Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government will publish further material on independence to give the people of Scotland the information they need. No date for publication has yet been determined.

In December 2024, the Government’s proposed spending and tax plans for 2025 to 2026 were published here Scottish Budget - gov.scot. This includes budget provision for a range of activity related to the constitution which will be deployed across Ministerial priorities and commitments in this area.

All Health Boards in Scotland receiving baselined funding from the Scottish Government toward their neurology services. As part of Planned Care funding, the Scottish Government has also invested £217,000 in total towards improving waiting times in NHS Tayside and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Through the Neurological Framework, the Scottish Government has given direct investment to numerous territorial Health Boards to undertake projects focusing on neurological care, in line with the Framework’s commitments. Health Boards that have received direct investment are:

• NHS Ayrshire and Arran
• NHS Forth Valley
• NHS Grampian
• NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
• NHS Lanarkshire
• NHS Lothian
• NHS Orkney
• NHS Tayside

Third sector organisations have also been awarded funding to work in partnership with a number of statutory organisations to better integrate services, including NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Fife. The Migraine Trust has worked in partnership with seven NHS boards to improve treatment for migraine in community pharmacy.

A full list of projects funded through the Neurological Framework can be found here.

We remain committed to reducing harm for individuals from the use of unsafe paraphernalia and will continue collaborating with stakeholders and harm reduction services on this matter.

We do not hold this information.

We know that there are links between smoking illicit drugs and some respiratory conditions. For example, smoking cannabis can lead to chronic bronchitis and clinicians sometimes see destructive emphysema in younger people.

To prevent harm in future generations, we are taking forward education work on substance abuse in our schools through the Curriculum for Excellence. Through educating young people about substance use and the impact it can have on their life and health, this will prevent them making unhealthy choices.

As part of our cross-government response to the final Drug Deaths Taskforce Report, we are investing £1.5 million in piloting Planet Youth in up to 35 schools across eight areas in 2025. Planet Youth is a universal approach to prevention that empowers communities to take action that will work for their specific circumstances to support young people to reduce the risk of substance use and its harms.

We are committed to ensuring that anyone living with a respiratory condition in Scotland receives the best possible care and treatment and will continue to ensure this takes account of areas of particular concern relating to drugs.

Within the Scottish Government, funding for Health and Care Research comes under the policy remit of the Chief Scientist Office (CSO)

CSO directly funds research through its research project and fellowship schemes. These are open to applications from across the clinical spectrum. All applications go through the same independent expert review process to enable funding decisions to be made

For multi-year projects and fellowships, the funding figure is allocated to the year corresponding to the start date and is the total amount committed to the project or fellowship

The 4 categories listed have been interpreted as follows:

Dementia - category including Alzheimer's; Frontotemporal Lobe Dementia; Lewy Body Dementia

The Scottish Government would advise that the question does not take into account section 8(4)(b) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997. While the summary conviction can carry a fine up to £50,000 the legislation also allows for a fine on conviction on indictment to which no maximum is provided.

The refreshed Digital Health and Care strategy sets out our digitalisation ambitions and its associated delivery plan highlights our achievements to date and summarises the key commitments to be achieved.

Following the withdrawal of medic 1 by NHS Lothian the Scottish Ambulance Service, working with other Health Boards, has put in place contingency arrangements to provide a prehospital Emergency Critical Care response across the east of Scotland.

Working through the National Trauma Network the Scottish Ambulance Service has agreed to take the lead in writing the business case for this replacement service. This work is ongoing recognising this is a complex undertaking with multiple stakeholders involved and there is a requirement to ensure that options within the business case are evidenced based, sustainable and meet the needs of patients in the East of Scotland and our population as whole.

The current project plan is working to have this business case completed by summer 2025. This will then need to be presented and reviewed through the appropriate governance processes.