Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government's international offices all held both Burns Night and St Andrew's Day celebrations in the past year. These cultural celebrations have proven instrumental in fostering meaningful connections with international partners and engaging with Scotland's global diaspora. They provide valuable opportunities to showcase Scotland's rich cultural heritage while simultaneously advancing our trade and investment objectives.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-34544 on 6 March 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The opening of a Scottish Government office in Warsaw is currently under review given ongoing budget pressures.

(a) The Scottish Government engages with the General Medical Council (GMC) on its regulatory functions as a matter of routine. Many of those operational discussions will have touched upon issues relating to physician associates and anaesthesia associates since the decision was taken that the GMC would be their regulator. The answer to FOI requests 202400422610 and 202400441146, published on the Scottish Government website, provides information on written communications between the Scottish Government and the GMC.

Surgical Care Practitioners, also a Medical Associate Profession, are not regulated by the GMC.

(b) The GMC has no functions in respect of the design of services in NHS Scotland. Health Boards are responsible for determining the services appropriate to the needs of their local populations, and the skills mix necessary to ensure their delivery.

The Scottish Government is supportive of a gradual and carefully managed expansion of physician associate (PA) and anaesthesia associate (AA) roles, underpinned by robust evidence of the benefit that can be derived from these roles in specific settings and contexts.

In order to achieve this, we have established a national Programme Board to advise on key aspects of the roles and NHS Scotland’s approach to their deployment. This work builds on action already undertaken to introduce statutory regulation of the roles which we consider is vital for patient safety. GMC regulation has, for the first time, introduced UK-wide standards for education, training and professional practice with meaningful consequences when these are not met.

Physician Associates (PAs) are a long-established profession within the NHS Scotland workforce. The Scottish Government continues to engage regularly with the PA profession, including through dialogue with the Scottish Physician Associate Network which is represented on our national Medical Associate Professionals Programme Board. The Scottish PA Network also participates in the national MAPs Stakeholder Group, with a representative from the network acting as co-chair of the Group.

There are several measures Scottish Government is taking to assess AI-related industry activity in Scotland, in terms of size, location and specialisation. These include the Scottish Government BICS survey (with data on AI adoption for business and industry) and Scottish Government is supporting a suite of programmes driven by Scottish Enterprise which regularly assess AI activity in Scotland. Scottish Enterprise completed research in 2023 about AI and business and are currently preparing research that assesses the economic opportunities for AI in Scotland (i.e. the size of the market). They will also soon publish a report including assessments into AI activity specialisation and location in Scotland.

Public bodies are reviewed quarterly as part of the Scottish Government’s Assurance cycle to ensure they are operating efficiently and effectively.

One of the key aims of our Public Service Reform (PSR) programme is to drive efficiency and effectiveness across government and public bodies, making sure we have the public body landscape to deliver the services the people of Scotland need. As part of this, we have commissioned data on expenditure on corporate functions to identify where there is duplication and are working with public bodies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our services.

The Scottish Government’s policy is that any new public body should only be set up as a last resort and after consideration of all other delivery mechanisms has been exhausted. The Ministerial Control Framework ensures any Scottish Government proposal to establish a new public body is based on evidence and value for money, with approval from Cabinet before any decision is made.

We continue to review Scotland’s AI Strategy to keep pace with changes and growth in technology. This is why, in 2023, I commissioned an independent review into Scotland’s approach to AI which was published last year. AI+Independent+Review+-+Call+for+Views+-+Initial+Report+-+Advancing+AI+for+Scotland+-+Reformatted+-+January+2024.pdf. Since then, the AI Alliance has re-focussed priority areas into three pillars of work which include empowering people, supporting business and AI adoption in the public sector. As Scotland’s 2021 AI Strategy states: The Alliance will evolve. Scottish Government will continue to review performance of the strategy and adapt to create sustainable growth and continued innovation.

The Scottish Government is supportive of a gradual and carefully managed expansion of physician associate (PA) and anaesthesia associate (AA) roles, underpinned by robust evidence of the benefit that can be derived from these roles in specific settings and contexts.

In order to achieve this, we have established a national Programme Board to advise on key aspects of the roles and NHS Scotland’s approach to their deployment. This work builds on action already undertaken to introduce statutory regulation of the roles which we consider is vital for patient safety. GMC regulation has, for the first time, introduced UK-wide standards for education, training and professional practice with meaningful consequences when these are not met.