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The Scottish Microfinance Fund aim is to provide access to affordable business finance for those with viable business propositions but who are unable to obtain finance, either wholly or in part, from mainstream lenders. Responsible lending is at the core of the Fund and individuals need to demonstrate the ability to maintain payments over the period of the loan. To date, the Fund has provided £925,141 of loans creating 131 new jobs and safeguarding 37 existing jobs.

The Scottish Government recognises the challenges those with a low credit rating can face when trying to source finance and is working hard to address this and to promote financial inclusion. That is why our Fairer Scotland Action Plan, published in October 2016, set out a commitment to making affordable credit more easily available. We are working together with Carnegie UK to deliver this commitment through their Affordable Credit Action Group, which has cross-sectoral membership, including from the banking sector, and a remit to deliver Carnegie’s Fairer Scotland Pledge to help Scotland’s not-for-profit affordable credit providers to grow, to reach many more people, building financial capability and improving wellbeing.

On issues related to ocular melanoma, the Scottish Government relies on the clinical expertise of the National Specialist Scottish Ophthalmic Oncology Service. On 12 May 2017, there was a Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) meeting where ocular melanoma issues were discussed. At this meeting, it was agreed that a UK wide group would be formed to develop UK wide guidance and recommendations on surveillance. This work will ensure there is a national, consistent approach to screening and surveillance for people in the UK, regardless of where they live.

The New Medicines Fund (NMF) provides financial support to NHS Boards for End of Life, Orphan and Ultra Orphan medicines which can be accessed by clinicians in a number of ways such as Individual Patient Treatment Requests, Peer Approved Clinical System requests or medicines accepted by the Scottish Medicines Consortium.

The Scottish Government is committed to continuing to invest in the NMF on the basis of the operation of the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme and these receipts will be directed into the New Medicines Fund in future years, as is currently case.

The Scottish Government has provided funding for 111 continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices in 2017-18 as set out in Directors Letter DL (2017) 13.

We have followed the advice of the Scottish Diabetes Group (SDG) with funding allocated in 2017-18 to ensure that appropriate CGM services are established in NHS Boards across Scotland.

We will fund a higher number of CGMs in subsequent years but the approach we have taken will help ensure equality of access for those with the greatest clinical need regardless of where they live in Scotland.

Our cancer strategy, ‘Beating Cancer: Ambition and Action’ recognises the need to reduce the variation in survival rates of different types of cancer as much as possible. The strategy is accompanied by £100 million investment, and serves as a blueprint for the future of cancer services in Scotland. We also support the national Quality Performance Indicator programme which aims to drive improvement in the outcomes and survival rates for people with cancer, including those noted by the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce.

In 2014 to help support earlier referral or investigation of patients who may be showing a suspicion of cancer, Healthcare Improvement Scotland updated and published revised Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer, which cover a wide range of tumour types. These guidelines should help in the identification of peoplemost likely to have cancer and require specialist assessment. The updated version of the guidelines is available at the following Link: http://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.org/our_work/cancer_care_improvement/programme_resources/scottish_referral_guidelines.aspx.

With regard to pancreatic cancer specifically, Scotland is currently the only part of the UK whose government is specifically co-funding research into pancreatic cancer along with a charity.

As part of the £4 million Precision Medicine Ecosystem Investment announced by the First Minister in February 2016, the Scottish Government has made available over £700,000 to support “Precision Panc”, a pan-Scotland study led by Professor Andrew Biankin from the University of Glasgow that uses state of the art techniques to better characterise pancreatic cancer, allowing patients to be recruited to clinical trials efficiently and quickly. In March 2017, Cancer Research UK announced an investment of £10 million to support Precision Panc. This investment will allow the molecular profiling of patients’ tumours, and help to improve our understanding of this tumour type.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-06745 on 24 February 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

I wrote to Vertex Pharmaceuticals in March to encourage them to take forward discussions about the cost of Orkambi® with colleagues in National Health Services Scotland who are best placed to advise them on pricing approaches and a fair price that could support the securing of a positive recommendation from the Scottish Medicines Consortium for the prescribing of these products in NHSScotland. Those talks are underway.

Through those discussions we hope that the manufacturer will make their best offer on price and indicate that they will re-submit an application for Orkambi® to the SMC.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-10195 on 28 July 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-10195 on 28 July 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 Medicines Consortium is working in collaboration with patient groups, health boards, pharmaceutical companies, the Scottish Government and other stakeholders on the review of the definitions of end-of-life, orphan and ultra-orphan medicines. This work is progressing at pace.