myself have had – and continue to have – positive discussions with the UK Government on devolved benefits and wider Scottish Government priorities, including where needed the provision of relevant data to support policy development and delivery.

I wrote to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on 16 December to set out specific data sharing requirements in relation to mitigation of the two-child cap. While no formal response has yet been received, Scottish Government and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) officials are holding ongoing productive discussions.

More widely, we already receive necessary data from the DWP to make payments to eligible people in Scotland for Scottish Child Payment, Best Start Grant and other benefits and to support the ongoing benefit delivery. Other data, including in relation to the number of households in Scotland impacted by reserved benefits and universal credit claimants in Scotland, is publicly available from the DWP.

Since October 2022, Scottish Government has funded the third sector organisation RNID to deliver its ‘Near You’ scheme in partnership with the NHS. The service provides hearing aid maintenance and support, access to information and advice as well as early detection and prevention. The scheme is currently operational across 5 hub areas – Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Scottish Borders, Shetland, Lothians and Fife and is facilitated by locally recruited staff and trained volunteers.

Partnerships provide domiciliary care in care homes as well as forging links with other third sector organisations to maximise attendance and support provided. Regular monitoring of this service is undertaken to assess demand and savings including in clinical hours and patient travel.

The Scottish Government provides the policies, frameworks and resources for high quality healthcare, and it is for each individual NHS Board to decide how best to utilise funding, to meet local health needs. Over the last five years, the number of Allied Health Professionals (AHP’s) across Scotland have increased by 17.8% including a 20.6% increase in Physiotherapists as at June 2024.

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.

We will continue to expand NHS Pharmacy First Scotland so that a wider range of health conditions are covered. This will further transfer the care of common clinical conditions to community pharmacy, removing the need for visits to GPs, Out of Hours services or Emergency Departments for everyday self-limiting conditions. In doing so, we will consult NHS24 and health boards to identify the priority conditions the service could cover in all community pharmacies in Scotland.

Through the Pharmacy First Plus element of the service, pharmacists who are qualified independent prescribers (IPs) can already go a step further than standard Pharmacy First, going beyond the approved list of products and the Patient Group Directions (PGDs) in place, to prescribe a wider range of products in response to patients' symptoms and conditions.

It remains the ambition of the Scottish Government to deliver a National Low Vision Service. This would deliver a range of services to people with visual impairment including both the provision of assistive technology and support for the use of technology already openly available (e.g. applications available for download/use on a smartphone/tablet). The Scottish Government is unable to take this forward at the present time due to financial constraints.

We have committed to the development of a new National Pharmaceutical Agency (NPhA), to improve links between the life sciences industry and the NHS, and ultimately improve patient care.

Initial scoping work has taken place, with further scoping work required to inform any planning for the future establishment of a NPhA. This work has been paused due to resource constraints.

I wrote to the Economy and Fair Work Committee on 25 June 2024 to confirm that a market testing exercise for Glasgow Prestwick Airport was underway. Scottish Ministers’ longstanding position is that the airport should be returned to the private sector at the appropriate time and opportunity. This must be to an organisation with the commitment and capability to operate businesses directly relevant to GPA.

Any decision to sell GPA must represent value for money for taxpayers and be informed by what is right for the long-term success of the business and its contribution to the local and Scottish economy.

The process is ongoing and I will update Parliament when a significant development has been made.

The Scottish Government works closely with categorised responders, who are responsible under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 for assessing the risk of an emergency occurring, maintaining plans to ensure they can continue to perform their functions in case of an emergency, and considering whether an assessment makes it necessary or expedient to add or modify plans. Scottish Government are not however responsible for, or the owners of, any of these plans.

To support categorised responders with their duties, the Scottish Government contributes to the UK’s National Security Risk Assessment and produces the Scottish Risk Assessment to supplement this with Scotland specific analysis. These national level risk assessments consider the most serious emergencies that the UK and Scotland may face in the near future, and contain specific risk assessments for both severe storms and wildfires.