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While the Scottish Government’s role is to set the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland, NHS Boards and healthcare professionals locally have responsibility for both service delivery and people’s care. NHS Boards are expected to ensure that patients, including those who require care and support for ME/CFS, have access to a range of professionals to provide the appropriate management of their condition.

We recently commissioned an independent organisation to engage with third sector and clinical stakeholders and people with lived experience, to discuss how we move forward in implementing the National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE) guideline recommendations on ME/CFS in Scotland, and in identifying priorities for service improvement. We are currently preparing to publish the final stakeholder consultation report and are considering its findings.

I was pleased to meet with #MEAction Scotland representatives in March 2022, to hear their views on improving the access to care and support for people affected by the condition.

The Young Patients Family Fund provides valuable financial support to eligible visitors of inpatients up to the age of 18 who are being treated in Scotland.

We recognise it is not possible to deliver all services and treatments in all locations. That is why, where patients are required to travel we already expect boards to take a patient centred approach and to have in place arrangements to allow and support people to receive treatment elsewhere. In addition, financial support for travel is available for patients and authorised escorts attending hospital appointments, in line with eligibility criteria and medical requirements.

The Young Patients Family Fund provides valuable financial support to eligible visitors of inpatients up to the age of 18. There are currently no plans to extend the age range.

Those aged between 18 – 25 years old continue to have access to the Patient Travel Expenses Scheme or the Highlands and Islands Travel Scheme, both of which provide eligible claimants with support to meet travel costs associated with outpatient appointments.

The Young Patients Family Fund provides valuable financial support to eligible visitors of inpatients up to the age of 18. There are currently no plans to extend eligibility for outpatient treatment.

Scottish Government does not yet hold this data for 2021-22. We have asked for this information as part of routine monitoring of implementation of the Young Patient’s Family Fund, from Health Boards.

The Chief Scientist Office (CSO) provides funding to support and facilitate high quality applied research across a wide health and care remit

CSO Approach to Funding – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)

This includes funding in support of research in areas of public health, or health and care where delivery may be outside of clinical settings

CSO's annual budget from 2012-13 to 2022-23 is provided below:

2012-13 £67.9 million

2013-14 £68.3 million

2014-15 £68.5 million

2015-16 £66.8 million

2016-17 £64.8 million

2017-18 £64.4 million

2018-19 £67.2 million

2019-20 £69.9 million

2020-21 £69.9 million

2021-22 £75.4 million (includes £3.5 million non-recurring COVID-19 funding)

2022-23 £78.4 million

The Scottish Budget for 2022-23 confirms funding of £4 million to deliver the Young Patients Family Fund.

Whilst there is no legal definition of elder abuse, the World Health Organisation has defined it as ‘a single or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust, which causes harm or distress to an older person' ( Elder abuse (who.int) ). They note this can cover several types of violence, including but not limited to physical, sexual, psychological and financial abuse or neglect.

In general the Scottish Government does not hold information centrally on levels of elder abuse, as the Official Statistics on police recorded crime and criminal proceedings do not include details on whether the victim was an older person, or their relationship to the perpetrator. Police Scotland are in the process of introducing a new system to record crime, which once fully operational may allow for more detailed analysis within Scotland’s recorded crime statistics (including victim age for each type of crime committed). Going forward, statisticians will keep users of crime statistics informed of developments, as the new system rolls out during 2022 and 2023.

Some information on the age of victims and their relationship to perpetrators is available from topic based Official Statistics, including for example police recorded Domestic Abuse and Homicide. In 2020-21, victims of domestic abuse aged 60 and over had a rate of 12 incidents per 10,000 population (compared to 119 incidents for all ages). This has remained broadly stable over the past five years. Between 2016-17 and 2020-21 there were 36 victims of homicide in Scotland aged 60 or over. Of these, over two-thirds (69% or 25 victims) were known to the perpetrator (including partners or ex-partners, relatives and acquaintances). Furthermore the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) can provide estimates of some measures by age, however this only covers adults living in private households and excludes other settings such as care homes. In 2019/20, 6.9% of those aged 60 and over experienced crime in Scotland (including those not reported to the police), compared to 11.9% for all aged 16 plus. The victimisation rate for those aged over 60 has shown no change since 2014/15.

Some data is also available from the Care Inspectorate, which operates a complaints procedure for registered care services. For example in 2019/20 there were 35 upheld complaints about protection of people in care homes for older people. Further information on this process is provided in Care Inspectorate reports Complaints Annual Report 2019-20 final 12012021 (1).pdf (careinspectorate.com) and their published board papers (June 2021) Board_1706202_Final_Published.pdf (careinspectorate.com) .

The Scottish Government is committed to tackling all forms of racism, including antisemitism. We adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism in June 2017. This is the Scottish Government position and it applies to all Ministers.

Institutions are aware of the IHRA definition of antisemitism and many are actively consulting within their communities on it. I understand that five institutions have made the decision to adopt the definition following detailed consideration. However, as autonomous bodies, adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism remains a matter for each institution to consider individually, with its staff and student communities.

Importantly, Universities Scotland and all 19 higher education institutions have been clear that there is absolutely no place for antisemitism nor racial or religious intolerance of any kind, in higher education.

Universities Scotland is actively engaging with the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) and the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities (SCoJeC) and has welcomed the opportunity to discuss the IHRA definition of antisemitism and current issues faced by Jewish students. It has confirmed that it is working with SCoJeC on a programme of action to share good practice across institutions and to find ways of offering more support to Jewish students across the sector, particularly where communities are very small in number.

UJS offers training to students and most recently, following a successful pilot at an English institution, to university staff on antisemitism. Universities Scotland has advised that this is something that several Scottish HEIs are interested in exploring. You may also be aware that Universities UK produced a practical guide to tackling antisemitism in collaboration with UJS in 2021.

The Scottish Government is actively engaged in consultation with Jewish students, Jewish community organisations, and stakeholders in higher education as part of our wider approach to tackling antisemitism.

On 23 February 2022, I held a round table discussion on antisemitism in higher education with Jewish students, representatives from the Jewish community, and stakeholders from the higher education sector. The event was organised in response to a letter from UJS regarding universities and the IHRA definition of antisemitism.

It was an opportunity for students to share their experiences of antisemitism and also to hear from stakeholders about the work they are doing to confront this issue in practice. The discussion was very productive, with all parties agreeing to undertake positive actions to address antisemitism on campus going forward. A summary of the meeting will be published on the Scottish Government website, and made publicly accessible, in due course.

Alcohol and drug-related harms are important public health issues in Scotland, which is why we established a national mission to improve and save lives. At the core of which is ensuring that every individual is able to access the treatment and recovery they choose.

We are working to ensure people with alcohol use disorder continue to receive the same quality of care as those with drugs misuse. The forthcoming Alcohol Treatment Guidelines will provide support for alcohol treatment, similar to the Medication-Assisted Treatment Standards for drugs. We are also developing alcohol treatment targets alongside Stage Two of the Drugs Targets Implementation in 2024.

We announced £100 million of additional investment to increase the availability of residential rehabilitation, that will benefit people experiencing alcohol and/or drug addiction.

On 06 December 2021, we launched a campaign to address stigma experienced by people with problematic alcohol and drug use. The campaign ran across multiple media platforms.