The Scottish Government has engaged extensively with stakeholders to ensure as wide a range of views as possible were taken into consideration during the development of the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill. While there has been no engagement between Ministers and their counterparts across the United Kingdom, there has been regular contact at official level.

The Scottish Government is working to take forward the action in the Women’s Health Plan that seek to enable all patients to access mid-trimester abortion care locally or regionally. Progress has been made, with all mainland NHS Boards now offering services up to at least 20 weeks’ gestation as recommended by the 2022 Healthcare Improvement Scotland Sexual Health Standards.

The Scottish Government commissioned NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) to develop a specification to deliver a national service for abortions between 20 to 24 weeks gestation within Scotland. NSS has been discussing its specification with NHS Boards and is also exploring other delivery options for the service.

We are also working with individual NHS Boards to support clinicians who wish to receive training to deliver later stage abortions to be granted funding to do so, and to encourage NHS Boards to ensure that patients close to 20 weeks’ gestation are prioritised for appointments.

As set out in the Women’s Health Plan , we are committed to developing a menopause and menstrual health workplace policy for NHS Scotland, as an example of best practice and to promote equivalent efforts across the public, private and third sector. This policy and its supporting guides will launch at the end of October.

It aims to provide a supportive environment, where staff (in a predominately female sector) can perform at their best, in a way that supports their wellbeing and ultimately helps staff retention.

Line managers and workplace adjustment guides will also be published to supplement the policy. These guides will be available to all staff across Scotland, not just NHS Scotland employees.

Additionally, Endometriosis UK run the Endometriosis Employer Friendly Scheme and a number of employers across Scotland have signed on to the scheme. In addition, the Endometriosis UK website also hosts resources for employers and employees on how to support those with endometriosis in the workplace.

In March 2023, the Scottish Government ran an endometriosis public awareness campaign in partnership with Young Scot, targeted primarily at increasing young people’s awareness of the condition.

Following the campaign a post-evaluative survey ran to measure the impact of the information on the audience. Key statistics are as follows:

• 82% of young people agreed or strongly agreed that they are more informed about the symptoms of endometriosis
• 71% of young people agreed or strongly agreed that they are more informed about how to support someone with endometriosis
• 74% of young people agreed or strongly agreed that they would know where to get support or what steps they could take if they thought they may have endometriosis
• 97% of young people who visited young.scot/Endometriosis found it useful or very useful

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all students with a long term medical condition or additional support needs are supported as they study in further and higher education. Colleges and universities are autonomous bodies with responsibility for the management of their own student support services.

The Endometriosis Referral Care Pathway for Scotland was published by the Centre for Sustainable Delivery in January 2023 and distributed to NHS Scotland Boards.

The Forestry Grant Scheme opened for applications in 2015 as part of the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) and initially had a 7 year budget of £36m per year. The Forestry Grants budget has since been reviewed on an annual basis, as part of the wider Scottish Government Budget process, to reflect the Climate Change Plan woodland creation target and on-going legal commitments.

Forestry Grant Scheme contracts are issued by Scottish Forestry, and underspends can occur where insufficient applications are received or approved schemes are delayed. Underspends occurred in 2015-16 and 2016-17 due to insufficient applications being received in the first two years of FGS. Since then underspends have occurred in 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23, due to combination insufficient applications and delays with approved projects being implemented.

The Scottish Government does not have a formal definition for a “cluster” of farmers. The term has been used in relation to the Farming with Nature programme NatureScot delivers in partnership with the Scottish Government, specifically the Piloting an Outcomes Based Approach in Scotland (POBAS) project. The term ‘cluster’ has been used where there are a number of farms and crofts in a region participating or involved with the project. Further information on the project’s Phase 1 and Phases 2 and 3 is available on NatureScot’s website.

The current Action Plan ends in December 2023. Future plans will be informed by the review mentioned in my answer to question S6W-22193 on 26 October 2023. 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

NatureScot, through the Sea Eagle Management Scheme, delivers a range of measures to support farmers and crofters to manage sheep flocks to mitigate the impacts of sea eagle predation.

These include:

• Provision of one-to-one advice from experienced contractors to land managers experiencing sea eagle impacts
• Co-ordination of recording/logging of sea eagle activity and flock management information at a farm/croft level
• Loan of scaring equipment
• Payments to land managers who undertake management measures which mitigate sea eagle impacts as part of their livestock management, through Management Agreements.

Payments can be made for flock management (including supplementary feeding, tick and fluke treatments), enhanced management (including additional shepherding and away wintering of sheep) and capital measures (including purchase of scaring devices, creation of hill parks and support for indoor lambing).

More details are available on the NatureScot website at https://www.nature.scot/professional-advice/land-and-sea-management/managing-wildlife/sea-eagle-management-scheme