The Scottish Government remains committed to achieving the 2024 target of eliminating Hepatitis C in Scotland, whilst recognising the impact that the covid-19 pandemic has had on all our health services.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) recently published a report entitled ‘Surveillance of Hepatitis C in Scotland’ and the findings from that report indicate that major progress has been made regarding a number of Hepatitis C (HCV) elimination targets in Scotland, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic. By 2021, 80% of individuals diagnosed with chronic HCV infection in Scotland had been initiated on HCV treatment, meaning that Scotland had met the World Health Organisation Target on treatment.

PHS are also currently undertaking a piece of work to determine incidence levels across Scotland and we expect to receive that data by the end of the year. This will support decision-making on the extent and location of required interventions and resources.

Public Health Scotland produced the “Surveillance of Hepatitis C in Scotland” report earlier this month and the report indicated that major progress in Scotland has been made. By 2021, 80% of individuals diagnosed with chronic HCV infection in Scotland had been initiated on HCV treatment, meaning that Scotland had met the World Health Organisation Target on treatment.

While this is encouraging, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted progress towards the elimination target, and particularly challenged our ability to gather data needed to guide interventions. Additional prevalence data is expected before the end of this year. This will support decision-making on the extent and location of required interventions and resources.

The Scottish Government remains committed to reaching its target of eliminating Hepatitis C (HCV) in Scotland by 2024, whilst recognising the impact that the covid-19 pandemic has had across all our health services.

In 2019, the Scottish Health Protection Network established the Hepatitis C Elimination Implementation Group to oversee and monitor the implementation of the Scottish Government’s Hepatitis C Elimination Strategy. Including hard to reach populations in efforts to eliminate Hepatitis C is fundamental to the Elimination Strategy, and this issue is therefore regularly considered by the Group, which meets four times per year. Along with representatives from Scottish Government, the Group is made up of clinicians, representatives from NHS health boards, and primary care and prevention leads.

In addition, in 2021 the Scottish Government provided funding to NHS Tayside to deliver the Cocoon project, which provided point of care BBV testing and treatment to people who inject drugs, whilst integrating wound care, naloxone provision and other harm reducing measures.

The Scottish Government remains committed to achieving elimination of Hepatitis C (HCV) in Scotland by 2024. We are pleased that excellent progress has been made to date, despite the additional challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. An update on the progress of this work has recently been published by Public Health Scotland, and the report can be found here: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/media/15549/surveillance-of-hepatitis-c-in-scotland-oct22.pdf

Clinicians and carers across Scotland are encouraged to identify those with risk factors for HCV and test them. To support this activity, the Hepatitis C Clinical Leads Group of the Scottish Health Protection Network (SHPN) published Recommendations on Hepatitis C Virus Case-finding and Access to Care in 2019, and this can be found at: https://hps.scot.nhs.uk/web-resources-container/recommendations-on-hepatitis-c-virus-case-finding-and-access-to-care/

In 2019, NHS Tayside were world-leading in eliminating HCV within their Health Board area, a key part of their strategy involved innovative testing models using community pharmacy. Officials are exploring what a national roll out of that approach requires.

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.

Further to this, the introduction of the Improving the Cancer Journey scheme provides all adults diagnosed with cancer with the opportunity to be referred to a link officer under the joint partnership. The link officer will complete a Holistic Needs Assessment and will generate a care plan to meet the needs identified. This programme is the first of its kind in the UK. It looks to ensure that every cancer patient who can access emotional, financial and practical support. Local community assets can at this stage be identified and utilised to support the service user in meeting their needs.

There are no plans at this time to carry out a full review of the Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) however the Scottish Government has recently liaised with all Health Boards to discuss the implementation of the fund following its first full year of operation. Health Boards also routinely provide data on uptake to support the Scottish Government monitoring processes.

Those claiming under the YPFF are not required to specify the diagnosis of the young inpatient when making a claim. Therefore the Scottish Government does not propose to use YPFF monitoring or evaluation work to inform our support for young cancer patients and their families.

With respect to what further support is needed to support young cancer patients and their families, I refer the member to S6W-11449 on 4 November 2022.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The number of resident places by funding category (i.e. self-funded/publicly funded) is not available. However, Public Health Scotland have published the estimated number of long stay residents in care homes for older people by funding category and by local authority since 2009.

a) i) This information is not held centrally and is not published by Public Health Scotland.

a) ii) These figures are available in two parts:

The latest Public Health Scotland Care Home Census for adults publication contains figures from 2012 - 2022. The figures can be found in the “Funding and Charges” section of the dashboard.

The Public Health Scotland Care Home Census for adults 2020 publication contains figures from 2009 – 2011. The figures can be found in Table 13C of the accompanying Care Home Census Data Tables.

b) i) This information is not held centrally and is not published by Public Health Scotland.

b) ii) These figures are available in two parts:

The latest Public Health Scotland Care Home Census for adults publication contains figures from 2012 - 2022. The figures can be found in the “Funding and Charges” section of the dashboard.

The Public Health Scotland Care Home Census for adults 2020 publication contains figures from 2009 – 2011. The figures can be found in Table 13C of the accompanying Care Home Census Data Tables.

The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting all survivors of childhood abuse. We are currently considering the evidence, findings and recommendations which have come out of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in England and Wales, and will do the same for the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry when it reports the outcome of its investigations in due course. The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry continues to investigate the abuse of children in care in Scotland.

The Scottish Government provides funding to Local Government annually through the Local Government settlement. This is made up of a combination of the general revenue grant, general capital grant, income from non-domestic rates as well as specific revenue and capital grants.

Included in the table (BIB 63725) is the Local Government budget following the annual Spring Budget Revision ('SBR') as a proportion of both the Scottish Governments total fiscal budget excluding FTs (i.e. its discretionary spending limit) as well as its Total Managed expenditure. Note that the SBR budget figure does not include amounts provided by other portfolios via grant funding to local government.

Given the changes in the Scottish Governments devolved powers since devolution it is not possible to draw a direct comparison between the funding levels since 1999. To illustrate this point we would note that in 2013-14 funding of over £1bn in respect of Police and Fire was removed from Local Government.