Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is not involved in the contractual arrangements between Liberty Steel Dalzell and Navantia.

The Scottish Government recognises the challenges that can sometimes affect access to healthcare in rural areas. All territorial NHS Boards, including NHS Dumfries and Galloway, are expected to offer services in ways that best suit the needs of their communities, using a patient-centred approach. We continue to work with Boards to support flexible and easily-accessible services, including for screening programmes and preventative services such as vaccination.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway has among the highest uptake rates for men in Scotland. Most screening programmes can offer appointments locally to participants, including those in rural and remote communities. Most NHS Boards, especially those serving large geographical areas, offer diabetic eye screening (DES) appointments at mobile locations, increasing accessibility. In NHS Dumfries and Galloway, the mobile service can additionally provide optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans where required.

Where it is not possible for screening programmes to be delivered locally, other methods are in place to ensure they are as accessible as possible. Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is delivered through eight designated centres located across Scotland, including a centre in NHS Dumfries and Galloway. All men are invited for a one-off AAA screening appointment at age 65, and in the year ending 31 March 2025, 85.8% of eligible men participated in AAA screening in NHS Dumfries and Galloway, exceeding the desirable uptake threshold for the programme. Bowel cancer screening uses home testing kits, making the service particularly accessible for people who live in remote and rural areas.

Vaccination is a key preventative health intervention and NHS Boards provide vaccination services at local venues such as GP practices, community pharmacies and other community settings, while eligible housebound individuals can receive vaccinations at home. Mobile units, provided by the Scottish Ambulance Service, are also used to deliver vaccination programmes in underserved communities, including rural and remote areas.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with territorial Health Boards, Public Health Scotland (PHS) and Screening Oversight and Assurance Scotland (SOAS) to ensure these services are delivered in the most accessible way, including taking account of specific issues posed by rural geography.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving life expectancy and tackling health inequalities across the whole population.

Life expectancy at birth for males in the Dumfries and Galloway council area in 2022-2024 was 77.2 years. This is the same as the life expectancy at birth for males in Scotland. Also, premature mortality rates for males in the NHS Dumfries and Galloway health board area have been lower than the equivalent national rate for Scotland in most years since 2006.

Last year, the Scottish Government and COSLA published the Population Health Framework, which sets out a cross-government, cross-sector approach to improving

life expectancy while reducing the gap in life expectancy between the 20% most deprived areas and the national average, by 2035. The Framework sets out the actions the Scottish Government and its partners are taking forward within the first two years by: supporting healthy environments; good early years and education; good work and income; and equitable health and care.

In addition, Scottish Government’s Programme for Government places a strong emphasis on the need to shift towards prevention and early intervention. This includes action to address alcohol and drug-related harm and to encourage healthier lifestyles among men, helping to reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and poor mental wellbeing. Embedding prevention across public services is fundamental to improving population health outcomes for individuals and securing the long-term sustainability of Scotland’s health and care system.

Consideration of future funding for Hybrid Closed Loop technology, including any further expansion of access, will form part of the Scottish Government’s wider budget and spending decisions for 2027-28. The Scottish Government remains committed to improving outcomes for people with Type 1 Diabetes and recognises the benefits that Hybrid Closed Loop systems can provide in supporting diabetes management and reducing long-term complications.

The Information requested on how many specialist nurses have been employed in NHS boards since 2009, broken down by NHS board, year, and specialism can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence. These workforce statistics are updated on a quarterly basis: Official Statistics on the workforce of NHS Scotland.

Community Nursing Review: from March 2015 the community review of nursing sub job families was finalised. The following sub job families were added/changed definition: community children’s nursing, district nursing, sexual and reproductive health nursing, health visiting, specialist nursing, practice nursing, public health nursing, school nursing, training and administration and treatment room nursing. Data prior to March 2015 are not be comparable to data after March 2015 at this level.

Information on how many specialist nurses have been employed in NHS boards since 1999 to 2006, broken down by NHS board, year, and specialism can be found on the following link: [ARCHIVED CONTENT] Workforce | Historic Data | Health Topics | ISD Scotland

Data on how many specialist nurses have been employed in NHS boards from to 2007 to 2008, broken down by NHS board, year, and specialism can be found in the following table:

The Scottish Government recognises the vital role of kinship care in providing safe, loving and stable homes for children and young people who cannot live with their parents.

The Scottish Government recognises the significant impact that preventable ill health and premature mortality have on men across Scotland. Improving population health and reducing health inequalities, including those experienced by men, therefore remains a key priority.

The Scottish Government's approach is set out through a range of national strategies and frameworks, including the Population Health Framework, the Programme for Government and Scottish Government's wider programme of health and social care reform.

Last year, the Scottish Government and COSLA published the Population Health Framework, which sets out a cross-government, cross-sector approach to improving population health and reducing inequalities over the next decade. In addition, Scottish Government's Programme for Government places a strong emphasis on the need to shift towards prevention and early intervention. This includes action to address alcohol and drug-related harm and to encourage healthier lifestyles among men, helping to reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and poor mental wellbeing.

Scottish Government are also supporting targeted action to improve men's health outcomes through initiatives delivered with a range of partners, including increased investment in suicide prevention; continued investment in SAMH’s Extra Time programme; the ‘Be the Early Bird’ campaign to detect cancer early which uses targeted marketing to ensure it reaches men in places they spend their time; and benefiting from the impact of Minimum Unit Pricing policy - where the largest estimated reductions in deaths and hospital admissions wholly attributable to alcohol were among men and those living in the 40% most deprived areas in Scotland.

Embedding prevention across public services is fundamental to improving population health outcomes for individuals and securing the long-term sustainability of Scotland's health and care system.

In the last three years, the Scottish Government has provided NHS Dumfries and Galloway with baseline funding as follows.

2026/27 - £462.8 million

2025/26 - £425.4 million

2024/25 - £364.7 million

Whilst the Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care support policy in Scotland, the delivery of mental health services is the responsibility of local territorial Health Boards and Integration Joint Boards (IJBs). We expect Health Boards and IJBs to provide high-quality mental health services to their local areas that meet the needs of their communities.

In addition to this, £1,427,339 has been allocated to Third Sector organisations in the NHS Dumfries and Galloway area through the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults. The following amounts have been provided in each year:

2026-27 - £450,372

2025-26 - £532,303

2024-25 - £444,664

The Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults supports a wide range of valuable community mental health projects, including those focused on men’s mental health and suicide prevention. It aims to build resilience, reduce the need for clinical interventions and improve mental wellbeing within communities.

The Fund is distributed in all 32 local authority areas of Scotland by Third Sector Interface (TSI) organisations who, working in collaboration with other local partners, are responsible for determining and allocating the funding to local community initiatives which support mental health and wellbeing. This is based on local priorities and in line with their local partnership plans.

There is a large amount of data collected and published on men’s health given the inclusion of a sex variable in most data collections, where applicable. Public Health Scotland report on a wide range of health conditions and outcomes for Scotland, and routinely make information available at NHS board level. Their current and future planned publications can be viewed and downloaded here:

https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/

National Records of Scotland (NRS) also release information on population and mortality figures, in some instances with a sex and NHS health board breakdown. A list of NRS current and future publications can be found here:

https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/

Details of men’s health for a range of outcomes and conditions by NHS board areas are already available through various products such as the Scottish Health Survey dashboard and the ScotPHO area profiles. Links are provided here:

Scottish Health Survey dashboard

https://scotland.shinyapps.io/sg-scottish-health-survey/.

ScotPHO profiles dashboard

https://www.scotpho.org.uk/comparative-health/profiles/online-profiles-tool

The Scottish Government recognises that high-quality mountain biking infrastructure is essential to maintaining Scotland's position as a leading destination for the sport.

Through the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal, the Scottish Government has committed to investing £5 million across the south of Scotland in the 7Stanes mountain biking trails, subject to business case approval.

In addition, through sportscotland's Cycling Facilities Fund, the Scottish Government has supported investment in cycling infrastructure across Scotland, including £322,710 for Dalbeattie Community Initiative's Rocks and Wheels project in Dumfries and Galloway.

The Scottish Government continues to support the development of mountain biking infrastructure through sportscotland and its partners. This includes providing core funding to Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland, which leads delivery of the Scottish Mountain Bike Strategy, as well as working with partners to support the development, improvement, and maintenance of Scotland's trail network. Through this support, and by working with local communities and stakeholders to identify opportunities for future investment, we are helping to further strengthen Dumfries and Galloway's position as a world-class mountain biking destination.