Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-33602

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 28 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to ensure that cancer patients are able to receive patient-centred care that is tailored to their individual needs.

The Scottish Government published our Cancer Strategy for Scotland 2023-2033 along with an initial three year Cancer Action Plan for Scotland 2023 – 2026 in June 2023. The strategy and plan take a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care with an ambition to provide person centred care for all.

The actions contained in the plan will enable health and care professionals to work in partnership with the people they care for to ensure shared decision making with realistic medicine approaches in mind.

Scottish Government launched Single Point of Contact pilots in 2020, which ensure people recently diagnosed with cancer have person-centred support and can discuss their specific circumstances. This helps ease anxieties related to their care and treatment plans and to relay the support available to them and their families. Scottish Government is considering how best to scale up this approach.

We are also working in partnership with Macmillan to improve the service we offer patients with cancer through the Transforming Cancer Care Programme. This partnership is worth £27 million and is the first of its kind in the UK. The programme ensures that every patient with cancer in Scotland has access to a specialist key support worker, who can provide emotional, financial, and practical support to those who need it most.

Question reference: S6W-33600

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 28 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to use public deliberation methods, such as citizens' juries, to improve cancer services.

The Scottish Government continues to use a range of methods to ensure meaningful public input to our work, including focus groups and formal public consultation.

The Scottish Cancer Patient Experience Survey (SCPES) asks people about their experience of cancer care. The survey is jointly funded by the Scottish Government and Macmillan Cancer Support. The most recent findings of the survey were published in September 2024.

Care Opinion is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that gives people a platform to tell their own story about their experience of health and care services. We regularly look to this resource to understand experience of cancer services by all people affected by cancer accessing services across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-33955

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 7 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the fixed fees system on the number of solicitors taking on legal aid cases.

Question reference: S6W-33976

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 7 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what progress has been made with its scheme, Percentage for the Arts.

Question reference: S6W-33601

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what recent steps it has taken to (a) increase the number of GPs nationwide and (b) improve access to face-to-face GP appointments.

(a) The Scottish Government remains fully committed to increasing the number of GPs by 800 by 2027.

In November 2024 we published a General Practitioner Recruitment and Retention Action Plan, available online at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/general-practitioner-recruitment-retention-action-plan-2024-2026/documents/

A key action in this plan is to retain newly qualified GPs in Scotland by expanding the current fellowship offer to support early career GPs on completion of their GP training. We have also commissioned NHS Education for Scotland to work with the profession to redesign the current GP Retainer Scheme to make it more flexible to support GPs at times in their career when it is needed. We have created 70 additional GP Speciality Training posts since 2022, with a further 30 to be added in 2025.

(b) The Scottish Government discusses access to general practice with the representatives of the profession. It is important that patients see the right person at the right place at the right time to treat their condition, this may not always need to be a GP. However, where clinically necessary, the option to have a face to face consultation should always be available.

Question reference: S6W-33603

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what funding is being provided to ensure that every cancer patient is able to access specialist psychological support throughout their treatment.

Scottish Government’s Psychological Therapies and Support Framework for People Affected by Cancer supports Health Boards in considering the services which should be available to those affected by cancer, including psychological support, at any point of throughout the cancer pathway.

In 2024-25 Scottish Government provided £123 million to Health Boards to deliver improvements to mental health services for people in Scotland, including the delivery of psychological therapies for those with cancer. It is the responsibility of Health Boards to deliver this and to locally commission as required.

Question reference: S6O-04279

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working to improve access to support for pupils with additional support needs, including access to speech and language therapists.

Question reference: S6W-33599

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to improve NHS Scotland’s data and information-sharing infrastructure.

COSLA and the Scottish Government published Scotland’s first Data Strategy for Health and Social Care in February 2023. The Strategy outlines a number of key developments for improving technology and infrastructure to improve the care and wellbeing of people in Scotland by making best use of data in the design and delivery of services

The specific actions being taken can be read in the Strategy: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/strategy-plan/2023/02/data-strategy-health-social-care-2/documents/greater-access-better-insight-improved-outcomes-strategy-data-driven-care-digital-age/greater-access-better-insight-improved-outcomes-strategy-data-driven-care-digital-age/govscot%3Adocument/greater-access-better-insight-improved-outcomes-strategy-data-driven-care-digital-age.pdf.

You may also be interested to read about our progress in the 2024 update on our progress and priorities: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/progress-report/2024/04/data-strategy-health-social-care-2024-update-progress-priorities/documents/data-strategy-health-social-care-2024-update-progress-priorities/data-strategy-health-social-care-2024-update-progress-priorities/govscot%3Adocument/data-strategy-health-social-care-2024-update-progress-priorities.pdf

Question reference: S6O-04239

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding any implications for its provision of funding for humanitarian aid in Gaza, whether it will provide an update on what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding recent developments in Gaza.

Question reference: S6W-32713

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 15 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made in adopting the recommendations made in the Report of the inquiry into Islamophobia in Scotland by the Cross-Party Group on Tackling Islamophobia.

The Scottish Government greatly values Muslim communities in Scotland and is committed to tackling Islamophobia in our society. Since the publication of the Report of the inquiry into Islamophobia in Scotland, the Scottish Government has worked towards adopting many of the relevant recommendations made by the Cross-Party Group (CPG), and progress continues to be made in their delivery. We work cooperatively with a wide range of organisations throughout the country to tackle all forms of hatred, including Islamophobia, and promote inclusion. This work is grounded in prevention, early intervention, evidence-based approaches and meaningful interaction with people who have lived experience of exclusion and hate.

In 2023 the Scottish Government published a new Hate Crime Strategy as well as an associated Delivery Plan which sets out a range of activity that will be taken forward to tackle Hate Crime, including Islamophobia. Importantly, the strategy was informed by communities with lived experience of hate crime, including Muslim communities. The strategy supported commencement of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 on 1 April 2024, which consolidated legislative protections against offences aggravated by prejudice against disability, race, religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity, and added age. The Act also introduced new offences for threatening or abusive behaviour and the communication of threatening or abusive material which is intended to stir up hatred.

In 2023 we also published our progress review of Anti-racism in Scotland; a detailed examination of progress made on commitments contained within the Race Equality Framework (REF) (2016-2030) and the Immediate Priorities Plan (IPP) (2021-2023).

Wider activity to tackle Islamophobia, which supports delivery of the recommendations from the CPG reports, continues across various portfolios including, but not limited to, education, employment, housing, health and culture.

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