Chamber and committees

Scottish Government continues to support practices in the Edinburgh area to maintain access to GP services for residents. The General Practice Access Group is working towards developing a set of principles to share with all practices this Spring.

The right to health is a fundamental human right and means the right of everyone to have the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

Menopause care and support is a top priority in the Women’s Health Plan, through which, we are working to improve access to menopause care and treatment for all women in Scotland.

The Women’s Health Plan is underpinned by an intersectional approach which recognises that minority ethnic women and girls can face multiple and often overlapping disadvantages and barriers to accessing good healthcare, including menopause care.

As set out in the Women’s Health Plan, it is important that all health and social care professionals approach people from all cultures with openness and without judgement and are responsive to the individual needs of their patients and community.

Menopause is an important transition in women’s lives, but one that many know little about. It is important that all women are able to make informed choices about their health. The menopause resource on the NHS Inform Women’s Health Platform has been translated into five languages, BSL and easy read.

In addition to the work of the Women’s Health Plan, there is a Scottish Government Racialised Health Inequalities in Health & Social Care in Scotland Steering Group developing an action plan to address racism and racialised health inequalities in health and social care.

Public Health Scotland does not hold the information requested to answer this question.

Any future iterations of the Women’s Health Plan will be evidence-based with aims and priorities developed in collaboration with women and girls, our lived experience group, clinical experts and relevant stakeholders.

The Scottish Government has provided £80,000 of funding to Talk Lipoedema over the financial years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. The funding assisted the development of the Scoping Report on Lipoedema Care in Scotland, providing a welcome insight into Lipoedema services, and has supported Talk Lipoedema to enhance their important work supporting people across Scotland.

We have now launched the new resource on lipoedema on the NHS Inform Women’s Health Platform. The new resource includes information on the symptoms, self-management and treatment options for lipoedema as well as sign posting to organisations like ‘Talk Lipoedema’ for more help, advice and peer support.

NHS Scotland does not currently hold information on prescriptions based on patients’ ethnicity.

Through the Women’s Health Plan, we are determined to ensure that all women are able to access the care and support they need for menopause, be that through primary or specialist care. A range of treatments to manage menopause symptoms, including Hormonal Replacement Therapy (HRT), are available on the NHS in Scotland free of charge.

The Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) has been available since July 2021. We ask NHS Boards to report on the number of young inpatients (and therefore families) who benefit from the Fund. This data informs the funding that each Health Board receives.

In 2021-22, NHS Boards reported that 3,130 families received support under YPFF. We have yet to receive full year returns for 2022-23.

The working capital loan made available to Ferguson Marine is expected to be used to ensure that Ferguson Marine has the necessary cashflow to make payments in relation to salaries and VAT as required while they await repayment from BAE Systems for services rendered in line with the terms of the contract.

Scottish Government has followed Scottish Public Finance Manual procedure with regards to the interest rate and is satisfied that the loan will be repaid, should the facility be drawn upon. The loan follows standard practice for working capital requests from a public body.

The rate of interest and repayment date are not disclosed due to commercial sensitivity.

The LEZ Retrofit fund has recently closed for new applications in financial year 2022-23.

As we review budgets for 2023-24, we ask that taxi owners who are interested in applying for future funding should register their interest via the Energy Saving Trust website.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-15776 answered on 28 March 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 .

Abellio ScotRail was responsible for Delay Repay payments between January 2022 and March 2022. From 1 April 2022, ScotRail Trains Limited is responsible for considering and settling all new compensation claims.

It is published on the ScotRail website here: Delay Repay | Train Fare Compensation Scheme | ScotRail as per ORR Code of Practice.