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The Scottish Government is aware of the study which considered the effect that increasing vitamin B3 in the diet had on preventing malformations in the growing foetus.

We understand the long term positive effects that good nutrition can have for pregnant women that is why we have introduced the universal offer of Healthy Start vitamins to pregnant women throughout their pregnancy. These vitamins contain the recommended daily dose, which contains vitamins C and D and folic acid to support a healthy pregnancy.

We will work with stakeholders to monitor the impact of expansion of early years workers on other areas of the social services workforce and to consider what action might be beneficial, in the light of any significant impacts identified.

Attracting and retaining the right people, and raising the status of social care as a profession, is key to delivering quality care. That’s why we have taken action to protect our social care services, including paying the Living Wage to adult care workers.

We support our public body, the Scottish Social Services Council, in their work to help and promote recruitment in the sector, which includes the development of foundation and modern apprenticeships, Career Ambassadors and a range of resources for those providing careers advice.

Follow-up appointments are dependent on the judgement of clinicians and their discussion with patients. Information on return patients is not collected centrally. ISD contacted each NHS Board around the feasibility of providing return waiting times for Chronic Pain and currently only two are collecting this data locally. This information is not submitted to ISD by these Boards.

Scotland is the only nation in the UK to regularly publish chronic pain waiting time statistics, and this data is already helping boards to improve services and reduce waiting times.

The GP Recruitment and Retention fund was set up to explore with key stakeholders, the issues surrounding GP recruitment and retention. The programme has examined and taken forward proposals to increase the number of medical students choosing to go into GP training, as well as encouraging those wanting to work in rural and economically deprived areas. To date this has resulted in a number of initiatives directly recruiting GPs as part of their test of change and numbers are reflected in the following table by health board area:

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The fund is also supporting a range of initiatives including the establishment of a Scottish Rural Medicine Collaborative involving ten NHS Boards. This initiative will bring together recruitment strategies and support networks for GPs working in remote and rural areas; GPST bursaries for hard to fill places; Development of a new national GP recruitment website to be hosted and managed by NSS that will act as a one stop shop for GP recruitment across Scotland; and continued support for the NES Enhanced Returners scheme which supports GPs wishing to return to the profession. In Scotland over 90% of the 1082 GP Training places are now filled.

This information is not centrally held.

It is the responsibility of Health and Social Care Partnerships to plan and deliver services for their area using the integrated budgets under their control. This includes hospice and palliative and end of life care services.

In 2015, the year before integration went live, the Scottish Government published statutory guidance on strategic commissioning setting out that each Partnership's strategic commissioning plan should be based upon a Strategic Needs Assessment of local people, including those with palliative and end of life care needs. Within this wider context NHS Boards remain responsible for the procurement of palliative and end of life services, including those provided by Hospices.

Last year we announced funding of £30 million over five years to address the specific issue of support for children and young people’s palliative and end of life care needs. This investment brings funding for children's hospice services in line with that provided for adult hospice services.

This information is not centrally held.

The Scottish Atlas of Palliative Care, which was published in September 2016, provides Scotland specific data on levels, location and types of specialist palliative care services across Scotland which has previously been subsumed within UK data. The Atlas can be found at:

Additionally, the Children's Hospice Across Scotland (CHAS) published the Children in Scotland requiring Palliative Care (CHiSP) study in October 2015. This study sets out the numbers of children and young people in Scotland with palliative care needs and generated evidence to support the planning and delivery of paediatric palliative care in Scotland. The CHiSP study can be accessed at:

Guidance for the procurement of palliative and end of life services, including those provided by independent adult hospices, is set out in Chief Executive Letter, CEL 12 (2012). The CEL makes clear that funding of mutually agreed specialist palliative care services should be reached by NHS Boards and independent adult hospices on a 50% calculation of agreed costs.

Last year we announced funding of £30 million over five years to address the specific issue of support for children and young people’s palliative and end of life care needs. This investment brings funding for children's hospice services in line with that provided for adult hospice services.

The information requested is not held centrally.

I receive requests from NHSScotland staff on a regular basis to discuss a wide range of matters. All meeting requests are considered on a case by case basis but are not recorded by the employment or whistleblowing status of the individual requesting the meeting.

The recording of requests from NHSScotland staff to meet Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Care Inspectorate are matters for these bodies to determine.

Under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, prescribed bodies or persons are independent bodies or individuals who whistleblowers can approach to make a ‘protected disclosure’ rather than their employer. Depending on the nature of the concern, these are usually scrutiny or legislative bodies and include Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. This information would require to be requested from individual health boards.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of people from Scotland treated by the NHS in the rest of the UK, or on the number of people from the rest of the UK treated by the NHS in Scotland.

Reciprocal arrangements between NHS bodies in Scotland and the UK are managed by individual health boards. The information requested would require to be obtained from individual health boards.