Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold this data.

The Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGORR) is the Scottish Government’s central co-ordination mechanism for responding to civil contingencies emergencies. SGORR activates when and for as long as the severity and complexity of an emergency is such that urgent co-ordination, support or strategic direction from or within the Scottish Government is required and cannot be provided effectively through business-as-usual structures or other Scottish Government response mechanisms. Incidents which may meet this threshold include but are not restricted to severe weather events; terrorist attacks; pandemics; significant disruption to the supply of essential services/utilities or large-scale public disorder.

The Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGORR) provides Scottish Ministers and senior officials with situational awareness, enabling them to make informed strategic decisions on the Scottish Government’s response to civil contingencies emergencies. SGORR provides this situational awareness, using relevant facilities, by supplying written and verbal briefings, organising meetings at official or ministerial level and making connections across and outside the Scottish Government, with SGORR working closely with responders at all levels in Scotland and with the UK Government where relevant to the response.

Each territorial Health Board across Scotland has agreed performance improvement plans in place, detailing what is being done at local level to drive improvements. The Scottish Government has a sustained focus on the delivery of these plans and meet with Cancer Management Teams in all Health Boards across Scotland frequently, including NHS Grampian, to identify challenges, explore solutions, and share best practice.

This year we have allocated an additional £30 million funding to reduce waiting times across a range of specialities, including diagnostics and cancer. As part of this, NHS Grampian were allocated almost £200,000 for the treatment of skin cancer.

If approved by Parliament, the Scottish Government’s budget for the coming year will invest a record £21.7 billion in Scotland’s health and social care services, including £200 million to reduce waiting lists and improve capacity.

In addition, our National Digital Dermatology Programme, backed by £1.8 million funding, will help to reduce long waits for outpatient dermatology appointments across Scotland’s NHS. This allows for images of skin conditions to be captured in Primary Care and securely transferred to clinicians so diagnoses and follow-up appointments can be arranged. This leads to a better and quicker service for patients – allowing clinicians to see patients in the right place sooner - and could potentially reduce demand for outpatient dermatology appointments by up to 50 per cent.

The Digital Dermatology Programme was launched in November 2024, with patients in Dumfries and Galloway and Greater Glasgow and Clyde the first to benefit from this new pathway, and is due to be deployed to all Health Boards, including NHS Grampian, by Spring 2025.

In response to part a) of the question, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-26265 on 15 April 2024, in which I detailed the total cost of the Childsmile programme in the five financial years between 2019-20 and 2023-24.

In response to part b) of the question, Scottish Government does not hold this information.

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

There were no prosecutions under section 40(1) of the Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 (where main crime) since 1 January 2014.

Please note: The latest available data is for 2022-23.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans in place to implement mobile care units for rural areas across Scotland. It would be for NHS Boards to determine best use of available resources and implement this initiative locally, should they feel the service meets the needs of their local population.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on the audiology workforce.

Responsibility for delivery and commissioning of services lies at a local level - with local authorities, NHS Boards and integrated health and social care partnerships. Operational decisions, including whether there is a need for audiologists, are therefore matters for those bodies to make and should take into account the numbers of patients in their local areas.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-34075 on 18 February 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 Scottish Government does not hold this data.