Chamber and committees

Scotland is the only UK-nation to have a dedicated cancer for children and young people.

The children and young people’s cancer strategy – The Collaborative and Compassionate Cancer Care: Cancer Strategy for Children and Young People 2021-2026 sets clear expectations and priorities for the treatment and care of children and young people with cancer.

Scottish Government works closely with the Managed Clinical Network for Children and Young People with Cancer (MCN CYPC) who are a national network of healthcare specialists from different NHS boards across Scotland, responsible for overseeing and driving improvements in cancer care. They ensure that all children and young people’s cancer centres work together as one single, cohesive service in NHS Scotland and their work is ongoing.

The Intelligent Liver Function Testing (iLFT) pathway was developed in NHS Tayside and has been identified as best practice for the early detection and management of liver disease. A consortium of 12 NHS boards has procured a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) for Scotland and iLFT functionality is available within that system. NHS Fife was the first board to make use of this functionality through the National LIMS programme in summer 2023.

The National LIMS system is being rolled out across participating NHS boards. However, some NHS boards already have the capability to use iLFT through their existing laboratory information systems and are therefore not dependent on implementation of National LIMS to adopt the pathway.

The Scottish Government does not hold information centrally on the date that iLFT became, or is expected to become, available in each NHS board area. Implementation is dependent on local laboratory infrastructure, digital systems and service arrangements and decisions on deployment are a matter for individual NHS boards.

The level of detail requested is not held by the Scottish Government. Individual Health Boards are responsible for assessing condition of buildings within the Board’s control and the information would require to be requested for them.

We continue to work with the National Scottish Steering Group for Educational Psychologists (NSSGEP) on workforce planning to achieve a sustainable supply of educational psychologists to meet future demand.

Through robust workforce planning with partners we will ensure, as far as possible, that numbers trained under the Scottish Government and COSLA partnership funding approach match demand across Scotland, so that there is neither shortage nor unemployment of those trained.

The Scottish Safety Camera Programme is a partnership between Transport Scotland and Police Scotland and deploys automated road traffic offence cameras which use ANPR technology only once a speed or red traffic light offence has been detected. These cameras are procured by Transport Scotland for use solely by Police Scotland and cannot be used for any purpose other than automated road traffic offence detection. There are currently 119 fixed camera locations, 18 temporary average speed cameras and 132 average speed cameras across Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-01941 on 19 August 2026. 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 is committed to expanding the £2 bus far cap pilot, following its successful launch in the Highlands and Islands earlier this year, and has now expanded the scheme to the SPT area. This represents a major step towards a national scheme. We will announce timescales for further roll-out to Parliament.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-01941 on 19 August 2026. 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.

A broadened role for firefighters remains an ambition for the Scottish Government, an element of which could be emergency medical response. Significant process has been made in embedding Naloxone into the operational capability of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) Flexi Duty Officer (FDO) cadre and SFRS has trained 137 FDOs who now carry Naloxone and stop-the-bleed kits. Naloxone remains a key component of Scotland's harm reduction response, and we continue to support efforts to increase access to naloxone across healthcare, community, emergency service and third sector settings. Alongside this, we continue to invest in Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), residential rehabilitation and recovery support services to help ensure people can access the support they need at the right time.

The deployment of resources is a matter for the Chief Constable based on operational priorities. This is also very clearly set out in the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012.

The consideration to use data acquired by Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology in combination with facial recognition and other biometric technologies would be an operational matter for Police Scotland, under the scrutiny of the Scottish Police Authority.