Chamber and committees

There is currently a moratorium on new apprenticeships in Scotland while work is ongoing with the Scottish Government’s post-school education and skills reform programme.

However, one of the key recommendations of the Allied Health Profession (AHP) Education and Workforce Review is to develop earn as you learn routes, which may in the future include apprenticeships. We are currently working closely with partners including Higher Education Institutions, Health Boards, Further Education and the Scottish Funding Council to progress this issue.

Progress has already been made to tackle workforce shortages in podiatry through the creation of a collaborative earn as you learn route at Glasgow Caledonian University. Health Boards are able to identify and send employees to train to become a podiatrist whilst remaining in the workforce and receiving full employee benefits of their local Board area.

Furthermore, the Scottish Government is currently collaborating with the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and wider stakeholders on the development of Next Generation HNC for AHP subjects. This work is providing the opportunity to take forward initial developments across three AHP professions and potentially offers a first step towards a recognised earn and learn progression route. It is currently in its early stages of development.

Progress towards eliminating hepatitis C (HCV) in Scotland is monitored by Public Health Scotland (PHS). PHS’s latest HCV surveillance report, published in January 2025, described progress as “hugely encouraging”. The number of deaths and cases of severe disease reduced by over 65% between 2015 and 2022, with the vast majority of those diagnosed (89%) having cleared their infection through treatment (exceeding the World Health Organization’s target of 80%).

However, the latest report only includes data up to 2023/24, so it is too early to say conclusively whether every indictor for HCV elimination has been reached. Work continues across key sectors to ensure we achieve and sustain elimination. I will provide a further update to Parliament once we have a fuller picture of our position and next steps post-March 2025.

This information is not held by Scottish Government.

The National Dental Inspection Programme (NDIP) is a key function of the Public Dental Service, delivery of which is the responsibility of Health Boards.

From the financial years 2020-21 to 2023-24, Scottish Government provided funding to Public Dental Services via Health Board allocations, however this did not specify funding for NDIP. From the financial year 2024-25, this funding has been baselined in to the overall Health Board allocation and is not separately identifiable.

The most recent surveillance report from Public Health Scotland indicates that the number of people tested for hepatitis C (HCV) antibody in Scotland in 2023 had surpassed pre-pandemic levels in almost all settings. Nonetheless, detecting more infections is a priority and we are focused on testing and treating more people, wherever they are, as we continue to push towards elimination of the virus.

Current work includes ensuring that opt-out testing is optimised in drug services and prisons, and considering the results of a recent Scottish Government-funded prison-based Hepatitis Intense Test and Treat (HITT) initiative in NHS Lothian. We are also reviewing the outcomes of opt-out blood borne virus testing pilots in Scottish emergency departments to determine whether further roll-out of this model would be effective.

The Scottish Government does not currently have any formal arrangements with industry partners to identify undiagnosed individuals living with hepatitis C. However we are aware of local community testing initiatives that have been developed and delivered with industry, such as the STEP C Free project in Forth Valley and work with the Hepatitis C Trust in Glasgow. We are happy to encourage innovative evidence-based approaches and support dissemination of learning from such initiatives through forums such as the Scottish Health Protection Network groups and our ongoing Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus local area visits.

The Scottish Government intends to lay the regulations for alkaline hydrolysis in Parliament this year. A working group is currently being established.

The Scottish Government has no powers over the smart-meter network or the Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS). Telecommunications is also a reserved issue.

However, the Scottish Government is addressing poor signal coverage through digital infrastructure programmes such as Reaching 100% and the Scottish 4G Infill (S4GI) programme. This is an example of Scottish Government using its own resources to ensure that Scotland’s homes and businesses are not left behind and can access the benefits of smart metering as soon as possible.

We have delivered 55 mobile masts in rural and island areas, all of which are available on an open access basis and could potentially be used to site smart meter radio infrastructure. The Shared Rural Network, a joint venture between the mobile industry and the UK Government, will also further increase geographic mobile coverage by building new infrastructure with the aim of reaching 91% of Scottish geography by 2027. It is therefore imperative that the UK Government and Ofgem update the regulations to allow the Data Communications Company (DCC) to use mobile technology to provide a signal to homes in Scotland and ensure that all meters can be appropriately upgraded.

It is unacceptable that there are currently no penalties for failure on the part of the DCC to deliver smart meter coverage across every part of the country. The Scottish Government continues to call on the UK Government to rectify this by including RTS related obligations in Ofgem licence conditions.

The Scottish Government believes that all women in Scotland should have access to abortion services, available free from stigma.

In the 2023 Programme for Government, the Scottish Government committed to undertake a review of the law on abortion to ensure that it is first and foremost a healthcare matter. That review is now underway.

As part of the review, the Scottish Government has convened an expert group chaired by Professor Anna Glasier, the Scottish Government’s Women’s Health Champion. The expert group is reviewing the existing law on abortion in Scotland and will produce a report for the Scottish Government this Summer.. If the group considers that the law could be changed for the better, the report will include recommendations for reform.

The Scottish Government will consider the expert group’s report and take into account views of other stakeholders and other relevant considerations too. Any proposals for changes to abortion law would be subject to a public consultation.

Details of the expert group, including minutes of their meetings are published on the Scottish Government website here: Abortion Law Review Expert Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The regulations for the Emergency Early Release process conducted in June-July 2024 included an exclusion for any individual serving a sentence for a conviction for domestic abuse (or aggravation), or where a previous unspent conviction for such an offence had led to a custodial sentence.

Prison Governors also had the power to veto the emergency early release of an otherwise eligible prisoner, where their early release would have presented a risk to a specific person, or group. The Scottish Prison Service consulted with Police Scotland and Justice and Children and Families Social Work, to request any risk relevant information regarding each individual, to inform any veto decision.

The Scottish Government believes that all women in Scotland should have access to abortion services as part of routine healthcare, and understands that the choice to have a surgical abortion is important. The 2021 Women’s Health Plan sought to achieve the overarching priority that ‘all women will have a choice about how and where they access abortion care’. We intend to build upon this as we move into the next phase of the Women’s Health Plan, and have been doing significant work with NHS Boards and other stakeholders to deliver these commitments.

The Scottish Government continues to work with Health Boards to understand surgical abortion capacity. In late 2024, all territorial Health Boards were asked to complete a survey setting out their surgical abortion availability, along with other information on overall demand for abortion services.

From this survey, it is apparent that bed space can be a contributing factor to limited surgical abortion provision, but is unlikely to be a significant factor. Theatre availability and clinical training are more significant barriers, and the Scottish Government is working with Health Boards and other key stakeholders such as the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to improve training opportunities to increase provision of these services.

The Scottish Government has also raised the importance of access to early surgical abortions with NHS Board Chief Executives. The information gathered through the survey will be presented back to Board Chief Executives in due course, to help inform Boards’ decisions on where surgical abortion provision could be increased.