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The MS Society report, highlights one of the numerous problems with the UK Government’s Personal Independence Payment which has caused stress and anxiety to thousands of people going through an assessment process that has been continually criticised.

This government has repeatedly called on the UK Government to halt the roll-out of PIP in Scotland – just as we have expressed our concerns about so many other welfare changes and cuts that are damaging the people of Scotland.

GP practices are not contractually required to provide electrocardiogram equipment for their patients. Practice partners will prioritise what equipment they require within their practice based on their local population needs. The new contract requires GPs to engage through their clusters with Health and Social Care Partnerships in local service planning to ensure the primary care team is focused on meeting the reasonable needs of the local population.

The Scottish Government has commissioned research on exploring the relationship between the planning system and the food environment in Scotland. This research considers how the planning system can best support the creation of an improved food environment in Scotland including the area around schools and identifies effective and less effective approaches taken elsewhere. The research will be published later this year and will help inform the review of National Planning Framework and Scottish Planning Policy.

Scottish Government advice on vitamin D was updated in November 2017. The Chief Medical Officer issued a letter to GPs, midwives, pharmacists and healthcare professionals on the day the new advice came into place to make them aware. The Scottish Government website has been updated with the new advice. We worked with NHS Health Scotland to produce and distribute an updated leaflet explaining the new guidance and are continuing to work with them on increasing awareness of vitamin D.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-11760 on 31 October 2017. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

The Scottish Government is committed to achieving equality of access to medical education and is taking forward a number of specific actions that will contribute towards this.

These include funding a new pre-medical entry programme at the Universities of Glasgow and Aberdeen, which will better prepare pupils from less affluent areas to undertake undergraduate medical education. The eligibility criteria include a range of measures in addition to Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) such as a remote and rural indicator, young people who are care experienced, and those eligible for free school meals.

Through the Scottish Funding Council we also fund the Reach programme, which supports students from low progression schools to study high demand university subjects including medicine.

In support of our wider work on access, Scottish Government analysts have also established an Access Data Working Group. The Group, whose membership includes key Higher Education stakeholders, is looking at measures in addition to SIMD.

The new GP contract, backed by over £100 million investment in 2018-19, will ensure GPs can spend more time with patients when they really need to see them as well as developing wider multi-disciplinary teams (MDT) to support and improve patient care. There is no fixed or defined structure for an MDT, instead this will be determined by the local needs and priorities of the Practice. It is expected that this will include a mix of clinical and non-clinical staff and may include mental health clinicians such as health psychologists where appropriate.

Action 15 within the Mental Health Strategy also outlines our clear commitment to funding 800 additional mental health workers in key settings, including GP practices, ensuring that local provision and support is at the heart of our plans. Funding for this commitment will reach £35 million by 2022.

The Scottish Government is undertaking a comparative review of Health Technology Assessment models across the UK, Europe and internationally, further to recommendations 9.18 and 9.25 of the Montgomery Review. The Government plans to consider this work with the Scottish Medicines Consortium and other interested bodies and expects that it will inform the continuing development of medicines policy.

Colleges offer students a number of opportunities at Further Education level to access medical education. For example, many colleges offer an ‘Access to Nursing’ course, while SWAP (Scottish Wider Access Programme) is a partnership between colleges and universities which has a medical studies programme supporting access to Higher Education for adult returners.

Nine projects will be funded through the first round of the Scottish Government’s £750,000 Workplace Equality Fund, which is being delivered by the Voluntary Action Fund. The Fund will seek to address long standing barriers in the labour market faced by women, older workers, ethnic minority and disabled people. Details of the projects are provided in the following table.