Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government and NHS Scotland have a shared vision for a culture that values openness and learning and supports continuous improvement. Health Boards are responsible for delivering safe, effective and person-centred care at a local level, which includes identifying and monitoring instances of patient misdiagnosis and adverse events. The Scottish Government has legislated and has implemented procedures to support this:

• The Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011 provides a specific right for people to make complaints, raise concerns, make comments and give feedback about their care, and places a duty on Boards to thoroughly investigate and respond to concerns raised, and to monitor all feedback with a view to improving the services they provide.

• The NHS model Complaints Handling Procedure (CHP) was revised in 2017 to support a more consistent, person-centred approach to complaints handling across NHS Scotland.

• The Duty of Candour Procedure (Scotland) Regulations 2018make it a legal requirement for all care providers, including Health Boards, to review certain types of adverse events, meet personally with those affected, offer an apology and consider how the learning from these events can be applied.

• Since 2020, Health Boards have been required to notify Healthcare Improvement Scotland of any Category 1 Significant Adverse Event Reviews commissioned. These reviews support NHS Health Boards to improve services by learning from adverse events, reducing the risk of them happening again, and providing public assurance that adverse events are effectively managed.

• In addition, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO), which is independent of Scottish Government,looks into complaints about most organisations providing public services in Scotland, including Health Boards. The SPSO will create reports following an investigation, which will include their decision, any recommendations to put things right, and the deadline by which the organisation must carry out these recommendations.

The Scottish Government and NHS Scotland have a shared vision for a culture that values openness and learning and supports continuous improvement. Health Boards are responsible for delivering safe, effective and person-centred care at a local level, which includes identifying and monitoring instances of patient misdiagnosis and adverse events. The Scottish Government has legislated and has implemented procedures to support this:

• The Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011 provides a specific right for people to make complaints, raise concerns, make comments and give feedback about their care, and places a duty on Boards to thoroughly investigate and respond to concerns raised, and to monitor all feedback with a view to improving the services they provide.
  
• The NHS model Complaints Handling Procedure (CHP) was revised in 2017 to support a more consistent, person-centred approach to complaints handling across NHS Scotland.
  
• The Duty of Candour Procedure (Scotland) Regulations 2018make it a legal requirement for all care providers, including Health Boards, to review certain types of adverse events, meet personally with those affected, offer an apology and consider how the learning from these events can be applied.
  
• Since 2020, Health Boards have been required to notify Healthcare Improvement Scotland of any Category 1 Significant Adverse Event Reviews commissioned. These reviews support NHS Health Boards to improve services by learning from adverse events, reducing the risk of them happening again, and providing public assurance that adverse events are effectively managed.
  
• In addition, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO), which is independent of Scottish Government, looks into complaints about most organisations providing public services in Scotland, including Health Boards. The SPSO will create reports following an investigation, which will include their decision, any recommendations to put things right, and the deadline by which the organisation must carry out these recommendations.

As referred to at the debate held on 14 March on the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee's Inquiry Report on ‘The role of local government and its cross-sectoral partners in financing and delivering a net-zero Scotland’, we are pleased to confirm that we are taking forward plans with local government partners to establish a Climate Intelligence Service for local authorities this year.

The Climate Intelligence Service will provide local authorities with the data, tools and skills to help ensure that they are on the right trajectory for net zero and to embed climate impact into local decision making.

The Scottish Government has recognised the challenge with navigating the net zero funding landscape and we are working to simplify and streamline it through a funding alignment programme that commenced in 2022.

We also published a directory of climate change funding for public sector organisations in August 2022. This helps local authorities and other public bodies to identify funding to support their delivery of net zero. It highlights opportunities in a range of areas including transport, heat and waste and provides key contacts and links to information on accessing the funding. The directory is available on the Sustainable Scotland Network website and will be reviewed this year to ensure the information is up to date and to consider any improvements that can be made to make it easier for local authorities and other public bodies to navigate.

The Scottish Government is committed to achieving fair and equal political representation in the Parliament and local government. Since the 2021 Parliamentary Election, women account for 45% of MSPs, with two women of minority ethnic background for the first time in history. This is the highest percentage of women MSPs since the Scottish Parliament was re-convened in 1999. At a local level, women account for 35% of councillors, the highest percentage of women councillors to date.

In their first report in 2018, the National Advisory Council on Women and Girls (NACWG) recommended the introduction of gender quotas into legislation to address the lack of gender parity. The Scottish Government accepted the recommendation. Although this is currently out with the competence of the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Ministers will continue to call on the UK Government to introduce gender quotas themselves or give Scotland the power to do so. A scoping review of international practice in relation to candidate quotas has been prepared and will be published on the Scottish Government website in 2023.

To mitigate the lack of devolved powers, the Scottish Government will continue to support non-legislative actions to increase women’s representation.

Through our Equality and Human Rights Fund (2021 – 2024), we fund several projects designed to support women through their political journeys. We are providing £305,888 over three years to Elect-Her, who work to support and equip women to stand for political office, through hands-on workshop and peer-support circles. 57 women were supported by Elect-Her in the 2022 Scottish Local Authority Elections, with 27 women winning their elections. We are also supporting the Young Women Lead Programme, which provides a safe space for up to 100 young women under 30 to explore gender equality and develop new and innovative ways to lead change.

We know from existing research that targeted work with political parties is essential if we want to dismantle the barriers that women face in politics. The Scottish Government provides £82,798.94 to Engender to progress the Equal Representation project. The project post works with political parties to increase the representation of diverse women and to progress a second phase of work with the Equal Representation Coalition. The Coalition developed a toolkit for political parties to assess their diversity and policies around inclusion. Parties receive an individualised action plan to improve the participation of under-represented groups.

The Scottish Government funds a post based in CoSLA until March 2024, to support the work of the Cross-Party Barriers to Elected Office Special Interest Group. The group involves elected members from each of COSLA’s Political Groups, and seeks to identify changes in culture and practices, and support our ambition to deliver greater equality and diversity within local democracy.

We recognise that councillor pay may be a barrier to people standing to become a councillor. The Scottish Government and COSLA have jointly committed to undertake an independent review of Councillor remuneration. The inaugural meeting of the Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee (SLARC) was held in April 2023. A report with recommendations for Ministers will be published at the end of November 2023.

The Scottish Government has worked with stakeholders to improve the availability of data on the diversity of election candidates and elected representatives in Scotland. We conducted a survey on diversity in political representation at the 2022 local council elections which will help inform next steps around the diversity agenda. The Local Government Candidates Survey 2022 was published in November 2022.

The survey suggests that of those who responded (around 28% of candidates in the elections), 40% identified as female. This figure is lower than the National Records of Scotland data for the entire Scottish population, which records 52% of the population identifying as female. A significantly higher proportion of candidates identified as male in the 18-24, 25-35 and 65+ ranges compared to the overall Scottish population for those age groups. In contrast, the age groups between 35 and 64 showed much less notable gender imbalance, both with regards to those who were successful at election and those that were unsuccessful, as compared to the overall population.

In total, 57% of successfully elected candidates who responded to the survey identified as male, and 42% as female. 60% of unsuccessful candidates identified as male, and 38% female. The survey data suggests that those identifying as female made up a higher percentage of elected candidate respondents with a limiting condition (54%). Note that these are not the figures for all candidates in 2022, only those who responded to the survey.

The proportion of female local government candidates rose by only four percentage points between 1999 and the 2017 local government elections, from 26.8% to 30.5%.

PHS publish waiting times data on a quarterly basis. The next publication covering the period to March 2023 will be published on 30 May 2023.

We remain committed to increasing capacity to support recovery, including providing additional endoscopies. To support this we have put in place four mobile endoscopy units, which are providing five to six endoscopy rooms across NHS Scotland. A Dyce facility continues to provide additional endoscopy for NHS Grampian and a new endoscopy room is due to open in NHS Ayrshire and Arran on 1 May 2023.

NTC Golden Jubilee Phase 2 is planned to open in late 2023 bringing additional capacity of five orthopaedic theatres, five endoscopy rooms and two general theatres, and around 9,400 procedures in 2023-24.

We continue to work with Boards on a series of measures to increase diagnostic capacity. Scotland’s world-leading diagnostic bowel service, Colon Capsule Endoscopy (CCE), has supported nearly 3,000 patients since becoming operational in June 2020, including around 2,500 since April 2021.

The SFC’s Fiscal Sustainability Report is an important contribution to the debate on fiscal sustainability and highlights potential impacts of demographic change on the Scottish public finances over the next fifty years. These challenges are not unique to Scotland, and are prevalent in many high-income countries. However, Scotland lacks a full range of levers to deal with these in the way that other countries can, particularly over migration.

Within the powers at its disposal, the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring the public finances are on a sustainable trajectory. This will mean growing our economy and by extension our tax base, and embedding delivery and value for money at the heart of our public services. Central to this will be overseeing public service reform, focused on delivering more efficient, person-centred public services. The Fiscal Framework review will also be vital and must ensure the Scottish Government and Parliament has the necessary powers to manage the risks we face within our devolved responsibilities, and to support economic recovery. The Scottish Government’s approach to managing the public finances over the medium-term is set out in the Medium Term Financial Strategy, due to be published in May 2023.

In 2023 we will also launch a new Talent Attraction and Migration Service for Scotland, and publish an Addressing Depopulation Action Plan. And we will continue to press the UK Government to make the vital immigration reforms required to meet Scotland’s needs.

While the Scottish Government will continue to manage the public finances diligently with the powers we have, it is our view that the current constitutional settlement is insufficient to properly tackle the long-term challenges that Scotland faces. Ultimately, Scotland must be independent with full control over the economy and powers over migration to secure the stability of our public finances.

The Scottish Government is planning to bring forward a draft of the next Climate Change Plan before the end of 2023 to set clear asks and responsibilities for all of the main actors on delivering climate policy in support of our climate change targets. We will also bring forward draft Just Transition Plans at the same time.

As part of the work in developing an enhanced framework for action with local government, the Scottish Government will explore co-producing a roadmap with local government partners, setting out the roles and responsibilities of local authorities in delivering net zero as part of the development of the next Climate Change Plan.

International trade and import controls are matters reserved to the UK Government. The Scottish Government has limited powers to reduce the amount of food imported. However, our Vision for Trade strategy clearly shows, we are committed to a balanced and nuanced approach to trade, and we know that imports are an important source of food for Scotland, offering products that cannot be produced domestically and protecting us against shocks to production. Our approach to trade preserves food security by protecting our sensitive agricultural sectors but also enabling us to comply with our World Trade Organisation obligations. We continue to press the UK Government to adopt this approach and take in account food security when negotiating trade deals, specifically market access aspects. The Scottish Government are disappointed that the UK Government has repeatedly postponed introducing checks on imports coming from the EU which causes an unacceptable risk to health and welfare. For example, the lack of checks on pork imports is currently of particular concern given the number of cases of highly contagious African Swine Fever. We have continually raised this issue with UK Government and will continue to press for checks on imports.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of domestic food production and the ongoing challenges faced by our farmers and crofters through the continued impact of Brexit, COVID-19, the ongoing situation in Ukraine, and now the cost crisis.

We recognise the importance of maintaining support for the sector; this is why we have committed to maintaining direct payments. We have also provided additional support to the food producing sector by ensuring payments through the Basic Payment Scheme and Greening payments were made in advance. Annually, the Scottish Government pays out around £420 million through these schemes. We have also established a Food Security Unit within the Scottish Government to develop evidence-based systems to monitor risks or threats to the supply chain to help mitigate future shocks and impacts on food security.

Supporting our local food businesses provides important markets for local food producers: we have provided: £15m funding towards the Scotland Food & Drink Recovery plan over 2020 to 2023; £17.5m to businesses across Scotland over the last two years through the Food Processing Marketing & Co-operation grant scheme; and £500k towards the Scottish Grocers Federation’s “Go Local” programme which has helped many independent convenience operators transform their stores and stock more locally sourced produce.

The Scottish MPA Monitoring Strategy sets out the Scottish Government approach to MPA related survey and monitoring to meet the requirements of assessing and reporting under a number of legislative and policy drivers including the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010. To meet these reporting and assessment obligations there is a need to gather appropriate evidence to assess the condition of the sites and determine whether any implemented management measures are proving effective. This information has contributed to reports such as Scotland's Marine Assessment 2020 and the 2018 Report to Parliament.

Health Boards are responsible for the health and safety of NHS staff. Scottish Government officials have been assured by NHS Greater Glasgow and Cycle (NHS GGC) that they have the necessary controls, protocols and support in place to protect staff. We will continue to work closely with NHS GGC to monitor the safety and wellbeing of staff at the Langhill Clinic.

NHSScotland has joined the multi-agency Your Safety Matters (YSM) initiative, led by Police Scotland. YSM aims to minimise incidents of violence and aggression in workplaces, through campaigns, sharing resources and good practice.

Abuse towards NHS staff is unacceptable, and the courts have extensive powers to deal robustly with those who carry out such appalling behaviour on emergency workers.