Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that anyone living with arthritis is able to access the best possible care and support. We expect health care professionals and NHS Boards to deliver high quality person-centred care to those living with arthritis in line with best practice guidance. The NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) clinical guidelines on management of arthritis are available on its website and can be found at: Arthritis | Topic | NICE.

We will work collaboratively with other partners, including the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD), to ensure there are appropriate pathways for women with arthritis.

Scottish Government provide a wide range of training to Agricultural Officers to ensure officers have the suitable skills and knowledge to deliver their inspection duties. This training includes structured learning, job shadowing and the provision of detailed written guidance.

This training does not include modules on trauma-informed interviews and working with interpreters.

Guidance on the Peer Approved Clinical System (PACS) Tier Two process was published on 29 March 2018. This guidance remains valid for all Health Boards in Scotland.

a) Scottish Government has not made any budget provision in this or future years to underwrite private investment in nature restoration.

b) No capital allocation has been made in the 2025-26 budget to pilot blended finance models in nature recovery. Any payments associated with it will not finalised until the pilot progresses. Resource to take forward the pilot will be from within existing staff time.

There may be contingent liability implications to the agreements entered into as a part piloting blended finance models for nature restoration and these will be managed in line with the Scottish Public Finance Manual.

Please see the following table outlining the funding made available to the Association of Chief Officers or Scottish Voluntary Organisations and the objectives associated with that funding for each of the last five financial years.

The Scottish Government news Fairer funding for charities - gov.scot provides details of the announcement on 5 February 2025 of the new Fairer Funding multi-year funding pilot. It will give organisations the ability to plan for the future and make the most of their resources. The Pilot’s focus on grants connected to tackling child poverty and the delivery of frontline services to our communities will maximise the impact of longer term funding.

Officials are working with third sector partners to identify lessons and to evaluate the effectiveness of the Pilot in meeting their needs, as well as demonstrating value for taxpayers’ money.

In his address to third sector organisations at The Gathering, the First Minister stated that this was a small step, but one that signalled a clear direction of travel to increasing the number of multi-year funding agreements across the third sector.

The Pilot, which has been welcomed by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, is part of a wider package of policy measures under the Fairer Funding heading, which also includes improvements to the grant making process, more timely notifications of grant offers, streamlining reporting requirements and improving grant conditions.

NHS Education for Scotland provide a range of resources and training programmes for GPs and the current GP curriculum comprehensively covers gastrointestinal issues.

A new primary care cancer education platform – Gateway C – was launched on 30 April 2024 in NHS Scotland, supported by NES. Gateway C provides innovative and tailored information to support earlier cancer diagnosis efforts and enable effective decision-making. This free online platform is accessible to all primary care clinicians including pharmacists, dentists, and optometrists.

We have also funded the Modernising Patient Pathways Programme (MPPP) with a specific workstream continuing to promote improvements in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) care, which is being taken forward through the MPPP’s National Gastroenterology Speciality Delivery Group (SDG). They have developed a national IBD pathway for NHS Scotland which was published in January 2025: inflammatory-bowel-disease-ibd-pathway.pdf. The Gastroenterology SDG is also developing a lower gastrointestinal pathway which will provide primary care guidance about testing and diagnosis for people with IBD and Coeliac Disease in Scotland.

The Scottish Referral Guidelines (SRG) for Suspected Cancer have also been developed to support primary care clinicians to identify those with symptoms suspicious of cancer and identify those who require urgent assessment by a specialist. A clinical refresh of these guidance is underway to help ensure the right person is on the right pathway at the right time and includes updated guidance for colorectal and Upper GI cancers.

The regulation of manmade materials and chemicals that are present or can be used in the production of construction materials is complex and largely reserved to UK Government. The Construction Products Regulation lays down rules to ensure products perform to a designated standard and is being revised by UK Government. This will introduce a requirement for construction products to be safe, create a safety critical list of products, and strengthen existing market surveillance and enforcement powers.

Scottish Government provides funding to Construction innovation centre BE-ST1. A 2023 report2 commissioned by Zero Waste Scotland and BE-ST that looked at the availability, performance, manufacturing supply chains and market analysis of Natural Fibre and Circular Insulation options also considered adverse effects for people from available manmade insultation materials.

1https://www.be-st.build/

2 https://www.be-st.build/media/d4gdyucy/sustainable-insulation-products-in-the-scottish-construction-industry.pdf

The first year of muirburn licencing will be a transitional year, which will require only online knowledge-based training. This prevents any delays as a result of access to training.

Requiring the knowledge-based online training will help enforce current standards, clarify where it is appropriate burn and how to do so safely. A grace period would mean that muirburn could be carried out in the 2025 season by people with no training whatsoever. The transitional approach we are proposing means that all practitioners must have completed the knowledge-based element and a large proportion will have completed the practical element also. By the 2026 season all practitioners will have to have completed both elements of the training.

Scotland already has the strongest protections for tenants in the UK. The rent adjudication process is in place to protect tenants from above market rent increases and it is one of a number if protections tenants have in place. An appeal can be made to the First Tier Tribunal if a landlord or tenant is not happy with a rent adjudication decision.

Raising awareness of the strong existing rights tenants have is critical. That is why we have launched a further Renters’ Rights Campaign. This will support tenants understand their rights, how to use them and where to seek further advice and support.