NHS Lanarkshire is responsible for the delivery of primary care services in Lanarkshire.

The headcount of GPs in Scotland is now sitting consistently at over 5,000, with an increase of 271 additional GPs since 2017 towards our 800 target. Training new GPs is key to our approach, and this takes time. We have expanded GP Specialty Training, adding 35 places this academic year and a further 35 places next year. As a result there are currently just over 1,200 trainee GPs in Scotland.

GP training programmes in Scotland have been filling at a very high level since 2019, with 99% posts filled in 2022 and 100% filled in 2023. 2023 is the first year in which GPST has filled at 100% in Scotland, with all 343 posts having filled.

We also invest over £1m per annum in a range of recruitment and retention initiatives so that becoming a GP remains an attractive career choice.

a) The annual Scottish Health Survey (SHeS) measures physical activity in children from the ages 2 to 15, young people from the age of 16 are captured in adult data. Questions are asked on the subjects of walking, frequency of physical activity, physical activity at school, sports participation and sedentary time. Data is also captured on gender, age and socio-economic status, including deprivation.

b) The Scottish Government recognise the many benefits derived from being active, and investment is being used to drive equality, diversity and inclusion in the sporting system. The Scottish Government work with sportscotland, our national agency for sport, in partnerships with Scottish Governing Bodies of sport (SGBs), local authorities, leisure trusts, sports clubs and community organisations, schools, colleges and universities to provide opportunities for all to participate in sport and physical activity, to break down the barriers, financial or otherwise, that keep too many people from leading active lives.

a) The annual Scottish Health Survey (SHeS) measures physical activity of children from the ages 2 to 15, young people from the age of 16 are captured in adult data. Questions are asked on the subject of walking, frequency of physical activity, physical activity at school, sports participation and sedentary time. Data is also captured on gender, age and socio-economic status, including deprivation.

b) The Scottish Government understand the importance of sport and physical activity for women and girls in Scotland and the positive impact that has on their physical, mental, and social health across all stages in life.

Scottish Women and Girls in Sport Week is an annual Scottish Government campaign which provides an opportunity to celebrate the ways in which women and girls take part in sport and physical activity and increases visibility and participation, highlighting the impact and health benefits it brings to their physical, mental and social health.

Active Schools, one of sportscotland’s flagship programmes, provides more opportunities for children and young people to take part in sport and physical activity, and develops effective pathways between schools and sports clubs in the local community.

In the 2022-23 academic year, the Active Schools programme successfully engaged with over 124,000 girls and young women who made over 2 million visits to Active Schools sport and physical activity sessions. This was an increase of 35% in the number of visits by girls and young women from the previous year.

Fit for Girls is a national programme developed in partnership between sportscotland and the Youth Sport Trust delivered to girls aged between 11 and 18. The workshops aim to inspire and empower girls and young women to create local change in their school, club, and community by developing their self-esteem and confidence so they can inspire more girls to start, maintain, or return to sport and physical activity.

Decisions on clinical pathways are not for the Scottish Government. These decisions are for clinicians, based on the best evidence available, through the appropriate clinical governance structures.

On 18 April, in a joint statement, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lothian confirmed that both Boards have paused any new prescription of puberty-supressing hormones and cross-sex hormones for young people as a treatment option for gender dysphoria.

The small number of patients directly impacted by this change, and their families, were notified in advance of this statement. It is right that they were the first to hear about it, sensitively and from the services caring for them, before a public statement was made.

In the context of specialist provision of gender identity healthcare to children and young people, since publication of its Strategic Action Framework for Gender Identity Service improvement in December 2021, the Scottish Government has maintained an extensive dialogue with NHS Health Boards in Scotland on how to collectively work to improve healthcare provision in this sphere.

On 18 April, in a joint statement, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lothian confirmed that both Boards have paused any new prescription of puberty-supressing hormones and cross-sex hormones for young people as a treatment option for gender dysphoria.

The small number of patients directly impacted by this change, and their families, were notified in advance of this statement. It is right that they were the first to hear about it, sensitively and from the services caring for them, before a public statement was made.

Parliamentary business is a matter for the Scottish Parliament’s Parliamentary Bureau and the Parliament itself.

The Scottish Government is not responsible for the assessment of abandoned calls to NHS 24 which is an operational matter for the Board. We monitor NHS 24 performance against a number of indicators on a weekly basis.

Calls to the 111 service can be abandoned for a variety of reasons, including callers choosing to end their call after being connected to the automated messaging service and hearing the options available to them. These include accessing self-care advice via NHS Inform, or contacting another area of the health service which may be more appropriate to meet their needs.

The Scottish Government continues to support NHS 24's ongoing work to help reduce abandoned calls, including a recent revision of NHS 24's key performance indicators to better reflect and understand the current demands on the service. This work allows the Service to capture any unmet demand, and any potential risks where callers have made multiple attempts to access 111 without success.

The information requested on how many full-time equivalent administrative support posts provide support to consultants across the NHS is not centrally available.

Since Sept 2007, administrative services have increased by 21.5% or by 5,316.9 WTE, from 24,737.2 WTE as at Sept 2007 to 30,054.1 WTE as at Dec 2023.

Support to clinical staff, up 45.4% since Sept 2007 to 9,600.5 WTE as at Dec 2023.

Further Information on the administrative services workforce, can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: 05 March 2024 Workforce | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot)

The information that has been requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The information that has been requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.