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From Jan 2021 – March 2023 the Scottish Government provided over £2.8 million as part of our Women Returners funding through which over 2,100 women have been given support to help with their route back to work. In so doing we have met our 2018/19 Programme for Government commitment to support over 2000 women by the end of the 2022-23 financial year.

We welcome opportunities to collaborate with UK partners on the safe and ethical use of AI in health and social care, and will continue our ongoing conversations with NHS England and other UK agencies on this topic.

To support scope based diagnostics we have published an Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan which is backed by a £70m investment. The plan focuses on key areas such as: Balancing Demand and Capacity; Workforce Training and Development; Infrastructure; and Innovation and Redesign.

In recognition of the pressures on Colposcopy services specifically, we have provided over £660,000 of additional funding to NHS Ayrshire & Arran, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, NHS Highland, NHS Lothian and NHS Tayside to support activity and free up capacity nationally.

This funding was used to enhance capacity through recruitment and additional clinics, including at weekends, to allow increased activity and to reduce demand.

The Scottish Government continues to prioritise investment in frontline services and provided an increase of over £730 million to NHS Boards in the 2023-24 budget, taking total investment in NHS Grampian to over £1.1 billion – an increase of almost 94% since 2006-07.

Additionally, we are providing a further £200 million to NHS Boards to support financial sustainability and address financial challenges in year. NHS Grampian will receive over £17 million as part of this support.

We will continue to work with all Health Boards, including NHS Grampian, to address financial and workforce pressures across the system. Our Sustainability and Value programme has been established to deliver essential reform and sustainable services that are fit for the future, whilst prioritising patient safety .

Each of the cancer screening programmes are monitored by their respective Programme Boards, who report to National Screening Oversight (NSO). NSO is responsible for system wide oversight of the quality and effectiveness of the programmes and subsequently reports to the Scottish Screening Committee (SSC). Regular updates are provided at the SSC meetings regarding recovery and overall performance of the screening programmes.

All of the programmes are now operating in line with pre-COVID performance, and we continue to work with the organisations that oversee screening in Scotland to ensure full capacity is recovered and maintained.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all children and young people are able to access the right support for their mental health without stigma, including medication where this is the most appropriate intervention.

Prescribing is a clinical decision to be taken by clinicians based on their assessment of the best interests of the patient and following the relevant clinical guidelines.

Public Health Scotland report the total number of children and young people aged 19 or under who were prescribed antidepressant medication in calendar years 2021 and 2022 as follows:

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. Public Health Scotland publishes the number and percentage of patients who start treatment within the 18 week standard on a quarterly basis at NHS Board level.

The publications for CAMHS waiting times can be found at Publications - Public Health Scotland .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19494 on 28 June 2023 which confirmed that the Scottish Government response to the Scottish Mental Health Law Review was published on Wednesday 28 June. 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 .

The recommendations of the Compliance and Enforcement Review Panel are being taken forward through the Building Standards Futures Board. The Board oversees a programme of seven work streams which collectively aim to improve the performance, expertise, resilience and sustainability of building standards verification services. Work has progressed across all work items, notably on a workforce strategy for building standards, a pilot building standards verification hub of expertise, a new compliance plan approach and a suite of digital tools to assist those using the building standards system.

We welcome the focus on perinatal support in the report from the Maternal Mental Health Alliance. Development of perinatal mental health services is a key priority for the Scottish Government to improve the wellbeing and experiences of women, infants and families.

Since 2019, our investment of over £26 million has delivered a substantial increase in statutory and third sector services across Scotland leading to:

o 11 new and 3 expanded Community Perinatal Mental Health Teams

o 10 new and 4 in development Infant Mental Health Services

o 9 new and 1 expanded Maternity and Neonatal Psychological Intervention Services

During this period of significant expansion, some NHS Boards have understandably experienced a number of challenges including around recruitment. The Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Service Development Adviser is regularly in contact with identified NHS leads to help identify and tackle such issues; and we continue to work closely with the Network to look at additional ways to put support in place.

The Scottish Government is committed to continuing to work with NHS boards to support them in managing their allocations and the successful implementation of perinatal and infant mental health services.