Chamber and committees

Supporting fair and green economic growth is a core priority for this Government, as highlighted in our recently published Programme for Government. Since 2007, Scotland’s GDP per capita has grown by 10.7%, outpacing the UK’s growth of 5.6%. Productivity in Scotland has also increased at an average of 1.1% per year, well above the UK average of 0.4%.

It is encouraging to see Sir Tom Hunter lending his support and expertise to promising businesses in Scotland. The ScaleUpScotland programme aligns well with the broad range of initiatives we support to help businesses grow, such as the Techscaler programme, Scottish EDGE, and the support from our Enterprise Agencies and the Scottish National Investment Bank. All of these efforts are integrated into our New Deal for Business, creating a strong foundation for economic success.

We have committed to consulting on the role of the Law Officers. To further that commitment research has been commissioned to develop a detailed baseline understanding of the many distinct roles and functions of the Law Officers and will provide information on how the functions of law officers operate in other countries.

The role of the Law Officers is secured by the Scotland Act 1998, and reflects the system in place prior to devolution. What any changes to that role would require by way of an Act of the UK or Scottish parliament would depend on any changes proposed.

Development of the consultation will be informed by an initial phase of expert research, which is currently underway.

Work is progressing towards publication of the report to develop a detailed baseline understanding of the distinct roles and functions of the Law Officers and how the functions of law officers operate in other countries.

The business rates incentivisation scheme (BRIS) was suspended in 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 due to the disruptive impact of COVID on NDR revenues, as confirmed in Local government finance circular 8/2021: business rates incentivisation scheme 2019-2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)there was therefore no revenue retained by any council in 2022-23, retentions generally affecting the following year’s non-domestic rates income.

Non-domestic rates incentivisation scheme (NDRIS, formerly BRIS) retention amounts relating to 2023-24 will be made available at the earliest opportunity, these amounts will be reported in councils provisional NDR outturn returns following the end of the current financial year.

Local government finance circular 1/2024: Non Domestic Rates Incentivisation Scheme 2023 to 2026 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) details final NDRIS targets for 2023-24 and provisional targets for 2024-25 and 2025-26.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-30449 on 22 October 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) does not hold the information requested. NHS Boards submit patient level records to the national waiting times datamart but the information provided on the clinical priority of a referral is not available for reporting as it isn’t quality assured. This is due to there being no agreed national definition on what constitutes an urgent or routine referral.

Statistics relating to the waits patients experience for a new outpatient appointment at a consultant-led clinic are published up to 30th June 2024 and can be found using the link https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/29135/newop_aug24.xlsx. The median and 90th percentile waits for cardiology in NHS Dumfries and Galloway, as well as a breakdown of the length of waits, can be found using the dropdowns in the 1.6 Table tab:

Please note, PHS does not publish the longest wait because this statistic can often reflect the wait of one of a very small number of patient records where there are inaccuracies in the information recorded at the time the data were extracted, and consequently the wait that can be derived is erroneously long.

To minimise this risk, PHS publishes the 90th percentile statistic (the length of time within which 9 out of 10 patients are seen) to provide a more reliable indication of the longest waits that are occurring, as this statistic is not susceptible to these outliers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-30449 on 22 October 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

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. An expert group chaired by Professor Anna Glasier, the Scottish Government’s Women’s Health Champion, has been set up to help take forward this review. The review aims to identify potential proposals for reform, within specified term limits, before the end of this parliament. The Scottish Government will consider the recommendations made within the report carefully as part of this review. As such, the Scottish Government plans to wait for the outcomes of the review before commenting in more detail on the recommendations set out in Engender’s report.

Engender represent members of the advisory group of women’s rights organisations on this expert group, and will be able to feed their views into the review.

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)

Once the expert group has completed its work, the Scottish Government will consider any recommendations or options proposed. Any proposals for changes to abortion law would be subject to a public consultation.

As part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to reduce waiting times, significant activity is already underway following an additional £30 million investment to target backlogs, announced in the spring1.

This will see around 12,000 new outpatient appointments, around 12,000 inpatient procedures and over 40,000 diagnostic procedures delivered2. A breakdown of the committed funding at both Specialty & Health Board levels are shown in the tables. The final allocations will be made to respective NHS boards following delivery of the activity.

We will continue to work with all NHS boards to maximise current resources and productivity. I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29287 on 12 September 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.