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This is a matter for NHS Lothian. The information requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government’s role is to set the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland, NHS Boards are responsible for service delivery and treatment. As set out in our recently published Transport to Health Plan All Health Boards should consider patient transport needs when they plan and deliver services and must ensure Patients have access to all information on any relevant patient transport (including community transport) and travel reimbursement entitlement.

Individual Boards are responsible for developing and assessing their own policies, including determining eligibility for escorts and reimbursement rates, whilst ensuring patient care and safety.

Equitable and consistent access to appropriate and timely diagnostic services and expertise are core requirements within the NICE NG47 guidelines cited within the recent Blood Cancer UK Action Plan.

We are aware of a gap analysis carried out by the Haematology and Transfusion Scotland and Scottish Strategic Network for Genomic Medicine networks on the genomic testing needed in Scotland, and we are working to address this as part of the overall implementation of the Genomics in Scotland strategy.

Work is also underway to better support integrated diagnostic reporting through the development of a national Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) in a programme of work led by a consortium of NHS Boards.

The expansion and retention of our specialist genomic workforce is an important part of the Scottish Government’s genomic medicine strategy and is critical to the delivery of both diagnosis and treatment across the NHS.

The Scottish Strategic Network for Genomic Medicine is working to capture not only our current workforce needs but those of our future service as we move towards an expansion in testing.

In doing so, we are working closely with NHS Education Scotland, our partners across the UK and national networks, acknowledging the many interdependencies between genomics, pathology and radiology in delivering diagnostic information needed by clinicians.

The following public bodies are currently considered to be government advisory groups, in line with the National Public Bodies Directory:

• Boundaries Scotland
• Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland
• Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland
• National Smart Ticketing Advisory Board (NSTAB)
• Poverty and Inequality Commission for Scotland
• Scottish Advisory Committee on Distinction Awards
• Scottish Commission on Social Security
• Scottish Fuel Poverty Advisory Panel
• Scottish Law Commission
• Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee

Information regarding advisory groups that previously existed is not held centrally, and this response is restricted to those advisory bodies currently in place.

Information regarding expenditure for several of these bodies can be found on their own websites:

Boundaries Scotland

https://boundaries.scot/corporate-documents

Judicial Appointments Board

https://www.judicialappointments.scot/publications

Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland

https://www.transport.gov.scot/our-approach/accessible-transport/mobility-and-access-committee-for-scotland-macs/#42413

Poverty and Inequality Commission for Scotland

The Poverty and Inequality Commission for Scotland was established from 1 July 2019. Links to their accounts since this date are as follows:

2019-20 https://povertyinequality.scot/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Annual-Report-Poverty-and-Inequality-Commission-2019-20.pdf

2020-21 https://povertyinequality.scot/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Poverty-and-Inequality-Commission-Annual-Report-2020-21.pdf

2021-22 https://povertyinequality.scot/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Annual-Report-Poverty-and-Inequality-Commission-2021-2022.pdf

2022-23 https://povertyinequality.scot/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Poverty-and-Inequality-Commission-Annual-Report-2022-23-.pdf

2023-24 https://povertyinequality.scot/publication/the-poverty-and-inequality-commission-annual-report-2023-2024/

Scottish Commission on Social Security (SCoSS)

https://socialsecuritycommission.scot/publications/corporate-documents/

Scottish Fuel Poverty Advisory Panel

https://fuelpovertypanel.scot/our-publications/the-scottish-fuel-poverty-advisory-panel-annual-report/

Scottish Law Commission

https://www.scotlawcom.gov.uk/publications/annual-report/

The National Smart Ticketing Advisory Board was established in November 2023 and had incurred no expenditure up to 31 March 2024.

The Scottish Advisory Committee on Distinction Awards was provided Secretariat provision by the Common Services Agency, which is now known as NHS National Services Scotland (NSS). Information on expenditure for this public body is not held centrally.

The Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee was reconvened in April 2013 after it had previously been stepped down in 2013. Spend on this committee for the financial year 2023-24 was £90,985. Financial information on spend prior to 2013 is not available due to the age of this data and the changes in the finance system since this date.

The Scottish Government is aware of the regulations set out in the UK Social Housing Regulation Act 2023 and the plans to introduce Awaab’s Law by setting out specified timeframes for addressing health hazards. This reflects similar rights already in place for social housing tenants in Scotland.

Under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001, Scottish secure tenants and short Scottish secure tenants currently have the right to have certain urgent repairs carried out by their landlord within a given timescale. The Right to Repair scheme applies to all tenants of local authorities and housing associations. The list of qualifying repairs is set out in The Scottish Secure Tenants (Right to Repair) Regulations 2002, which also sets out the maximum permissible period for completing repairs, and the compensation that is due to tenants where these timescales are not met.

This sits alongside existing requirements for social landlords in Scotland as part of the Scottish Social Housing Charter, monitored by the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR). The Charter includes expected outcomes on the customer/landlord relationship and on the quality of housing. Landlords need to meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard, which requires that homes are healthy, safe and free from serious disrepair.

As part of their review of the Annual Return on the Scottish Social Housing Charter (ARC), SHR are engaging with the sector to develop updated indicators for tenant and resident safety.

SHR aim to confirm the revised ARC indicators by January 2025, with the new ARC being in place for collection year 2025/26. In the meantime, SHR will use Annual Assurance Statements to require landlords to provide specific assurance on their compliance with their tenant and resident safety obligations, including their performance in dealing with instances of damp and mould.

The Scottish Government, including Social Security Scotland, have not incurred any additional costs in 2024-25 as a result of the Department for Work and Pensions administering a payment equivalent to Winter Fuel Payment to eligible Scottish clients in 2024.

The NHS Research Scotland (NRS) Cancer Network monitors recruitment to eligibly funded non-commercial and commercial cancer clinical studies taking place in the NHS here, including in Blood Cancer. Routinely collected data includes postcode, date of birth and, where available, ethnicity of consented and recruited trial participants.

In February 2023 we published an Independent Report on Improving Equity of Access to Cancer Clinical Trials.

Improving equity of access to cancer clinical trials in Scotland - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

We are working closely with the cancer research community here to develop plans for the implementation of the report’s key recommendations and have established an implementation board chaired by Professor David Cameron from the University of Edinburgh to oversee this work.

Through NHS Research Scotland (NRS), the Scottish Government provides funding for infrastructure to support the delivery of both investigator-led and commercially-sponsored clinical trials in the NHS here.

The NRS infrastructure includes the NRS Cancer Network whose role is to support the recruitment of cancer patients into clinical research studies. Cancer | NHS Research Scotland | NHS Research Scotland.

In Financial Year 2023-24 the NRS Cancer Network supported a total of 56 Blood Cancer clinical studies across Scotland.

The Scottish Government co-funds in partnership with Cancer Research UK the Adult Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres (ECMC's) in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and a Paediatric ECMC in Glasgow. These form part of a UK-wide ECMC Network that works to support the delivery of commercial and non-commercial early phase cancer studies, covering both solid tumours and haematological malignancies:

Edinburgh | ECMC (ecmcnetwork.org.uk)

Glasgow | ECMC (ecmcnetwork.org.uk)

The Glasgow ECMC has supported early phase studies developed through Blood Cancer UK's Trial Acceleration Programme (TAP).

The Scottish Government expects that health and care professionals will support patients with cancer to help them understand their condition and explain the options open to them, including around self-monitoring their condition where appropriate.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with third sector support services for cancer. We are currently in partnership with Macmillan to improve the service we offer patients with cancer through the Transforming Cancer Care Programme. This joint partnership with Macmillan 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 specialist key support worker, who can provide emotional, financial, and practical support to those who need it most.

We have also piloted 12 Single Point of Contact (SPoC) sites, which allow an individual to work through their individual needs and design a care pathway that works best for them. Learning from this programme is demonstrating the role of SPoC in improving communication and optimising collaborative working across health, care and third sectors. We are considering how best to scale up this approach to the benefit of all patients, including those with blood cancer.