Chamber and committees

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 membership list for the Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce was published on gov.scot website in February 2026 and can be found here Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce - gov.scot.

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/.

In Partnership with NHS Scotland, the Scottish Government produce regularly reviewed condition focused Quality Prescribing Guides to support prescribers in their decision making.

We have recently published our updated Polypharmacy Guidance: appropriate prescribing, making medicines safe, effective and sustainable 2026 - 2029, which contains a series of recommendations for medication review for people receiving care at home and in care homes.

In addition to the recommendations, the guidance includes practical advice and options for tailoring care for specific conditions which may affect people in care homes. This includes hot topics on Parkinson’s disease and on managing dementia and cognitive enhancers, as well as case studies produced in collaboration with care home providers on addressing the use of psychoactive medication for people living with dementia through non-pharmacological techniques.

New tailored indicators for care homes have been developed within the updated suite of National Therapeutic Indicators (NTIs) accompanying this guidance. These open access NTIs support boards and practices with identifying appropriate areas to target for patient review and benchmarking at local and national level.

We are focusing care for the smallest and sickest babies in three neonatal intensive care units in Scotland. This decision is based on clear evidence that that the outcomes for these babies, who are born at less than 27 weeks gestation, or who need multiple complex life support interventions or surgery, are improved when they are born and cared for in a unit where that specialist care is concentrated, with a high throughput of cases, and where support services are co-located. The vast majority of sick babies will continue to be cared for in local neonatal units, and these units will continue to provide a level of intensive care. It is important that we continue to move forward with implementation of this change, it is what families would expect us to do.

The Taskforce has met three times. A paper on neonatal priorities was shared at the third meeting, however that paper did not propose reconsideration of the location of neonatal intensive care units in Scotland.

The supply of medicines, and the associated legislation, is a matter reserved to the UK Government.

Since the outset of the supply disruption, the UK Medicines Shortage Response Group (MSRG)'s advice to prescribers has been to switch patients to hydrocortisone sodium succinate 100mg powder for injection, where clinically appropriate. This was communicated to Health Boards and prescribers via a Scottish Government Medicines Supply Alert Notice (MSAN) on 22 January 2025.

Patients who are concerned about the additional preparation steps required when using this powder formulation for emergency injections may wish to discuss with their clinician whether an alternative unlicensed hydrocortisone product would be appropriate for them.

The Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce have met three times this year and each of the minutes have been published on gov.scot which details the work discussed. This can be found here Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce - gov.scot.

On June 11 2026 the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Care announced the Independent Review of Maternity Services in Scotland. Professor Christine McCourt, Chair of the Independent Review will begin her work in September.

The high-level principles of the Independent Review were published on 11 June and are available to read here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/maternity-services-independent-review-principles/

We are currently considering the remit of the Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce and how it may lead on current improvement work, including the HIS Inspection findings whilst the independent review of maternity services takes place.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on average waiting times for autism assessments at either national or parliamentary region level.

We are, however, aware of challenges and significant waiting times for autism assessments in some areas of Scotland. We continue to work with NHS Boards, COSLA and wider partners to improve access to neurodevelopmental support.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has responsibility for the quality, safety, and efficacy of medicines through its licensing and pharmacovigilance functions, which are reserved matters.

The MHRA continues to closely monitor the safety of Depo-Provera®, as it does with all licensed medicines, and is examining recent data and seeking advice from experts on the need for any further action. Given this ongoing work, I have no plans to commission a separate evidence review.