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Scottish Water Horizons Holdings limited acquired the PFI companies for £16.2m on 19 December 2018 (see note 11 to the Scottish Water’s financial statements for the year ending 31 March 2019). The value of bank debt as at 31 March 2022 will be c. £31m. Scottish Water is the only shareholder in Scottish Water Horizons Holdings Ltd.

As set out in Scottish Water’s 2020-21 Annual Report, while thousands of projects were delivered in the 2015- 21 period there were 86 projects due by but not delivering benefits to customers at 31 March 2021. Scottish Water expects customers to be receiving the benefits of 57 of these projects by the end of the 2022-23 financial year, leaving 29 still to be completed.

The mobile theatre unit, which opened at Gilbert Bain Hospital in Shetland in January 2022, is supporting access to treatment for cataract and orthopaedic patients, who have faced delays in receiving care due to the pandemic and may have otherwise had to travel to the mainland for their procedure. The mobile theatre unit will also allow normal levels of theatre activity to continue through Phase 2 of the NHS Shetland Ambulatory Care capital project which starts in April 2022, preventing waiting lists from increasing significantly during these essential building works.

Throughout the pandemic, health boards across Scotland have been working hard to ensure that vital care remains in place. Any pausing of non-urgent activity has regrettably but inevitably led to a build-up of numbers waiting for Outpatient appointment and/or Inpatient/Day Case treatment. We will continue to work with Boards to recover our NHS through a range of targeted actions to maximise capacity and efficiency, including through the use of mobile theatre units where appropriate.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government or by Public Health Scotland, however confirmed cervical cancer patients being treated on the 31 day or 62 day pathway, with their waiting times, can be found at:

Cancer waiting times - 1 July to 30 September 2021 - Cancer waiting times - Publications - Public Health Scotland

Information on the number of diagnostic procedures performed in NHS Scotland is available on the Public Health Scotland website and can be found in the Acute Hospitals and Finance Cost Books . However, the activity data published for radiology in the Finance Cost Books is reported with elective and emergency totals combined, which does not allow us to report on elective diagnostics activity disaggregated. Further, the Acute Hospitals publication only publishes activity data on particular endoscopy tests, therefore it cannot give us a complete picture for endoscopy activity. Data on the ongoing waits of diagnostic procedures can be found in the PHS Diagnostics publication .

We have provided £29 million to support an increase in diagnostic procedures by 78,000 during the current year and expect diagnostic capacity to increase by at least 90,000 procedures per year by the end of the NHS Recovery Plan in 2025/26. This equates to 29,000 additional CT scans, 24,000 MRI scans and 25,000 additional endoscopy procedures by the end of the Plan.

Colposcopy capacity has been impacted by Covid-19, regrettably resulting in longer than usual waiting times in some Health Boards.

In recognition of this, last year we provided over £660,000 additional funding to NHS Ayrshire & Arran, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, NHS Highland, NHS Lothian and NHS Tayside to support capacity in colposcopy provision. The funding was used to enhance capacity through additional workforce and extra clinics, including at weekends.

We will continue to work closely with Boards who are facing challenges in order to remobilise services as soon as possible.

The draft Framework was shaped throughout 2020 and 2021 by a range of stakeholders, including the patient representatives of the National Advisory Committee on Chronic Pain (NACCP). All members of the NACCP were informed of the proposed approach in advance, were provided with an advanced copy of the Framework and were encouraged to share their feedback on its content via the public consultation. The consultation closes on the 28 February and I would encourage everyone with an interest in improving care and support for people with chronic pain to participate and share their views.

No private marketing company has been used for work relating to the Draft Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery .

When minimum unit pricing for alcohol was introduced on 1 May 2018, we said we would review the level two years after its introduction, so from May 2020. With the arrival of COVID-19, this work was paused as responding to the pandemic became the Scottish Government’s top priority.

The review work is now back underway. The impacts of the pandemic, and to some extent Brexit, however, make both the review and the evaluation more challenging. The pandemic, in particular, caused people’s drinking habits to change and, early signs are that this is having an impact on alcohol harms.

As regards the timescale for reviewing the level of MUP, it is currently too early in the process to set out when this might happen.

We remain convinced that MUP is one of the main drivers in reducing alcohol harm.

The contract was awarded under the Crown Commercial Service Management Consultancy Framework Three following a fair and open procurement exercise in line with Scottish Government guidance.