Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. The Scottish Cardiac Audit Programme publishes data on heart disease mortality including information on deaths under 65. Data is available at: Scottish Cardiac Audit Programme report 2023/2024 - Scottish Cardiac Audit Programme (SCAP) - Publications - Public Health 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 Government expects all NHS Boards to provide maternity services that are delivered as close to home as practicable and to offer a full range of birth place options within their region. Service planning and delivery is the responsibility of NHS Boards and it is important that these services are safe, sustainable and meet the needs of local populations.

At a national level, we continue to take forward work to address the challenges faced by maternity services in rural and island NHS Board areas. We are improving the delivery of maternity services in rural areas through initiatives such as implementation of The Best Start and the introduction of continuity of carer; the development of community hubs, and the increased use of Near Me, that allows for remote consultations and appointments where appropriate. We particularly recognise the importance of patient transport and this remains a priority for the Scottish Perinatal Network (SPN), with work commencing to develop guidance on Remote & Rural Intrapartum Transfers. In addition, we continue to support work in Grampian to return obstetric maternity services to Dr Gray's Hospital.

The Scottish Government continue to support all community pharmacy contractors, including rural pharmacies in Scotland by delivering the largest ever increase to funding for two years in a row. This settlement will deliver a total of £422 million in guaranteed funding for community pharmacies across Scotland in this financial year.

In addition, there is a Guaranteed Minimum Target Income for essential small pharmacies, most of which are rural, and a pharmaceutical needs weighting payment which acknowledges both demographics and deprivation associated with a patient’s postcode. This helps support rural pharmacies by ensuring they are not disadvantaged because of their location. In our strategy for pharmaceutical care in Scotland ‘Achieving Excellence in Pharmaceutical Care’ (2017) we committed to enhancing access to pharmaceutical care in rural communities, which included use of Attend Anywhere for pharmacist clinics, and use of Near Me to support access to and the delivery of pharmaceutical care in rural communities.

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.”

Scotland’s DRS was due to launch in March 2024 and we would have been enjoying the benefits of a DRS now if the previous UK Government had agreed a full Internal Market Act exclusion to our scheme.

The Scottish Government continues to engage with businesses regarding Scotland’s Circular Economy and the implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility schemes, including the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).

In 2023, following a significant amount of engagement with businesses, including small-scale drinks producers, we amended DRS Regulations so that any product with fewer than 5,000 units on the market may be registered as a low volume product. As part of the development of the 3 nations scheme our officials shared the experience of developing the Scottish Scheme and due to this low volume products will be exempt from most of the requirements of the deposit return schemes across the UK.

Draft regulations recently notified to the WTO confirmed that glass will no longer be included in Scotland’s scheme. Because spirits are normally packaged in glass bottles, this means that the majority of distillers and small-scale spirits producers will be out of scope of DRS when it launches in October 2027.