Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold this operational information. The member may wish to contact the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service directly, as the Service is responsible for the deployment and operation of its vehicles.

The Scottish Government has been working closely with Health Boards to ensure a wide range of actions are in place to reduce waiting lists for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). This includes increasing funding over recent years to expand service capacity and provide over 320 additional staff, and enabling the system to manage over 10,000 additional cases. We are also continuing to support NHS Boards to redesign their services to improve efficiency and access.

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of CAMHS teams across Scotland, national performance against the 18-week CAMHS standard has been sustained for over a year, with 91% of children and young people starting treatment within 18 weeks of referral and one in two children and young people referred to CAMHS start treatment within 6 weeks. Most Health Boards have now eliminated waits of over a year, and the total number of children and young people waiting more than 52 weeks is at its lowest level since June 2015 and now account for only 0.5% of all children and young people waiting.

We do, however, recognise there is more to do. Some young people and families are still waiting too long. We continue to work closely with all Boards, providing enhanced support where performance needs to improve, ensuring Boards have robust improvement plans in place to deliver results.

The Scottish Government is also investing in early intervention and community-based supports, such as school counselling and third-sector services, to support children and young people and their families to address mental health issues earlier in order to reduce demand for specialist CAMHS.

On 29 June, I met with women affected by Depo-Provera® to listen directly to their experiences and concerns. I was grateful for the opportunity to hear their accounts and to better understand the challenges they face.

At that meeting, I agreed that the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer would issue a letter directly to healthcare professionals in Scotland to ensure that they (1) are aware of the risks associated with the long-term use of Depo-Provera®, (2) describe these risks clearly to women, (3) review prescribing of Depo-Provera® every two years, in line with the Faculty of Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare guidance, and (4) are aware of any actions they should take in the event that a meningioma is suspected.

The letter will also emphasise the importance of Yellow Card reporting of Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs). The MHRA’s UK-wide Yellow Card reporting system collects data on ADRs and the MHRA monitors these as part of its pharmacovigilance responsibility. Healthcare professionals and/or any member of the public who suffers a suspected ADR should complete and send a Yellow Card report which is used to identify and monitor medicine safety.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of understanding the factors that can affect men's health and wellbeing, including depression, separation from family and substance use. These issues can be complex and interconnected, and we continue to support research and evidence-gathering activity through collaboration with Public Health Scotland, academic institutions and other partners to improve understanding of their causes and impacts.

The Scottish Government invests in a range of services that support mental health, recovery from substance use, and people experiencing adverse life circumstances and trauma. This includes working with partners across the public and third sectors to improve outcomes for men.

Through the Delivering Equally Safe Fund, we are supporting the Men’s Advice Line, which provides practical advice and emotional support to men experiencing domestic abuse. More broadly, community-based organisations across Scotland provide targeted mental health and wellbeing support for men, including peer-support and suicide-prevention services. This includes funding the Changing Room: Extra Time programme, which uses football as a hook to help men learn about and understand their mental health and wellbeing together with their peers.

We are continuing to work with NHS Boards, local authorities, COSLA, the third sector and other delivery partners to improve access to neurodevelopmental support for children, young people and adults across Scotland, including in the Highlands and Islands parliamentary region.

For children and young people, this includes delivering the actions set out in the implementation review of the National Neurodevelopmental Specification for Children and Young People through our work with COSLA and the Children and Young People’s Neurodevelopmental Taskforce.

For adults, we are working with partners to take forward the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland’s four-tier national pathway for neurodevelopmental conditions, helping ensure people can access support based on need, whether or not they have a formal diagnosis.

Over £2.9 million of funding in 2025-26 is supporting projects to improve access to neurodevelopmental support across Scotland, while the £2.5 million Autistic Adult Support Fund continues to support autistic adults in communities across the country. The 2026-27 Budget includes additional investment of £7.6 million to enable improvements in neurodevelopmental support for children and young people.

While a diagnosis can be important for some people and their wellbeing, in line with GIRFEC, GIRFE and our National Neurodevelopmental Specification for Children and Young People, the Scottish Government’s priority is ensuring people receive the right support, at the right time, based on their needs - and not be required to wait for a diagnosis to access help.

In 2025-26, we provided over £2.9 million additional funding to a number of organisations and projects to improve access to neurodevelopmental support. The 2026-27 Budget includes additional investment of £7.6 million to enable improvements in neurodevelopmental support for children and young people. We also continue to invest in community support through our £2.5 million Autistic Adult Support Fund.

The regulation and licensing of medicines is reserved to the UK Government and is a matter for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

The decision to market a product in the UK rests with the pharmaceutical company. Neither the MHRA nor the UK or Scottish Governments can compel a pharmaceutical company to seek a marketing authorisation for, or supply, a product in the UK market.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer (CPO) for Scotland has discussed the issue with Pfizer representatives who advised that the company is continuing to assess whether it will pursue a UK marketing authorisation for its Solu-Cortef Act-O-Vial® 100 mg/2 mL injection.

The Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce considered miscarriage services at its meetings on 26 February and 25 March. The minutes of the Taskforce have been published on the Scottish Government website (Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce - gov.scot)

Ministers are currently considering the role and remit of the Taskforce and how it works alongside the independent review of maternity services which commences in September 2026.

The data collected in March 2025 by SPICe is taken from a request to health boards on estimates of children and young people seeking an assessment. The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of children and young people on waiting lists.

However, we do know that in recent years there has been an increase in people seeking a neurodevelopmental diagnosis, resulting in pressure across a variety of services.

The Scottish Government approach prioritises providing timely access to support that meets children and young people’s neurodevelopmental support needs rather than diagnosis.

The National Neurodevelopmental Specification, which was published in 2021, aims to ensure that children and young people receive the support and access to services that meet their needs at the earliest opportunity. It is clear that support should not be dependent on a formal diagnostic assessment.

Last year, in partnership with COSLA, we undertook a Review of implementation of the Specification. This helped us understand what is working well and where further action is needed – it highlighted the significant pressures facing services and the need for clearer national direction and practical support to deliver timely, neuro-affirming care across Scotland.

Following the Review, we committed to delivering a programme of work to support health boards and local authorities to deliver the aims of the Specification. Delivery is being supported by a cross-sector Children and Young People’s Neurodevelopment Taskforce, bringing together expertise from health, education, local government and the third sector to ensure a collaborative, whole-systems approach is being taken.

Within the Scottish Government, policy responsibility for Health and Care Research sits with the Chief Scientist Office (CSO).

CSO runs a number of research project and fellowship funding programmes. These are open to applications for research across the clinical spectrum, including mesothelioma. These funding opportunities are well known among the health research community in Scotland. All applications go through a rigorous independent expert review process to enable funding decisions to be made.

Response Mode Funding Schemes – Chief Scientist Office

Fellowship Funding – Chief Scientist Office

There are no current projects or fellowships in Mesothelioma.

In 2018, CSO provided approximately £28K in funding support for a Postdoctoral Clinical Lectureship entitled "Manipulating the immune microenvironment in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma" - Dr Claire Rooney University of Glasgow.

In addition to directly funding research projects and fellowships, CSO provides research support infrastructure funding to support the delivery of clinical studies in the NHS in Scotland. The NHS Research Scotland Cancer Network is funded by CSO to increase, support and sustain clinical trial activity in cancer care across Scotland. Cancer | NHS Research Scotland | NHS Research Scotland.

The NRS Cancer Network is supporting the delivery of a number of Clinical Trials in Mesothelioma including PREDICT-Meso which is led by Professor Kevin Blyth from the University of Glasgow.

The aim of PREDICT- Meso to understand how mesothelioma develops and to develop new therapies and tools for new human trials. PREDICT-Meso is funded by CRUK (£5M) and currently involves 230 investigators from 130 institutions in 17 countries https://www.predictmeso.com/.