I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-36532 on 29 April 2025. 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 Scottish Government is not aware of any actions to investigate the reported number of people exposed to diethystilbesterol (also known as DES or stilbesterol).

The regulation for the licensing, safety and efficacy of medicines is reserved to the UK Government and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-36341 on 22 April 2025. 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

Applications for fishing gear, which is the subject of assistance through the Marine Fund Scotland, are considered against the aims of the Fisheries Management Strategy with further input where required from Marine Directorate fishing technology and science leads. Projects are also subject to Post Project Monitoring, where applicants are asked to confirm whether the gear has achieved the intended outcomes such as greater selectivity & sustainability.

The question does not reference the actual public satisfaction survey. The most recent survey, the British Social Attitudes survey report is for the whole of the UK. It does not have a particular locus for dental services in Scotland.

The Member is instead referred to Official statistics from Public Health Scotland at: NHS dental data monitoring report - Quarter Ending December 2024 - NHS dental data monitoring report - Publications - Public Health Scotland

The most recent findings show that in February, over 4.1 million courses of treatment were delivered to Scotland patients in 2024 under the new payment system, and over 900,000 patients were seen by an NHS dentist in the last quarter of 2024. This shows that the significant and continuing investment made in NHS dentistry is supporting high volumes of patient access to NHS care and delivering on our aims to sustain NHS dental services.

We also remain the only country in the UK to offer free dental examinations for everyone in Scotland, ensuring that cost is not a barrier to accessing care.

Extensive work is ongoing to improve coordination of public services as part of our commitment to public service reform. We will support all areas to follow the Getting It Right for Everyone model of person-centred services (GIRFE). This model brings the person, their families, carers and all service providers together to devise a package of care and support in a joined-up, holistic manner across various services and agencies to achieve the best outcomes for individuals. In December 2024 we published the GIRFE toolkit and Health Boards are now required to set out how they will embed the GIRFE principles and toolkit in NHS Annual Delivery Plans for the organisation and delivery of their services. In addition, we are establishing the new National Care Service Advisory Board to improve social care, social work and community health services.

More specifically to support individuals with complex co-occurring mental health and substance use issues we commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to create a gold-standard protocol that sets out how these services should work together, which has now been published. HIS are now working to support areas across the country to develop and implement their own protocols. We are also supporting Mental Health Officers (MHOs), who assess and support individuals with mental health conditions and are pivotal to integrated health and social care services. Actions underway include undertaking workforce planning initiatives to address shortfall in MHOs, developing a pilot exercise to reduce administrative burden, and developing a scheme to harness the potential of AI powered tools to support reporting and reduce associated workloads.

Scottish Government officials met with environmental and conservation stakeholders on at least 55 occasions and with fishing stakeholders on at least 65 occasions in a range of different forums to discuss Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) from 1 January 2022 until 18 April 2025.

The NHS in Scotland holds data on the prescribing of diethylstilbestrol (otherwise known as DES or stilbestrol) in both primary care and secondary care.

Data on primary care usage of medicines is published and available on the Public Health Scotland website Show all releases - Publications - Public Health Scotland. Data on secondary usage is not routinely published.

Provision of medical first aid at a major sporting event is the event organisers’ responsibility which, in this instance, is the Glasgow 2026 Organising Company.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with event organisers to ensure that Scottish Ambulance Service, NHS Boards and Public Health Scotland are appropriately engaged in planning groups for major sporting events.

Public sector health colleagues work meticulously with the event organisers and any procured private first aid and ambulance services to ensure adequate first aid and health care is provided to event participants, workforce and spectators, in line with guidance and requirements as set out in the Green and Purple Guides.

The Green Guide, or ‘Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds’, provides guidance on safety at sports grounds for stadium operators and event organisers. The Purple Guide is aimed at event organisers who are responsible for managing health and safety and at events in more general terms.

Screening policy in Scotland is based on recommendations from the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an expert advisory group which advises the UK nations on all aspects of screening. The UK NSC reviewed the starting age for cervical screening in 2013 and recommended it should be increased from 20 to 25. The Scottish cervical screening programme therefore offers routine screening to women and people with a cervix who are aged between 25 and 64.

Since 2008, the HPV vaccination has also been offered to women under 25, which provides immunity to the virus that causes the majority of cases of cervical cancer. No cervical cancers have been found in those vaccinated in Scotland.

Nonetheless, in August 2021, the then Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health, Maree Todd, wrote to the UK NSC to ask them to keep the merits of lowering the age for cervical screening under review. To date, the evidence continues to support cervical screening beginning at the age of 25; a study found that for every 100,000 women invited for screening from the age of 20, an extra 8,000 women would need further investigation and 3,000 more would have unnecessary and potentially harmful treatment.