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.

Public Health Scotland publishes annual data on NHS eye examination on their website at: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/ophthalmic-workload-statistics/ophthalmic-workload-statistics-statistics-as-at-year-ending-31-march-2024/

Tables 6.1 and 6.2 provide data at Scotland, Health Board and Health and Social Care Partnership level outlining that, apart from the COVID-19 impacted years, increasing numbers of people are having a free NHS-funded eye examination.

In addition, the NHS Inform and Eyes.NHS.Scot websites have content relevant to the provision of NHS funded eye examinations in Scotland.

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.

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.

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. Additionally, statistics regarding arrests in any location at a matter for Police Scotland.

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.

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.

The Scottish Government continues to work with NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society to develop a joint programme to encourage more people, and not just school leavers, to consider careers in pharmacy. This includes targeting deprived and rural communities.

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. We commissioned NES to work with rural Health Boards to explore mechanisms to attract more pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to work in rural communities; ensuring any associated education and training needs are flexibly met. We also committed to testing a pharmacy longitudinal clerkship.

Following a pilot with Robert Gordon University and NHS Highland, rural longitudinal clerkships were incorporated into experiential learning in 2022-23. The initiative is open to pharmacy students in the final two years of their undergraduate pharmacy course at both Scottish Schools of Pharmacy.

During Foundation Training Year, to attract potential trainee pharmacists some training providers offer multi sector/split programmes within rural locations. These programmes, where trainees spend time in more than one sector of pharmacy, are highly sought after.

In addition, to promote pharmacy technician recruitment in rural areas, a number of senior pharmacy technicians attend school careers fairs and other recruitment initiatives to raise awareness of the role.

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.