Scottish Government

To work with Ministers, our delivery partners and other stakeholders to protect and improve public health, promote sport and physical activity and to support the generation of robust evidence; and to oversee the clinical effectiveness of healthcare services in Scotland.

• Contribute to improving the mental and physical wellbeing of people in Scotland, with particular emphasis on continuing reductions in the incidence of coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer and alcoholic liver disease and increasing participation in sport and levels of physical activity in support of the NHS Quality Strategy.
• Contribute to reducing health inequalities, through cross-Government and cross-sector work leading to changes in the underlying causes of such inequalities.
• Promote and facilitate improvements in priority risk factors and health-related behaviours in line with NHS Quality Strategy regarding smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity, sexual activity, accidental injury and violence.
• Protect the people of Scotland from new and existing communicable diseases and environmental hazards through effective and resilient health protection services; effective disease surveillance and outbreak management; immunisation; and screening programmes.
• Continue to support improvements in the clinical quality of primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare, in line with the NHS Quality Strategy and our commitments to patient safety, including in relation to Healthcare Associated Infections, as well as the development of new approaches to death certification.
• Continuing investment in research and research capacity, with particular emphasis on supporting research relevant to the NHS.
• Undertake a lead role in the ongoing measurement and interpretation of trends in health and disease.