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Our Health and Social Care Delivery Plan published in December 2016 sets out our aim for Scotland to provide high quality services with a focus on prevention, early intervention and supported self-management. The plan sits alongside our National Clinical Strategy, which evidenced the need to change the way services are delivered in order to continue meet the healthcare needs of our population, setting out the framework for developing health services in Scotland for the next 10-20 years, including people living with Chronic Respiratory Disease.

Respiratory Managed Clinical Networks exist in most NHS Boards, bringing together healthcare professionals from primary, secondary and tertiary care. They work with people affected by respiratory conditions including occupational lung disease to deliver high quality, person centred treatment and services, following national and local guidelines.

The Scottish Government is working closely with the Respiratory National Advisory Group on the development of a Respiratory Health: Quality Improvement Plan for Scotland. This plan will provide a framework to NHS Boards in the prevention, early detection and treatment of respiratory conditions, within Scotland, including the referral and diagnosis of Occupational Lung Disease.

Regulation of occupational health and safety is an issue reserved to the UK Government. The Health and Safety Executive provides an extensive range of advice to employers on the risks of respiratory and other occupational diseases. 

The Scottish Government funds the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives to promote health, safety and wellbeing in the workplace. The Centre provides a wide range of advice and information on occupational health and safety as well as signposting to other resources such as the HSE's. This advice is accessible to employers, employees and healthcare professionals.

NHS Health Protection advice is that vulnerable people, such as the very young and old and those with respiratory or immune conditions should stay away from mould and damp. If they feel they are unavoidably exposed to mould and damp and their symptoms persist, they should consult with medical professionals.

Under the statutory minimum tolerable standard for all housing, homes must be substantially free from rising damp or penetrating damp. Local authorities have a statutory duty to address any housing which falls below the tolerable standard.

People living in rented accommodation should in the first instance report issues with dampness to their landlords. Both social and private landlords have responsibility to ensure the homes their tenants live in are in a good state of repair. My answers to Parliamentary questions S5W-08573 and S5W-08576 on 18 April 2017 also refer.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at .

Compliance with the public sector equality duty is a matter for individual public bodies. The Scottish specific duties set by Scottish Ministers set a framework which helps public bodies to comply with the duty. This includes a requirement to set equality outcomes every four years and regularly publish reports on progress. Scottish Ministers also have a duty to support the better performance of the public sector equality duty which is actioned through the Scottish National Equality Improvement Project (SNEIP). As part of the SNEIP 2013-17 an event was held on 10 September 2015 on gathering and using employee data. The event was aimed at improving performance and used case studies to share learning and journeys of improvement. Progress on meeting the public sector equality duty is monitored by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Occupational health and safety legislation is reserved to the UK Government and regulation is the responsibility of the Health and Safety Executive.

Employers have a statutory duty of care to their employees to carry out occupational risk assessments and put in place appropriate mitigation measures.

The Scottish Government funds the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives, part of NHS Health Scotland, to provide a wide range of advice for employers to promote health, safety and wellbeing in the workplace. This includes information on health and safety as well as managing a supporting sickness absence and return to work.

The Scottish Government has recognised that there needs to be a staged approach to the elimination of hepatitis C. Following advice from the Hepatitis C Treatment and Therapies Group, the Scottish Government Group has set a target to reduce hepatitis C related liver failure incidence between 2015 and 2020 by 75%. This is one of the most aggressive approaches of any country in the world in relation to the elimination of hepatitis C as a serious public health concern. This target and Scotland’s approach to the management of hepatitis C is being reviewed annually by the Hepatitis C Treatment and Therapies Group and the next meeting is planned for Summer 2017.

The Scottish Government has interpreted this question to relate only to occupational lung health guidance specific to NHS Scotland and not wider guidelines that fall to agencies such as the Health & Safety Executive (HSE).

In diagnosing people with occupational lung conditions we expect NHS Boards to take account of relevant national and local clinical guidelines and standards, including those in Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) Guideline 153 on the management of asthma and National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE) Quality Standard QS25.

SIGN guidelines are derived from a systematic review of the scientific literature and are designed to accelerate the translation of new knowledge into practice. SIGN updates published guideline when important new evidence is identified. Any group or individual may propose a guideline topic to SIGN and their selection process is detailed at:

The British Thoracic Society (BTS) works with its members and healthcare professionals to develop and issue guidelines regarding standards of care for people who have respiratory diseases. The updating of these guidelines are the responsibility of the appropriate reviewing body within BTS.

While policies, frameworks and resources are provided by the Scottish Government, individual NHS Boards are responsible for planning and funding services in their area and for recruiting the staff to deliver them. It is for NHS Boards to determine their workforce requirements, including provision of training and continuous professional development opportunities, based on the clinical needs and service developments in their area.

Respiratory Managed Clinical Networks (RMCN) exist in most NHS Boards in Scotland. They work to improve the respiratory health and quality of life of patients, ensuring that they have equitable access to high quality respiratory services.

The Respiratory National Advisory Group (RNAG) is an overarching group for the RMCNs to identify and discuss improvements in respiratory care and includes third sector representation.