Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is working with key partners across Scotland to ensure that relevant information, with the appropriate safeguards in place, from patient health records is available to all healthcare staff when and where they need it.

Community pharmacists have access to the Emergency Care Summary (ECS). Community Pharmacy gained access to the Emergency Care Summary (ECS) for all community pharmacists and pharmacy technicians during COVID-19. Directions formalising access to the ECS system came into force on 2 October 2023.

In addition, many health boards are providing access to the Clinical Portal which provides additional patient information. Clinical Portals support Health Boards to allow clinicians to access different pieces of information about an individual patient including patients from other Health Boards when required. Some Health Boards have opened access to their clinical portals to community pharmacy. We are encouraging all health boards to extend role-based access to Clinical Portals.

The Digital Health & Care Strategy, published 2021, sets out ambitions for greater access to medical information both for staff and the public. In the medium to longer term, as part of the Digital Health & Care strategy, a National Digital Platform is being developed and has started to bring together service data that is appropriately accessible to the workforce regardless of where they are based.

We encourage all local transport authorities to consider the full range of tools available to them under the Transport (Scotland) 2019 Act, so it is pleasing to see SPT are fully exploring the 2019 Act powers with a view on improving bus services in their area.

I welcome their decision to progress with the recommendations of their Regional Bus Strategy and further develop proposals to deliver a Franchise Framework Assessment using those powers. It is important that the business cases for improving bus services are made robustly and utilise all available evidence and views, before decisions are reached about future investments in the region.

As part of the development and delivery of the bus powers within the 2019 Act my officials engaged with a wide range of stakeholders, particularly local transport authorities, including SPT. I have also met with SPT on several occasions, most recently on 25 March to discuss the progress and plans on their Regional Bus Strategy.

Yes, the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office were engaged about the First Minister’s meeting with the President of the United States and fully supported the First Minister’s engagement with the President and the US Government on whisky tariffs. The First Minister was hosted at the British Ambassador’s residence in Washington D.C and was accompanied by the former UK Ambassador to the United States, Lord Mandelson, during his meeting with the President in the Oval Office.

The Scottish Government has considered this UK report with interest and recognises the importance of a range of factors including land use, yield, and population in planning future food security.

The Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024 similarly recognises the importance of these factors and requires Scottish Ministers to make a statement on food security at least every three years and to also have regard to food supply and security in the rural support plan.

The publication of Scotland’s 4th Land Use Strategy to be published next year will also allow us to further consider the multiple pressures on land and the benefits and opportunities presented by a more integrated approach to land use.

The Scottish Government provides funding and support to Sabhal Mòr Ostaig (SMO) in recognition of its importance to Gaelic through its key role in adult and Gaelic learning and Gaelic medium teacher education. The duty on Scottish Ministers through the Scottish Languages Act to conduct a review of the status of SMO is welcomed as a way of informing further and future actions. It is the intention to commence the duty on Ministers to undertake a review of SMO in due course and before the end of the Parliamentary term, subject to the parliamentary process and timetable.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested.

Spending on postage is an operational matter for individual NHS Boards to consider, as such, the information should be sought directly from each Board.

The following data is extracted from the Public Health Scotland (PHS) Costs Books reports. The most recent published data is from the financial year 2023-24.

The Scottish Government continues to support Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs) through targeted funding streams aligned with its commitment to delivering public transport at a regional level. While the Verity House Agreement sets out principles for collaboration and funding between central and local government, it does not explicitly reference RTPs, as funding priorities under the Agreement are determined by individual councils. It is the responsibility of Local Authorities to determine their funding priorities.

The Scottish Government is providing Scotland’s seven regional transport partnerships (RTPs) with up to £15.5 million of capital grant funding from the People and Place Programme (total value £23.4 million, split between resource and capital).

The primary focus of the capital funding is to provide a programme of sustainable and active travel behaviour change interventions on a regional basis to encourage people to travel actively and more sustainably. In addition to the direct capital grant funding, RTPs can apply to the Tier 2 Active Travel Infrastructure Fund for both Design and Construction, and they worked with local authorities in receipt of Bus Infrastructure Fund awards.

There are no plans to amend the current criteria of the People and Places programme to include park and ride facilities as eligible capital projects.

Since November 2024, the Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) programme has been live in all 31 Health and Social Care Partnership areas across Scotland for those aged 16 and over.

We also have three national referral pathways to DBI - via NHS24; and via call handling centres operated by both the Scottish Ambulance Service and Police Scotland. These provide additional options for key services to refer people for DBI support.

As at the end of July 2025, over 95,000 people have been referred to DBI.

With our partners across a range of sectors, we will look to continue to embed and grow the DBI programme across Scotland, building on its considerable success to date.