Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government increased student funded places for pre-registration nursing, including children's nursing, for ten successive years and we now have a record intake target of 4,536 to support workforce sustainability.

Whilst the Scottish Government sets strategic policy direction for the NHS in Scotland, operational matters including staffing are in the first instance the responsibility of the relevant NHS board. This will depend on the service needs of each board taking account of national, regional and local priorities, and we expect NHS boards to plan and provide safe, effective and high-quality care, in line with their statutory service provision and workforce planning responsibilities.

The Scottish Government actively supports health boards across Scotland to plan locally for service need and for service delivery.

As set out in answer S6W-26679 on 23 April 2024, excessively long waits are, of course, unacceptable. We are working hard to drive down the longest waits, which have been exacerbated by the impacts of the global pandemic, to ensure all people receive the treatment they need as soon as possible. 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 commitments set out in our £1bn NHS Recovery Plan support an increase in inpatient, day-case, and outpatient activity through the implementation of sustainable improvements and new models of care, and NHS Scotland’s Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) is working with Health Boards to ensure that they are able to continually identify new ways to increase capacity, and to respond to demand through service innovation and redesign.

CfSD programmes have developed strong clinically-led Specialty Delivery Groups (SDG), including one for General Surgery which is currently focused on Inguinal Hernia, Biliary Disease, and Emergency Laparoscopic and Laparotomy Scottish Audit (ELLSA) pathways.

SDGs promote multidisciplinary team working, and support local adoption of service improvement programmes and have supported several new and innovative pathway developments, many of which are now being successfully scaled up across Scotland, including Active Clinical Referral Triage (ACRT).

The NHS Golden Jubilee also continues to provide Health Boards, including NHS Lanarkshire, with capacity for key elective services, such as General Surgery, with patients treated on the basis of their clinical priority and length of wait.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone living with diabetes is able to access the care that they need to live their lives well. This includes increasing access to diabetes technologies.

Between 2016 and 2022, we invested £29.6 million specifically to support the increased provision of diabetes technologies. It is important to note that this funding is in addition to baseline funding for NHS Boards.

We continue to work closely with Diabetes Managed Clinical Networks, including NHS Lothian, to identify and resolve any issues raised by NHS Boards regarding accessing diabetes technologies.

The Ferguson Marine Board shared their new business plan with Scottish Government on 5 April 2024.

This is now being considered and an update will provided in due course.

The new interim chief executive of Ferguson Marine is not entitled to relocation expenses. His remuneration package includes a travel and subsistence allowance and Ferguson Marine will pay any such costs properly incurred.

Budgets for Modern and Foundation Apprenticeships for 2024-25 have been agreed and there are currently no plans to review the contribution rates.

It is the responsibility of the college unions and employers to negotiate pay, terms and conditions, not the Scottish Government.

While the Scottish Government respects the right of trade unions to take industrial action, we remain concerned about the potential impacts this action will have on students.

That is why the Scottish Government continues to encourage unions and employers to reach a resolution that is fair and affordable and brings this action to a close.

The Scottish Government's approach to rare conditions and diseases is not condition-specific. As there are over 7,000 rare conditions it is unfortunately not feasible for NHS Inform to host and maintain individual pages for each condition.

We are absolutely committed to ensuring that people living with a rare condition like Aplastic Anaemia will benefit from our approach. Our Action Plan for Rare Disease (published December 2022) set out our wider priorities and actions, including raising awareness of rare conditions among healthcare professionals.

The current NHS Inform page for rare conditions, developed to improve awareness of rare conditions and signpost to sources of support, is by no means final. We will continue to listen to rare disease community feedback and shape our web content around the needs of all rare condition communities.

I was disappointed that the UK Government Minister for Energy Security was unable to attend the recent meeting of the Grangemouth Future Industry Board Industrial Leadership Forum on the 28th March. He did attend the previous meeting in January and met with Scottish Ministers.

However I was pleased that the UK Government Scotland Office was represented by John Lamont MP. It is my understanding that Lord Cameron will now take forward the Scotland Office interests on this group and I have written to him to ask for a meeting to discuss these important matters.

I am also regretful that the previous Minister for Energy Security declined my invitation to meet since taking up my new position, however I have since written to the newly appointed Minister and hope that he will be able to join trilateral discussion with Petroineos in the coming weeks.

The M8 Woodside Viaducts are a vital element of the motorway and road network serving Glasgow, the wider region and country, carrying approximately 150,000 vehicles per day. The structure requires to be temporarily propped to facilitate the refurbishment of the bridge elements in need of repair. The temporary propping design and implementation is highly complex in nature and requires careful consideration of the underground services and other site constraints in the vicinity of the Viaducts.

The budget allocation for the ongoing works on the Woodside Viaduct project for the 2024-25 financial year is £46.97m.