Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government's approach to surge and resilience preparedness is the year-round process through which health and social care services prepare for, respond to and recover from periods of increased demand and operational pressure.

As set out in the National Planning Priorities and Principles for Surge and Winter Preparedness in Health and Social Care, there are periods when demand increases beyond the normal levels planned for by health and social care services and there is a surge in the number of people requiring care and treatment. While winter remains the most predictable period of increased demand, similar pressures can arise at other times of the year.

The Scottish Government's approach is therefore to consider winter preparedness within a broader year-round surge and resilience preparedness framework. This supports NHS Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships to plan for sustained pressures on services while ensuring people receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time. This approach is also being supported through development of the National Flow Plan, which aims to improve patient flow, reduce delays and strengthen whole-system resilience across health and social care services.

The Scottish Government works with NHS Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships to support local surge and winter preparedness arrangements through nationally agreed planning priorities and principles. Local systems are expected to develop preparedness arrangements that reflect the needs of their populations and local circumstances.

The Scottish Government is currently refreshing the National Planning Priorities and Principles for Surge and Winter Preparedness and associated expectations for NHS Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships for 2026-27. This work is aligned with development of the National Flow Plan, which forms part of wider activity to improve patient flow, reduce delayed discharge and make best use of capacity across health and social care services.

Operational preparedness plans are developed and maintained locally. Decisions regarding publication of local planning documents are a matter for individual NHS Boards and partner organisations. The Scottish Government intends to publish national guidance and planning priorities following completion of the current review process.

I refer the Member to the revised answer to the previous Parliamentary Questions S7W-01249, published on 9 July 2026 . All answers to Parliamentary Questions are available on the Scottish Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Scotland’s approach to attracting foreign direct investment and creating jobs is set out in Scotland’s Inward Investment Plan, published in 2020.

The Tax Advisory Group (TAG), which was chaired by the previous Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government, met from July 2023 and concluded with the previous parliamentary session.

Engagement remains an important part of policymaking, and I plan to engage with Parliament and wider stakeholders on tax policy including as part of Budget processes.

We have a strong record of engagement on tax policy beyond TAG, including the first Scottish Government conference on tax in September last year, and meetings with a range of organisations as part of the Budget process. Our second Tax Conference is planned for 24 September 2026.

Over the last few years the Scottish Government has updated a range of wildlife and nature conservation legislation. We do not have any plans to undertake further review of existing wildlife legislation, beyond existing statutory review and reporting requirements.

However, the Scottish Law Commission is currently undertaking a Nature Conservation Consolidation project, previously included in its Eleventh Programme of Law Reform. The project aims to bring together key pieces of nature conservation legislation, including legislation relating to wildlife and protected species, into a coherent and systematic body of law, helping to improve its accessibility and making it easier for the public, regulators and enforcement bodies to understand and apply.

The Scottish Government was pleased to note the publication of Breast Cancer Now’s Scotland Demands Change Report. It was positive to note that the charities two ambitions ‘quicker, earlier diagnosis to save and improve lives’ and ‘everyone getting the best care and support’ align closely with the ambitions laid out in the Cancer Strategy for Scotland 2023-2033.

Our work on earlier diagnosis includes our Detect Cancer Earlier Programme which takes a whole-systems approach to early detection and encompasses primary care, diagnostics, public education, data, innovation and screening.

Our work on ‘care and support’ includes our partnership Macmillan to improve the service we offer patients with cancer through the Transforming Cancer Care Programme (TCC) and our flagship Single Point of Contact programme which gives people with cancer a consistent contact throughout their treatment, enabling specialist staff to focus on complex clinical care.

The Scottish Government commissioned the Scottish School of Primary Care to undertake an independent evaluation of the Golden Hello initiative for GPs. The evaluation was published in March 2026: https://www.sspc.ac.uk/media/Media_1254907_smxx.pdf.

The Golden Hello initiative does not currently apply to dentists or consultants. We continue to make available a range of additional financial support to areas where access to NHS dentistry is particularly challenging. This support includes the Scottish Dental Access Initiative (SDAI) grant, which pays out up to £100,000 for establishing, relocating or extending NHS dental practices, as well as the Recruitment and Retention allowance, which allows new trainee dentists to qualify for ‘golden hello’ payments of up to £37,500 in the first three years of practice.

Any future expansion and improvement plans for Golden Hellos will be set out in due course. Work is already underway to review and refresh financial incentives in dentistry, ensuring that these are targeted to better support patient access in rural and island areas.

The Service Renewal Framework commits to increasing access to health and social care, including primary and community care. We are continuing to work with PSD Scotland to develop phase two of a rural and islands programme, consolidating work of the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care. We provide targeted support to General Practice through workforce initiatives, including the Golden Hello Scheme, ScotGEM, Rediscover the Joy and Rural Fellowships. While Scottish Dental Access Initiative (SDAI) grants and Recruitment and Retention allowances are available to support and grow dental surgery numbers across Scotland, work is currently ongoing to revise these financial incentives to ensure they better target support for rural and island areas. Following a successful pilot with the Barra visiting optometry service, we will establish a framework to support eligible community optometry practices providing services in areas with limited access to NHS eye examinations.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. Public Health Scotland advises that, while national waiting times datasets can identify treatment specialties, they cannot accurately capture procedure-level cataract waiting time information. Information on individual cataract surgery waiting times would therefore be held locally by NHS Boards.