Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. The Scottish Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme (TERS) offers a one-off payment of £20,000 to GP trainees who commit to undertaking their training in selected areas and programmes. NHS Education for Scotland (NES) are responsible for issuing the bursaries, which are paid directly to the GP trainees.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. The Scottish Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme (TERS) offers a one-off payment of £20,000 to GP trainees who commit to undertaking their training in selected areas and programmes. NHS Education for Scotland (NES) are responsible for issuing the bursaries, which are paid directly to the GP trainees.

The Scottish Government does not currently have any formal arrangements with industry partners to identify undiagnosed individuals living with hepatitis C. However we are aware of local community testing initiatives that have been developed and delivered with industry, such as the STEP C Free project in Forth Valley and work with the Hepatitis C Trust in Glasgow. We are happy to encourage innovative evidence-based approaches and support dissemination of learning from such initiatives through forums such as the Scottish Health Protection Network groups and our ongoing Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus local area visits.

The Scottish Government supports and works closely with Food Standards Scotland, who have previously run national campaigns over winter months to raise awareness of vitamin D and encourage people to take a daily vitamin D supplement to maintain bone and muscle health.

The campaign primarily focuses on online advertising and social media posts. A campaign toolkit has also been developed and shared with a wide range of stakeholders to help support efforts to raise awareness of vitamin D, with graphics, web text, and social media posts available in nine languages (https://www.foodstandards.gov.scot/publications-and-research/publications/vitamin-d-campaign-toolkit).

Information on vitamin D is also available and promoted through a range of resources. Dedicated public advice on vitamin D is available on NHS Inform, including a general information leaflet highlighting the importance of vitamin D, which is available in a range of formats and languages (https://www.nhsinform.scot/healthy-living/food-and-nutrition/eating-well/vitamin-d).

Additional information can be accessed through our Parent Club (https://www.parentclub.scot/articles/eating-well-at-home) and Ready, Steady Baby! (https://www.nhsinform.scot/ready-steady-baby) resources, Food Standards Scotland

(https://www.foodstandards.gov.scot/consumers/healthy-eating/nutrition/vitamins-minerals/vitamin-d) website and

Eat Well, Your Way (https://www.eatwellyourway.scot/what-is-a-healthy-balanced-diet/vitamin-d/).

There is currently a moratorium on new apprenticeships in Scotland while work is ongoing with the Scottish Government’s post-school education and skills reform programme.

However, one of the key recommendations of the Allied Health Profession (AHP) Education and Workforce Review is to develop earn as you learn routes, which may in the future include apprenticeships. We are currently working closely with partners including Higher Education Institutions, Health Boards, Further Education and the Scottish Funding Council to progress this issue.

Progress has already been made to tackle workforce shortages in podiatry through the creation of a collaborative earn as you learn route at Glasgow Caledonian University. Health Boards are able to identify and send employees to train to become a podiatrist whilst remaining in the workforce and receiving full employee benefits of their local Board area.

Furthermore, the Scottish Government is currently collaborating with the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and wider stakeholders on the development of Next Generation HNC for AHP subjects. This work is providing the opportunity to take forward initial developments across three AHP professions and potentially offers a first step towards a recognised earn and learn progression route. It is currently in its early stages of development.

The Scottish Government intends to lay the regulations for alkaline hydrolysis in Parliament this year. A working group is currently being established.

The most recent surveillance report from Public Health Scotland indicates that the number of people tested for hepatitis C (HCV) antibody in Scotland in 2023 had surpassed pre-pandemic levels in almost all settings. Nonetheless, detecting more infections is a priority and we are focused on testing and treating more people, wherever they are, as we continue to push towards elimination of the virus.

Current work includes ensuring that opt-out testing is optimised in drug services and prisons, and considering the results of a recent Scottish Government-funded prison-based Hepatitis Intense Test and Treat (HITT) initiative in NHS Lothian. We are also reviewing the outcomes of opt-out blood borne virus testing pilots in Scottish emergency departments to determine whether further roll-out of this model would be effective.

Work is ongoing to determine how the additional £4.5 million announced in the draft 2025-26 budget to deliver new specialist support across the country for Long Covid, ME, Chronic Fatigue, and other similar conditions will be allocated.

The Scottish Government believes that all women in Scotland should have access to abortion services as part of routine healthcare, and understands that the choice to have a surgical abortion is important. The 2021 Women’s Health Plan sought to achieve the overarching priority that ‘all women will have a choice about how and where they access abortion care’. We intend to build upon this as we move into the next phase of the Women’s Health Plan, and have been doing significant work with NHS Boards and other stakeholders to deliver these commitments.

The Scottish Government continues to work with Health Boards to understand surgical abortion capacity. In late 2024, all territorial Health Boards were asked to complete a survey setting out their surgical abortion availability, along with other information on overall demand for abortion services.

From this survey, it is apparent that bed space can be a contributing factor to limited surgical abortion provision, but is unlikely to be a significant factor. Theatre availability and clinical training are more significant barriers, and the Scottish Government is working with Health Boards and other key stakeholders such as the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to improve training opportunities to increase provision of these services.

The Scottish Government has also raised the importance of access to early surgical abortions with NHS Board Chief Executives. The information gathered through the survey will be presented back to Board Chief Executives in due course, to help inform Boards’ decisions on where surgical abortion provision could be increased.

The Scottish Government supports and works closely with Food Standards Scotland, who have previously run national campaigns over winter months to raise awareness of vitamin D and encourage people to take a daily vitamin D supplement to maintain bone and muscle health.

Since April 2017, Scottish Government has provided free Healthy Start vitamins for women for the whole of their pregnancy. These were developed to meet their nutritional needs, and include vitamins C, D and Folic Acid. Since Jan 2021, Health Boards have provided free vitamin D to all breastfeeding mothers and children under three years.

The Scottish Government believes that all women in Scotland should have access to abortion services, available free from stigma.

In the 2023 Programme for Government, the Scottish Government committed to undertake a review of the law on abortion to ensure that it is first and foremost a healthcare matter. That review is now underway.

As part of the review, the Scottish Government has convened an expert group chaired by Professor Anna Glasier, the Scottish Government’s Women’s Health Champion. The expert group is reviewing the existing law on abortion in Scotland and will produce a report for the Scottish Government this Summer.. If the group considers that the law could be changed for the better, the report will include recommendations for reform.

The Scottish Government will consider the expert group’s report and take into account views of other stakeholders and other relevant considerations too. Any proposals for changes to abortion law would be subject to a public consultation.

Details of the expert group, including minutes of their meetings are published on the Scottish Government website here: Abortion Law Review Expert Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).