Questions. We received 383 words in reply. We’ll ask the questions again next week

be developed to her satisfaction and that high vigilance procedures needed to be put in place in every board – actions that were set out in Parliament in September. That halt remains in place and the health secretary has repeatedly stated there is no prospect of it being lifted. As has already been set out, a meeting of accountable officers in February summarised their high vigilance scrutiny and observed that no new transvaginal mesh operations were being carried out, but that mesh removals were being performed. At the meeting, in discussion of the concept of a Restricted Use Protocol, the group ‘…agreed that when the future nature of the service is more certain, it will be helpful to get clear direction and guidance from the Scottish Government.’ As the health secretary reiterated in Parliament this week, she has not asked for any planning to be carried out on the reintroduction of mesh. She also set out that she has given clear direction and guidance that the halt will not be lifted, and that she can see no circumstances in which that position would change. The mesh complication group that Jeane Freeman asked to be created in March was tasked with explicitly working to improve mesh complication services and it has taken forward a number of pieces of work toward that – including beginning work to create a national complex case unit to assist women affected by mesh complications. Any suggestion that this group was set up to reintroduce mesh is entirely false and without foundation. In Parliament this week the health secretary repeated her thanks to the Scottish mesh survivors group. The halt in the use of mesh instructed by the health secretary came as a direct response to their work and campaigning. With the halt in place the women have rightly sought the attention and care that they themselves are due. As a result, the health secretary has instigated steps to improve mesh complication services in Scotland, including by seeking to bring Dr Veronikis here to provide treatment and training.