Chamber and committees

As reported by the Deputy First Minister on 21st November, the £13 million originally allocated for 2023-24 has been announced as part of the savings required to reach a balanced budget. We are now considering all options for the device commitment, including a range of delivery options and an update will be provided in due course.

The role of the Scottish Government is to provide frameworks, policies, and resources to enable Scotland’s NHS Boards to deliver healthcare services. It is for NHS Boards to determine how they utilise the funding provided by the Scottish Government to meet the needs of their local populations.

It is important to note that the £19.6m funding for diabetes technology was in addition to, and not a replacement for, local budgets. We also provide baseline funding to NHS Boards and expect them to continue to fund provision locally to meet patients’ needs.

The Scottish Government has recently concluded an information gathering exercise on the provision of stoma care and stoma specialist nurse coverage across Scotland's 14 territorial health boards. The results of this exercise will be presented to the Scottish Executive Nurse Directors (SEND) to identify any shortfalls and inconsistencies in the level of care provided across the country and the actions that may be needed to address them.

We will shortly publish the minutes of the first meeting of the Ministerial Oversight Group on Homelessness. They will be available here - Ministerial Oversight Group on Homelessness - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

This is a matter for the relevant commissioning body. The information requested is not held centrally.

Scotland has the strongest rights in the UK for people experiencing homelessness and local authorities have a legal duty to provide accommodation and advice to anyone experiencing or at risk of rough sleeping.

This year we have provided £713,228 of funding to City of Edinburgh Council and £1,471,795 to Glasgow City Council for implementation of their rapid rehousing transition plans (RRTPs) which aim to support people experiencing homelessness into settled accommodation as quickly as possible, including through Housing First.

We continue to work closely with both local authorities and third sector partners to ensure emergency accommodation and support is available for people at risk of rough sleeping, including through the operation of rapid rehousing welcome centres (RRWCs) over the winter months. This year we have provided £215,471 of funding to support the operation of RRWC’s in Glasgow and Edinburgh, with £1,120,021 million of funding provided to support these services since 2020.

The Scottish Government has also made £50,000 of personalised budget funding available to frontline third sector organisations in Glasgow and Edinburgh this year. This funding allows frontline staff to meet the immediate needs of people at risk of, or experiencing, rough sleeping and provide them with support in a dignified and person-centred way.

We know that a proportion of people rough sleeping in Scotland are doing so as a result of the UK Government’s no recourse to public funds policy, which prevents people from accessing statutory homelessness assistance. We will continue to call on the UK Government to change this policy, which is pushing people into destitution and is one of the biggest barriers to eradicating rough sleeping in Scotland.

The challenges experienced by construction apprentices completing their apprenticeships continue to be closely monitored. The backlog of those who started in 2017 and 2018 has largely been cleared due to considerable support from all stakeholders. Scottish Government continues to work with agencies and industry to improve the rate of completion for the 2019 cohort, while maintaining the quality and integrity of the apprenticeships.

As Minister for Higher and Further Education I have chaired multiple roundtables with key stakeholders and industry partners and have stressed the need for practical solutions to resolve this backlog as quickly as possible, while ensuring no detriment to the apprentices.

I welcome practical and feasible solutions to help address this situation but we have to ensure that those solutions do not have any unintended consequences for the learners.

The Scottish Government is aware that there are global supply issues with glucagon-like peptide-1 Receptor Agonists (GLP-1 RAs) products, which are licensed for treating patients with type 2 diabetes, including Victoza (liraglutide). It is anticipated that supplies of all GLP-1 RAs products will be limited and intermittent until at least mid-2024.

The global shortage of GLP-1 RAs has been largely driven by increased demand, including for off-label and private online prescribing of these medicines for weight-loss; this has led to shortages for patients with Type 2 diabetes.

The supply of medicines is currently a reserved matter for the UK Government. We continue to engage with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and we will continue to press for a lasting solution to the current shortages.

The Scottish Government recognises the impact of these global shortages on people living with type 2 diabetes and their families. NHS Scotland has robust systems in place to manage medicine shortages when they arise and anyone affected by this issue should speak to their usual clinical team.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22410 on 7 November 2023. 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 .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6T-01624 on 7 November 2023.

All answers to parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at Meeting of the Parliament: 07/11/2023 | Scottish Parliament Website