Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government would be willing to look at proposals from either the Scottish FA or SPFL. To date, we have not received any proposals.

I am pleased to confirm that the NHS Scotland Operational Improvement Plan has published today: www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836914556

The plan focuses on the following four critical aspects to help protect the quality and safety of care, supported by the increased investment for health and social care in the 2025-26 Scottish Budget:

• improving access to treatment;
• shifting the balance of care;
• digital and technological innovation;
• prevention.

It details how the specific commitments outlined in the answer to question S6W-34287 will be delivered – building on health boards’ own delivery planning to prioritise how services will be improved across NHS Scotland. This plan will be followed by publication of a population health framework later in the spring and a health and social care service renewal framework in June.

When a patient moves to Scotland from abroad with an existing diagnosis and treatment plan, and where such treatment is approved by the Scottish Medicines Consortium, clinicians will make a decision whether to reassess the patient to ensure it is safe to go ahead with their existing treatment plan.

Patients with an urgent clinical need will always be prioritised.

In all cases, we expect Health Boards to make every effort to ensure equity of care and that any disruptions to the patient’s journey are minimised.

AI has a huge potential to help deliver better and more efficient public services and work is on-going across the Scottish Government to make best use of the opportunities AI presents.

At the heart of good AI is good data. As part of the Open Government Action Plan work is already underway to share the data required to deliver more joined up and efficient public services. Modelling on public transport, climate change and government expenditure is already delivering results. Our Data Maturity Programme and Communities of Practice are ensuring that public sector organisations have the capabilities to make best use of data, along with our technical solutions for data cataloguing and secure data sharing.

Along side work on good data management, we are also making use of the CivTech challenge process to deliver innovative and ground breaking technical solutions to real world public service challenges. The current challenge round, CivTech 10, focuses on AI, reflecting its importance across multiple sectors, including government.

Current challenges include work to improve situational awareness for emergency responders, and how we can better support and encourage public participation in decision-making. These challenges also help us meet our commitment to ensuring that a large part of our technical spend goes to small, innovative businesses, making the most of Scotland’s natural desire to innovate and improve.

Out Intelligent Automation team is also making use of AI in a number of cross Scotland projects, all designed to identify areas where a Once for Scotland approach to system design can reduce the admin burden across the public sector. Reducing costs and increasing efficiency are key drivers behind our increasing use of AI. Machine Learning has been integrated into invoice processing procedures, application processing for child and disability payments and in document redaction.

We continue to engage with the UK Government around the development and introduction of regulation around the use of AI. We are very keen to see regulation which protects our citizens and their data, but which at the same time creates an environment where innovation can flourish. We want Scotland to continue to be regarded as an attractive place for businesses to invest, and where our workforce can benefit from the increased opportunities new technology can offer.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the development of digital skills across the public sector, with the Scottish Digital Academy serving as the centre of excellence for digital capability. While there have been no specific funding allocations solely for AI skills training, the Academy is actively building on existing capability and provision, including through the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) Profession and strategic partnerships with organisations such as The Data Lab and the Scottish AI Alliance.

Rather than duplicating effort, the Scottish Government takes a collaborative approach, sharing resources where appropriate with the UK Government Digital Service and engaging through the national Digital Capability Advisory Group to identify and address digital skills gaps across the public sector. This ensures a more strategic, joined-up response to emerging technologies like AI, while leveraging existing investment and expertise.

Scottish Government works closely with the AI industry to ensure its policies are pro-innovation and meet the needs of businesses. Industry was a key partner in developing Scotland's 2021 Strategy, and our recently launched governance group includes senior business leaders from the AI start-up and business community.

As AI regulation is reserved to UK Government we continue to engage with its officials to advocate that their approach to AI regulation considers the interests of the citizens and businesses of Scotland.

Techscaler, our national support programme for start-ups has been actively engaged with the AI industry since its inception in 2022. Over the past two years, Techscaler has provided essential resources to numerous AI-focused start-ups helping them thrive. Techscaler holds no formal engagement with the AI Industry on regulation but recognises the importance of AI for new and upcoming start-ups, and therefore is incorporating AI into their programme and education courses in 2025.

As part of the independent review into AI, which I commissioned and which was published last year, engagement took place with the AI industry on investment. Officials regularly engage with investors on AI, however this is not specific to discussing the impact of regulation. However, we have been continuously engaging with the UK Government to advocate that their approach to the regulation of AI considers the interests of the citizens and businesses of Scotland.

Delivery of the health and social care app for Scotland is being taken forward by NHS Education Scotland (NES) as part of the wider Digital Front Door programme. The majority of costs to date have been on mobilising the team required and developing the Outline Business Case. NHS NES staff have participated in the Civtech Challenge, which has allowed NES to understand what is required to develop the app in a way that integrates into Scottish Government plans to digitise postal communications. More information about this can be found at: https://www.civtech.scot/civtech-9-challenge-8-secure-individualised-and-effective-communications-channel.

In 2024-25, we allocated over £450,000 to gynaecology from our £30 million targeted investment in planned care, delivering around 3,500 additional new outpatient appointments.

The 2025-26 Budget will provide a record £21.7 billion for Health & Social Care, including a commitment to provide £200 million to help reduce waiting times and improve capacity, and gynaecology is being targeted as a key priority area for additional funding.

Our Women’s Health Champion, Professor Anna Glasier, and I have been meeting with clinicians to better understand the challenges that currently exist within gynaecology services, to discuss innovative solutions, and to reiterate our commitment that timely access to gynaecology services is a key priority area for the Scottish Government and for the next phase of the Women’s Health Plan.

Furthermore, the Scottish Government commissioned Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) has developed a strong clinically-led Specialty Delivery Groups (SDG) for Gynaecology, which promotes multidisciplinary team working and supports local adoption of service improvement programmes. This group has supported several new and innovative pathway developments, many of which are now being successfully scaled up across Scotland, including Active Clinical Referral Triage (ACRT) and Patient Initiated Review (PIR).

Social Security Scotland continues to review and improve how people access its service, including how the organisation communicates with applicants and clients.

The application forms for Adult and Child Disability Payment were designed and developed in consultation with stakeholders to ensure the values of dignity, fairness and respect were embedded throughout.

The application forms allow clients, and their representatives, to tell the organisation how they would prefer to be contacted. It also asks specific questions to help Social Security Scotland understand and respond to any additional accessibility needs.

Through client feedback surveys and panels, clients have told Social Security Scotland they would like choice in how they are contacted. With the client, or their representative’s permission, Social Security Scotland will automatically acknowledge receipt of an application form and provide updates via text and/or email as the application proceeds through the key stages.

The latest Client Survey shows the majority of Adult and Child Disability Payment respondents said their experience of applying for disability benefits was “very good” or “good”. The full survey results can be found at: Social Security Scotland - Client Survey 2023-2024

The Scottish Government is committed to increasing the availability of safe and effective medicines that people in Scotland would benefit from. The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) assesses the clinical and cost effectiveness of newly licensed medicines on a once for Scotland basis and publishes advice for Health Boards to consider. It is expected that Health Board Area & Drug and Therapeutics Committees (ADTCs) will consider making a SMC recommended medicine, or an equivalent, available on their local or regional formulary for routine prescribing within 90 days of SMC advice being published.

Health Boards are expected to apply common principles and processes in the introduction of newly licensed medicines to facilitate consistency of approach to local decision-making. The decision to prescribe a medicine, and which medicine to prescribe, is entirely for the clinician in charge of a person’s care, having considered their clinical condition, their safety, and any relevant clinical guidance.