Medicines reach community pharmacies, hospitals, GP practices through a supply chain that is privately operated on a UK-wide basis, from manufacturers in the UK and overseas to wholesale warehouses and distributors. The NHS itself does not have a significant logistical role in the supply chain for medicines.

The supply of medicines, including medicines shortages, is a reserved matter and therefore the responsibility of the UK Government’s Department of Health and Social Care. The Scottish Government works closely with the UK Government on all related medicines supply issues and there are well-established and robust processes in place to communicate, address and mitigate any risks to patients as result of any medicines supply issues that occur.

The Scottish Government and NHS Scotland National Procurement have regular engagement with key stakeholders including Health Boards and Community Pharmacy Scotland on any medicines supply related issues to ensure the provision of medicines for patients in both primary and secondary care settings across Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-26919 on 30 April 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

We are continuing to work across the Scottish Government and with delivery partners, including Public Health Scotland and See Me, to ensure that employers across all sectors are equipped with the knowledge, skills and resources they need to promote and support the conditions that enable good mental health at work.

Together, we are delivering a joint package of support for employers across Scotland to support mentally healthy workplaces, which includes:

• The ‘Supporting a Mentally Healthy Workplace’ employer platform, which was launched in August 2022 and signposts employers to a wide range of free mental health and wellbeing resources and information.
• The ‘Supporting a Mentally Healthy Workplace: National Learning Network for Employers’, which was established in March 2023 to complement the employer platform and to bring together employers of all sizes and across all sectors to share learning and experiences of supporting mental health and wellbeing in the workplace.
• Public Health Scotland’s Mentally Flourishing Workplaces Framework. Developed in collaboration with a range of employers, this aims to help employers identify what they can do to improve mental health support for their employees, and work together to be a mentally flourishing organisation.
• The See Me in Work Programme, led by See Me, Scotland’s anti-mental health stigma campaign. which provides online support for employers to enable them to create stigma-free and mentally healthy working environments.

Additionally, since 2019 Scottish Government’s Mental Health Directorate has provided funding to the Lifelines Scotland wellbeing programme, to support blue light responders – Police Scotland, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the Scottish Ambulance Service – who have had difficult experiences in the course of their work which have affected their mental health and wellbeing.

It remains the ambition of the Scottish Government to deliver a National Low Vision Service. This would deliver a range of services to people with visual impairment including both the provision of assistive technology and support for the use of technology already openly available (e.g. applications available for download/use on a smartphone/tablet). The Scottish Government is unable to take this forward at the present time due to financial constraints.

Community organisations in rural areas and elsewhere are uniquely placed to identify and address the issues that keep individuals in their local communities healthy.

A place-based approach is the foundation of Community-Led Local Development (CLLD). Communities are empowered and supported to design and implement the solutions to the challenges and opportunities they identify in their local area, which can include community led health and social care provision.

Through the Communities workstream within the wider Place and Wellbeing programme we are also working with the community and voluntary sector to enhance the capacity of community organisations (in rural areas and elsewhere) to complement the actions of the public sector in keeping people well. As part of the Communities Workstream we are exploring how we can increase the influence of local community organisations in the decisions that impact on the health and wellbeing of their communities.

We have also introduced participation requests as part of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, which provide a mechanism for communities to seek dialogue with public service providers including NHS Health Boards on their own terms and become meaningfully involved in local service delivery.

This information is provided in Glasgow Prestwick Airport’s annual accounts.

Glasgow Prestwick Airport has published annual accounts for each year since the shareholding was acquired by Scottish Ministers. It is a statutory requirement that these are laid in Parliament.

Scottish Ministers do not hold a breakdown of revenue that details revenues derived from any category of customer at Glasgow Prestwick Airport.

The Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care support policy in Scotland and has published clear social care standards setting out what people should expect when using health, social care or social work services in Scotland. Whereas it is local authorities and Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) who have the statutory responsibility to ensure that these standards are upheld and that social care support services are commissioned and available to provide people with the appropriate social care support in the right place and at the right time.

As set out in the Programme for Government 2023-24, the Scottish Government has committed £3,03m in 2023-26 to progressing the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care, which launched in October 2023.

The Centre will focus initially on Primary Care and community services priorities in Phase 1 as an initial proof of concept, with scoping work being carried out during the first 2 years of the Centre to lay the ground for expansion to include the wider rural healthcare workforce and Social Care in due course.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with partners to support older people on a range of issues related to age equality. This includes delivering actions set out in the Strategic Action Framework, A Fairer Scotland for Older People. We also launched a new £3.8m Social Isolation and Loneliness Fund on 8 March 2023 which funds 53 projects supporting people at risk of social isolation and loneliness.

In relation to your question about initiatives to prevent social isolation in Aberdeenshire, I would refer you the written answer to your question S6W-33671 on 31 January 2025 where this response is covered.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Please find below information, broken down by financial year, the costs for social media managers within the Communications division for the last five financial years.

Since October 2022, Scottish Government has funded the third sector organisation RNID to deliver its ‘Near You’ scheme in partnership with the NHS. The service provides hearing aid maintenance and support, access to information and advice as well as early detection and prevention. The scheme is currently operational across 5 hub areas – Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Scottish Borders, Shetland, Lothians and Fife and is facilitated by locally recruited staff and trained volunteers.

Partnerships provide domiciliary care in care homes as well as forging links with other third sector organisations to maximise attendance and support provided. Regular monitoring of this service is undertaken to assess demand and savings including in clinical hours and patient travel.

There is no definition of, and thus no data collected for, waiting times for community optometry services, whether urban or rural.

However, we are working closely with the three island Health Boards to resolve some local access issues.

The Scottish Government has not received correspondence with regards waiting times in Aberdeenshire.