Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone who needs it can access well-coordinated, timely and high-quality palliative care, care around dying and bereavement support regardless of geographical location.

As part of the development of the Scottish Government’s draft strategy, ‘Palliative Care Matters for All’, the Strategy Steering Group and a number of expert working groups carried out surveys to map palliative care delivery across Scotland, including in rural and island communities. This report can be accessed at www.gov.scot/publications/palliative-care-strategy-palliative-care-matters/

This work has been helpful in providing a clearer picture of the delivery and accessibility of palliative care services and support across Scotland and has helped to inform the actions set out in the draft strategy. The final palliative care strategy is due to published later this year.

It is for Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) to govern, plan and resource adult palliative care in their areas, using the delegated budgets under their control, to meet the needs of their local populations.

It is for Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) to govern, plan and resource adult palliative care in their areas, using the delegated budgets under their control, to meet the needs of their local populations.

Evidence gathered to support the development of the draft palliative care strategy shows that, for people living and dying at home, general practitioners (GPs) and district nurses have important and valued roles providing ongoing relationships, care of the whole person and family, broad expertise and coordination of care. These relationships are particularly important in remote and rural communities. The actions set out in the draft palliative care strategy seeks to support IJBs ensure equitable access to palliative care in their areas.

The Scottish Government recognises that whilst public health awareness campaigns in relation to alcohol can be helpful to provide additional information to the public, evidence is clear that the most effective method of reducing alcohol consumption is tackling the affordability, availability and attractiveness of alcohol. This is in line with World Health Organization guidance.

The Scottish Government’s Alcohol Framework set out a commitment to engage in a national social marketing campaign to increase public awareness of the UK CMOs’ guidelines on alcohol consumption. The Count 14 materials and unit calculator continue to be hosted to support members of the public to increase awareness of how to calculate units of alcohol and materials continue to be accessible for health boards and Alcohol and Drug Partnerships locally.

An evaluation of the Count 14 campaign found that: “the campaign has made a positive impact on increasing awareness and understanding of the UK CMOs' low-risk drinking guidelines in Scotland.”

Through the actions set out in our Women’s Health Plan we have taken steps to support both women and health professionals to learn more about endometriosis, the symptoms and treatment options, so that waiting times for diagnosis can improve.

Endometriosis has two stages of diagnosis, a working diagnosis at primary care level and a confirmed diagnosis via laparoscopy at secondary care. Not everyone with endometriosis will want to have a laparoscopy to confirm their diagnosis, particularly if their symptoms can be well managed.

We want people to achieve a working diagnosis as soon as possible to enable swift access to appropriate care and treatment. That is why the Endometriosis Care Pathway for NHS Scotland is clear and advises healthcare professionals to suspect endometriosis in women who present with one or more endometriosis-like symptom (including in young women aged 16 and under).

We know that excessively long waits for laparoscopy are not acceptable, and we apologise to all patients waiting too long. We are determined to drive improvements in this area and continue to work closely with NHS boards on a number of actions which will see patients treated as quickly as possible.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of NHS health professionals using the NHS Education for Scotland Menstrual Health Symptom Questionnaire in patient consultations.

As part of the implementation of the Women’s Health Plan, an NHS Education for Scotland Menstrual Health module educational resource has been developed and is free to access for anyone working in the NHS in Scotland via Turas Learn. The module includes a link to the questionnaire and guides the learner on how it can be used. We continue to work with NHS Education for Scotland to promote this training module among health professionals.

The questionnaire is also freely available to both patients and healthcare professionals through the NHS Inform menstrual health resource.

In 2025-26, we are increasing funding for bus services and concessionary travel from £430 million in 2024-25 to almost £465 million. This includes £50 million to support bus services so that operators can continue providing access to affordable transport.

Work on the delivery and management of the Bus Infrastructure Fund is currently underway. We will look for the fund to build on the work undertaken through both the Bus Partnership Fund and the Community Bus Fund with renewed focus on bus priority infrastructure to help address the negative impacts of congestion on bus services, and support local public transport improvements.

In addition, the Scottish Government has now delivered all the bus powers within the 2019 Act, enabling local transport authority consideration of all the powers available to them. The Act provides them with a range of powers including partnership working, franchising and local authority run services which sits alongside their ability to subsidise services. The final regulations and guidance needed for implementation of Bus Services Improvement Partnerships and franchising powers will be made by Spring 2025.

The Scottish Wildfire Forum, which is chaired by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, includes Local Authorities, Regional Resilience Partnerships and other Agencies as members to assess wildfire risks and consider what mitigating actions might be taken.

The aim of the forum is to develop and communicate strategic wildfire protection and prevention initiatives to stakeholders and the wider community. Alongside the Forum, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service continue to work closely with land managers and local communities prevent wildfires occurring. Scottish Forestry also actively seeks to promote awareness of wildfire management practice through working with partners on the Forum.

Scottish Forestry also led the 2023 review of the UK Forestry Standard (UKFS) (2023) - the Government’s reference standard for sustainable forest management. The UKFS Practice Guide Building Wildfire Resilience into Forest Management Planning (Practice Guide 22) focusses on reducing the likelihood of wildfires occurring, reducing the severity of damage and impacts on people and the environment if they do occur, and assisting with fire suppression activities.

The Scottish Wildfire Information Note supports forest owners, planners, and managers in Scotland to implement Practice Guide 22 in a Scottish context, to understand the wildfire risk to the forests they manage, and how to reduce this risk through good practice in forest design and planning.

Work is also ongoing within the National Parks to address the risk and impact of wildfires. Following a consultation the Cairngorms Park Authority board agreed on in June 2024 to develop a seasonal fire management byelaw, which would last from 1 April to 30 September each year to reduce the risk of ignition of wildfires.

Both the CNPA and Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) also engage with key stakeholders through Visit Scotland’s Visitor Management Strategy Group Visitor Management: Scotland's Plan & Objectives | VisitScotland.org to develop messaging around visitor related fires.

The Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 introduced new legislation including a new licensing scheme which will require that all practitioners of muirburn need to have completed appropriate training. Poorly managed muirburn can increase the risk of uncontrolled wildfire. However, undertaken properly, muirburn can be an important tool in managing fuel loads and so reducing the risk and intensity of wildfires. NatureScot, who are implementing these new measures, are currently consulting with relevant stakeholders, including land management organisations.

With regards to funding, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s (SFRS) wildfire strategy was launched in 2023 and is supported by a planned spend of around £1.6 million over the course of three years. The strategy considers the increased risk of wildfire and changing climate in Scotland; the latest developments in wildfire management, training, and operational procedures; and the advances in technology that have been made in PPE and equipment. The Scottish Government does not hold details of relevant spending by the CNPA, LLTNPA, or local authorities.

I wrote to the Economy and Fair Work Committee on 25 June 2024 to confirm that a market testing exercise for Glasgow Prestwick Airport was underway. Scottish Ministers’ longstanding position is that the airport should be returned to the private sector at the appropriate time and opportunity. This must be to an organisation with the commitment and capability to operate businesses directly relevant to GPA.

Any decision to sell GPA must represent value for money for taxpayers and be informed by what is right for the long-term success of the business and its contribution to the local and Scottish economy.

The process is ongoing and I will update Parliament when a significant development has been made.

The Scottish Government has plans to raise awareness about community optometry services, but is unable to take this forward at the present time due to financial constraints. In addition, the NHS Inform and Eyes. NHS.Scot websites have content relevant to the provision of NHS funded eye examinations in Scotland.

We will continue to expand NHS Pharmacy First Scotland so that a wider range of health conditions are covered. This will further transfer the care of common clinical conditions to community pharmacy, removing the need for visits to GPs, Out of Hours services or Emergency Departments for everyday self-limiting conditions. In doing so, we will consult NHS24 and health boards to identify the priority conditions the service could cover in all community pharmacies in Scotland.

Through the Pharmacy First Plus element of the service, pharmacists who are qualified independent prescribers (IPs) can already go a step further than standard Pharmacy First, going beyond the approved list of products and the Patient Group Directions (PGDs) in place, to prescribe a wider range of products in response to patients' symptoms and conditions.