The Scottish Government has been making progress in several ways to improve and shorten the pathways of less survivable cancers.

For example, the Scottish Government awarded the Scottish HepatoPancreatoBiliary Network funding of £653,000 over two years to redesign the pancreatic and liver cancer pathways - the PHCC Pathway Improvement Project. The project has been extended for one more year and we are exploring options for sustained delivery of its positive outcomes after March 2025.

Through the Detect Cancer Earlier programme, the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) continues to design and support the implementation of optimal cancer diagnostic pathways. As reflected in the Cancer Strategy, lung, head and neck and colorectal cancer have been identified as the first tranche. Scotland’s first optimal cancer diagnostic pathway for lung was published in December 2022.

Scotland’s first Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services (RCDS) have been established in 5 Health Boards across Scotland. They provide primary care with access to a new fast-track diagnostic pathway for people with non-specific symptoms suspicious of cancer. An evaluation published in February 2024 shows success in finding cancer while delivering a high standard of quality care at speed. Lung and Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary (HPB) were the two most commonly found.

HM Inspectors evaluate the quality of education in Scottish schools using quality indicators. 'How good is our school? (4th edition)’ has been in use since September 2016.

HM Inspectors use a six-point scale to grade individual quality indicators. There are two models of inspection, one in which two quality indicators are graded, and one where four quality indicators are graded. The information provided includes grades assigned for both models of inspection.

The information provided relates to grades assigned during inspections carried out using the current framework, 'How good is our school? (4th edition). The information does not include details of inspections carried out in academic year 2023-24 where fieldwork has been carried out, but the reports not yet published.

(a) In 2023-24 the Arctic Connections fund was allocated £83,276. The projects funded can be found at Arctic Connections Fund: successful projects 2023 to 2024 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

(b) Establishing the Arctic Connections Fund was a commitment in the 2019 Arctic Connections policy framework. In 2024-25, following three successful years helping Scottish organisations collaborate with partners in the Arctic, and in line with commitments in Scotland’s International Strategy, we will begin an evaluation of the policy framework. This will consider how Scotland’s Arctic engagement has developed since 2019 and how it can be shaped for the future.

While the MV Glen Sannox and the MV Glen Rosa operate temporarily from Troon, LNG will be bunkered directly from HGV tankers to the vessels. The design of the potential improvement works at Ardrossan Harbour includes provision for an LNG storage facility to serve the vessels in the longer term.

The planned deployment of the MV Glen Rosa to the Arran route means that an LNG facility is no longer required at Uig harbour as part of the Little Minch Infrastructure Programme.

The Scottish Government has funded the creation of 15 additional training places in Clinical Oncology since 2015 (5 in 2015; 2 in 2020; 4 in 2022, and; 4 in 2023). Additional Medical Oncology places were also created in 2022 (3) and 2023 (3). These places were created in line with recommendations made by the Scottish Shape of Training Transition Group, which are informed by medical workforce modelling undertaken by NHS Education for Scotland.

The Scottish Government notes the decision from NatWest Group to close 18 Royal Bank of Scotland branches this year which continues a trend seen across the banking sector. Scottish Ministers are fully aware of the negative impact this will have on affected communities – particularly for small businesses and vulnerable or digitally excluded consumers given the challenges they can face in accessing alternative banking services.

The regulation of financial services is reserved to the UK Government and they recently legislated through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 to grant the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) greater powers to protect access to cash across the UK. The FCA launched a consultation on a proposed new regulatory framework for access to cash which the Scottish Government formally responded to earlier this year. I will be meeting with Nikhil Rathi, Chief Executive of the FCA, on 26 June to continue the dialogue begun by my colleague, Neil Gray, to further consider their proposed access to cash plans and ensure the cash access and banking requirements of Scotland’s communities are articulated, understood and addressed.

The Scottish Government have also sought to engage directly with the banking sector in Scotland on the future of the in-person cash and banking services they provide. Through this engagement we have agreement in-principle from several of the major banks in Scotland to attend a Scottish Government hosted cross-party roundtable on access to cash and banking services. This will take place on 4 June and we have now issued invites to all political parties and stakeholders across the Scottish financial services sector. I am confident that this will provide a constructive forum between the Scottish Government, elected representatives and the financial services sector to fully understand the impacts of a declining branch network on Scottish communities, and find collaborative ways to ensure there are long-term sustainable solutions to protect access to cash and physical banking services.

The Scottish Government currently monitors plastic pollution in the sea through microplastics in surface water, sea-floor litter, and beach litter. We have initiated work to collect data on plastic pollution in waterways though supporting and funding Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Upstream Battle project. The National Litter and Flytipping Strategy action plan contains a number of actions related to improving data capture on litter and flytipping, with the aim of improving our knowledge of these issues.

The Scottish Government microplastics monitoring programme began in 2013, and has undertaken annual surveys since that time. Microplastics are present in the surface waters of all Scottish Marine Regions, although have not been found to be present at all sample sites. Scottish Marine Regions next to the most urbanised and industrialised areas of the country have been shown to have higher concentrations of microplastics. Annual surveys continue to gather data, and would contribute to any baseline developed in the future.

Sea-floor litter data is collected during Scottish Government fish surveys which sample Scottish waters. There is now over 10 years of data, from 2012 onwards, which is used nationally and internationally as part of wider efforts to monitor changes in marine litter levels in the North-East Atlantic. There is evidence of an apparent decrease in litter density over time for some areas of Scotland’s seas.

The density and type of litter found on Scotland’s beaches has been recorded by the Marine Conservation Society since 1993. This data has been used by the Scottish Government to produce the pilot Scottish Beach Litter Performance Indicators. Beach litter loadings have been calculated for five sub-regions around the Scottish coastline. The amounts of litter found in the five sub-regions show a variety of trends, dependent on the litter type and location.

Information on these monitoring programmes has been published in Scotland’s Marine Assessment 2020 and can be found at https://marine.gov.scot/sma/assessment-theme/marine-litter

Research and monitoring shows that the majority of litter which ends up in the sea or in waterways has come from land-based sources. These sources include on-the-go food and drinks containers, sanitary items incorrectly disposed of through the sewer system, and flytipping. Maritime and aquatic sources also contribute to litter found at sea and in waterways, and these include maritime industries such as fishing, aquaculture, and shipping, as well as other sources such as angling.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-27146 on 16 May 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

A real terms uplift to health funding has been prioritised in the opening Budget position for 2024-25. We have invested £2 billion in the 2024-25 budget for social care and integration, which is an increase of over £1 billion compared to 2021-22. This delivers on our Programme for Government commitment to increase social care spending by 25% (£840 million) over this Parliament, two years ahead of our original target.

Despite this significant investment the financial climate remains extremely challenging, and we are working with partners to understand and address the challenges, within the context of a finite budget.

In January 2024, Scottish Government published our draft Circular Economy & Waste Route Map which sets out a range of priority actions to deliver sustainable use of our resources and progress a circular economy in Scotland by 2030, including measures to drive responsible consumption, production and re-use.

As part of this wider work, the Scottish Government is committed to matching or exceeding the standards set out by the EU Directive on single-use plastics where we are able to do so and in a manner that contributes towards maintaining and advancing standards.

From 1 June 2022 Scotland became the first part of the UK to implement a ban on some of the most problematic single-use plastic products through the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021. In addition, the Scottish Government has committed to introduce a minimum charge on single-use disposable beverage cups, ban the sale and supply of single-use vapes by 1 April 2025 and ban wet wipes containing plastic.