Chamber and committees

The public consultation on “Ending Conversion Practices in Scotland” which ran from 9 January 2024 until 2 April set out the Scottish Government’s proposals on defining prohibited conduct in legislation.

Consultation responses will be analysed and considered to inform future legislation to be introduced into Parliament.

The information requested is not held centrally.

We recognise the importance of having access to appropriate diagnostic tests and continue to work with all key stakeholders to determine best ways to improve this in respiratory care.

Since the publication of Respiratory Care Action Plan (RCAP) for Scotland, we have established the Scottish Respiratory Advisory Committee (SRAC) to oversee its implementation. The key priorities identified were: increasing access to pulmonary rehabilitation; developing a respiratory core data set and developing best practice guidance for children living with asthma and transitioning to adult services.

Sub-groups were established to take this work forward. The Transitions sub-group have produced their recommendations for best practice, and these have been shared with key stakeholders in order to improve consistency across the country.

We are working closely with Public Health Scotland and are currently in the early stages of developing a national respiratory audit, which will help to better identify areas of improvement and track progress across Scotland.

In September 2023, the British Thoracic Society published their refreshed pulmonary rehab guidelines, we are considering how best we can support its implementation across Scotland. We are also working closely with the Scottish Pulmonary Rehab Advisory Group (SPRAG) and the Respiratory Specialty Delivery Group within the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) in order to determine how we can best support improvements in pulmonary rehab services across Scotland.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery are also developing national pathways for respiratory conditions including severe asthma; COPD and sleep apnoea. This work aligns closely with the RCAP and we will continue to ensure that close links continue.

The Scottish Government continues to work with the business and other key stakeholders to understand the implications of any future announcement made by the business and have committed to publishing this work in due course. Whilst this commercial decision will clearly have implications on a wide range of factors, the Scottish Government’s commitment to meeting our 2045 net zero target remains resolute and the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan will reflect that. We have also committed to publishing a Draft Grangemouth Just Transition Plan which will be the first place based approach to Just Transition, and is being actively worked on with a range of stakeholders. We have also convened the Grangemouth Future Industries Board to analyse current and future opportunities at the industrial site.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people living with respiratory conditions receive the best possible care and treatment. We expect clinicians and NHS Boards to follow all relevant national clinical guidelines to support those living with COPD.

This data is not currently held centrally. However, we recognise the importance of having access to meaningful data and have recently commissioned Public Health Scotland (PHS) to begin development of a national respiratory audit programme. This will allow us to ensure people are receiving the best possible care, treatment, and support for their condition and also support respiratory services to better understand the needs of their patients.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people living with respiratory conditions receive the best possible care and treatment to enable them to live longer, healthier, and more independent lives.

We provide baseline funding to NHS Boards and it is for them to determine how best to meet the needs of their local populations, including people with respiratory conditions.

Since the publication of the Respiratory Care Action Plan, we have formed a number of workstreams dedicated to improving care and treatment of respiratory conditions, including COPD. An example of this is the development of guidance for improving access to Pulmonary Rehab across Scotland.

Ophthalmology is a post-graduate specialism in medicine which does not involve universities, and as such no data exists with respect to university training places for this specialism. The Scottish Funding Council holds data regarding university training places for optometry.

The 2024-25 public sector pay will be determined in due course by the Scottish Government. It is anticipated that this process will also include consideration of the fee position for General Ophthalmic Services.

The funding for the 38,000 apprentices in training is committed. Skills Development Scotland commenced contracting for up to 25,500 new Modern Apprenticeship opportunities at the start of April, including in the construction sector.

The information requested is available on the Historic Environment Scotland website at https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/search . A search can be conducted using the filters to specify a category of listed building as well as the local authority area. Guidance on how to use the Historic Environment Scotland portal is available at https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/guidance and https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/portal/docs/designations_search_user_guide.pdf .