The Scottish Government recognises the importance of health research and its contribution to improving patient outcomes and delivering improvements to patient care. Through the Chief Scientist Office the Scottish Government invests over £60m each year into health research. This resource is used to support and encourage research excellence. NHS Research Scotland supports clinical trials across the spectrum of medical conditions with further funding provided to support clinical research networks and research units.

Funding to support research is provided by research grant awards. These researcher led awards are not restricted to any particular clinical area and cover the full clinical spectrum. Further support to Scottish based research is provided by the access given to Scottish based researchers to the National Institute of Health Research.

Recent specific funded research by the Chief Scientist Office in respect to Cystic Fibrosis has been:

Although not the main funder, there are 15 other relevant active research studies in Scotland which are supported both financially and in kind by NHS Research Scotland. These trials recruit adults and children across Scotland.

People living with cystic fibrosis can access a range of appropriate services via their local NHS Boards, Integrated Joint Boards and a national service. Specialist services for people with cystic fibrosis are delivered via the nationally designated service across 3 specialist centres around the country – in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh. There is also an outreach service in Dundee. The national service shares treatment protocols and guidelines in order to maintain high standards of care across Scotland.

Additionally, there is a National Managed Clinical Network for paediatric cystic fibrosis with well-established transition into adult services.

This information is not held centrally.

We have heard from individuals and organisations that there is too much focus on physical disability within the current system. We are committed to taking a different approach to social security in Scotland. We are designing our new social security system with the help of the Disability and Carers Benefits Expert Advisory Group, our reference groups and our Experience Panels, which involve over 2,400 people with recent experience of benefits and with their assistance will ensure that both mental and physical disabilities are treated equally. This includes the assessment of disability benefits from application all the way through to final decision.

The core principles of dignity, respect and fairness will be at the heart of delivery of the social security system in Scotland. The Social Security (Scotland) Bill embeds these principles, including a commitment to a human-rights based approach.

Over 2,000 people with recent experience of benefits have volunteered to join our Experience Panels. They will help us design, build and improve the new system including the application process and the language we use. We are also consulting our ill-health and disability stakeholder groups on the use of inclusive language.

We are investing up to £5 million from the cancer strategy to tackle inequalities in access to screening, and work is now underway to set up an Inequalities Network to develop innovative strategies and share learning to increase uptake amongst those least likely to participate in the cervical screening programme.

Officials work closely with Cervical Screening Coordinators from all NHS Boards to develop initiatives to improve uptake for all women and to promote cervical screening services by communicating effectively with a range of audiences. Recent local initiatives to increase cervical screening coverage include drop in clinics for women from disadvantaged backgrounds, dedicated staff working with women with learning difficulties to facilitate cervical screening and assist during appointments, and clinics engaging with homeless women and those seeking help for drug and alcohol use.

We encourage all women between the ages of 25 and 64 to take up their invitation for cervical cancer screening. It saves around 5,000 lives in the UK every year and prevents 8 out of 10 cervical cancers from developing. We are working towards increasing participation in the cervical screening programme and are investing up to £5 million from the cancer strategy to reduce inequalities in access to screening.

We also know that almost all cervical cancer is caused by HPV. Uptake rates for the HPV vaccination programme in Scotland continue to exceed 80% and we will continue our efforts to ensure that Scottish girls benefit from this vaccine, which will save lives.

Whilst the HPV vaccine offers protection against the most common causes of cervical cancer it does not protect against all types of HPV that cause cervical cancer. Therefore, the combination of the vaccination and attending cervical screening from 25 years of age will offer the best possible protection against cervical cancer.

Scotland has a low incidence of respiratory tuberculosis (TB). A total of 315 cases of TB were reported to the Enhanced Surveillance of Mycobacterial Infections (ESMI) scheme in 2015, representing an annual incidence of 5.9 cases per 100,000 population. This was a decrease of 10% in the number of cases and 9.2% in the annual incidence when compared with 2014.

This represents a fifth consecutive decrease in numbers and incidence of TB cases reported since 2010 and is the lowest number of cases and incidence reported since enhanced surveillance began in 2000. In addition, accepted indicators of both recent and ongoing TB transmission also decreased in 2015, suggesting that TB transmission may be reducing in Scotland.

The Scottish Health Protection Network Respiratory Infections Group comprising the SG, HPS and a range of experts from across Scotland are working to ensure the implementation of the recommendations of the 2011 A TB Action Plan for Scotland to further reduce incidence rates.

As part of our disability action plan published in December last year we have committed to run a disability employment media campaign. This was launched on 6^th July 2017 and is specifically targeted at Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. The campaign highlights the benefits of employing disabled people, and signposts employers, as well as potential employees, to the Employability in Scotland website where they can find advice, guidance and support, as well as information of which organisations provide this, and where employers can find financial support to employ someone with a disability. The campaign will include new video materials to promote these messages, as well as a radio campaign and other media including social media.

In our action plan we also committed to holding a major congress on disability employment, which is likely to take place early in 2018. We will work closely with partners to deliver this, and that will include also employers and employer trade organisations and bodies. We will also work with trade unions, disabled people and organisations supporting disabled people.

The Scottish Government funds the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives, part of NHS Health Scotland, to provide information and advice on workplace health and wellbeing. The Centre, and the network of advisers in territorial NHS Boards, offer free and confidential advice on a wide range of issues relating to health and safety in the workplace. This includes promoting wellbeing in the workplace, managing sickness absence and supporting employees to return to work.

The Centre's advice includes how employers can meet their obligations under the Equality Act and how they can make reasonable adjustments to support employees with long term, limiting health conditions and disabilities.

In December 2016, the Scottish Government launched A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People—Our Delivery Plan to 2021 for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which includes £3 million of funding for the active and independent living improvement programme. That programme helps to ensure that those who develop health conditions such as arthritis while in employment can find the support that they need to stay in work. From April this year, we have been using devolved employability powers to provide Scottish employment services for disabled people and people with long-term health conditions to help them to find work and to stay in work. We have also committed to exploring new ways of integrating health, disability and employment support in Scotland to ensure that people can find their way quickly to the tailored and person-centred support that they need.