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Waiting Times Improvement funding has been allocated to each Health Board based on an assessment of demand where pressures are impacting on patient access to treatment and care.

We are making over £100 million available in 2019/20 across all health boards to tackle long waiting times in all specialties including chronic pain services. This funding will be used to increase capacity in the system, for example by recruiting additional staff, running evening and weekend clinics and additional theatre sessions with the aim of meeting the standard of 95% of outpatients waiting less than 12 weeks and 100% of inpatients/day cases waiting less than 12 weeks by March 2021.

Officials are working closely with all NHS Boards to ensure that robust plans are in place to reduce the number of patients waiting to be seen for chronic pain treatment. This is supported by the Annual Operational Plan process through which the health boards have submitted plans to substantively and sustainably reduce waiting times.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-24706 on 2 September 2019 which is available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/ormain.aspx

The following table details how much NHS board pays to private contractors for hospital catering services; all other hospitals catering costs are covered by the local NHS Board:

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for Scotland wrote to all NHS Boards, GPs and community pharmacists (Circular PCA(P) (2019) 18) on 26 August 2019 advising of the latest supply update on all Hormone Replacement Therapy products marketed in the UK.

Any information on current and ongoing supply issues relating to individual drugs or devices is shared by NHS Scotland with the relevant networks within the service to help prescribers and dispensers meet patients’ on-going medical needs. The NHS Scotland Prescribing Advisers’ Network provides support to prescribers on the use of alternative products.

The Scottish Government has received a funding application from Pause for the Pause Dundee pilot. The grant funding process has not yet been concluded and no funding has been provided by the Scottish Government.

We are committed to working with local authorities and partners to provide support for women with complex and challenging needs who have frequent pregnancies, but whose children are taken into care.

The decision to increase charges at the 4 stations which are staffed during opening hours was a commercial decision taken by ScotRail. The remaining 91 stations which have toilet facilities remain free. Toilets are available on all trains serving these stations.

SEPA has advised that it carried out an extensive investigation into this and found no conclusive evidence that waste is missing.

SEPA has confirmed that there are no records of any transfrontier shipments of waste to Sri Lanka from Scotland in the last five years.

The tender process included independent analysis of data from a number of sources including Environmental Regulatory Agencies and Health and Safety Executive. Data was reviewed and assessed to consider the nature of the breach, repeat offences and the size and nature of the business. The independent review found no reason to exclude Tradebe or any other tenderer from the competition.

There are no plans to export clinical waste under the new Tradebe contract.