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The National Mission Oversight Group is supported by many areas of expertise including; academics, lived and living experience representatives, international expertise, clinicians and third sector organisations

Three members of the group are specifically appointed as lived and living experience representatives, but we should not presume that other members of the Oversight Group do not have their own lived and living experience alongside their professional expertise and experience they are bringing to the group.

The Group will link in to lived and living experience networks such as the National Collaborative to ensure that the perspective and experiences of living and lived experience are embedded in the work of the Group.

Like all Non-Departmental Public Bodies, Scottish Canals has to comply with the requirements of the HM Treasury Consolidated Budgeting Guidance Framework which does not allow for underspends to be carried over financial years.

Scottish Canals is allocated a Grant in Aid budget for the year based on expenditure forecasted by the Organisation and balanced by the income it expects to generate. Any operating surplus that the Organisation generates should be used to reduce the Grant in Aid requirement.

Scottish Canals has benefitted from significant increases in Grant in Aid awards in recent years. Since 2019, the Organisation’s capital grant from the Scottish Government has increased by 87% and it has received an annual uplift in resource funding. In addition, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Scottish Canals benefitted from additional funding of £1.7m to meet a reduction in its revenues.

The National Mission Oversight Group met for the first time on 30 June 2022. The next meeting is scheduled for 22 September 2022. The Group will meet every three months and dates of meetings will be agreed in advance for the following year. The National Mission Steering Group will advise accordingly.

Scottish Canals, as with all public bodies, is operating in an unprecedented challenging environment for public funds. Despite this, the Organisation has benefitted from significant increases in both its resource and capital Grant in Aid budget allocations in the last few years. Since 2019, the Scottish Government has increased the Organisation’s capital grant allocation by 87%.

In the last 2 years, and as a consequence of the significant increases in its capital budgets, Scottish Canals has managed to reduce its backlog of works by 20%. This has been achieved alongside significant Scottish Government support for unplanned events such as the Union Canal breach at Muiravonside in 2020. This highlights the importance of the Scottish Government’s support for Scottish Canals.

Data on developer led remediated buildings is not held by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government is deeply shocked and saddened by what is happening in Ukraine and the impact that this is having on the Ukrainian people.  

Whilst trade sanctions are a reserved matter we welcome UK Government’s progressive strengthening of the sanctions regime against Russia. My officials have raised this specific issue with the UK Government.

Despite the continued and unprecedented challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme report, published on 28 June, highlights areas where a high level of care is provided for stroke patients, including improvements in the number of patients who receive brain imagining within 12 hours of arrival to hospital.

We recognise that there are areas within stroke care that have proven particularly challenging and we are committed to continued improvement. We expect health boards to identify aspects of their stroke services which do not meet the Scottish Standards and to work to improve standards of care locally.

The number of thrombectomy procedures carried out at each stroke centre in the last year are:

West of Scotland: 16

East of Scotland: 17

North of Scotland: 31

The Scottish Government does not hold information about individual patients transfers.

We are not currently aware of any stroke unit closures.

The publication of the analysis report is still under consideration however is expected to be published in due course. My officials in Transport Scotland will keep the member updated of any progress.