Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to continuing its work on raising awareness of Lyme disease and ticks.

The public awareness sub-group, established following roundtable events in April and June 2021, includes a wide range of representatives, from organisations including Visit Scotland, the Lyme Resource Centre, and Ramblers Scotland. The group has met several times and has most recently developed key messages for the Community Pharmacy Public Health Messaging Poster Campaign which will run for a 4 week period from 30 May 2022.

In addition, the Scottish Government will continue to use its own platforms to highlight the need to be tick aware and to set out the signs and symptoms of possible infection.

The Group is considering further options for short- and long-term strategies to implement messaging around Lyme disease, including the use of appropriate signage for visitors to parks and other recreational areas, together with messaging for the wider public. All materials produced, or campaigns undertaken will be designed around the key messages of; identification, how to protect yourself, and safe removal of ticks, as well as signs and symptoms of possible Lyme disease infection and where to seek treatment.

The Scottish Government and COSLA agreed a joint funding model in 2018 to support the training of new Educational Psychologists. This model was agreed and developed by the National Scottish Steering Group for Educational Psychologists (NSSGEP), which the Scottish Government chairs. This group includes representation from professional bodies, ADES, COSLA and EIS.

The model consists of two stages. Stage one is a 2-year MSc in Educational Psychology at Dundee University. Tuition fees are fully funded and students are entitled to receive a living-costs grant of £15,000 from SAAS.

In Stage two, trainees are employed by a local authority for a year, during which they complete the Qualification in Educational Psychology (QEP). During this year, their living-costs grant is paid in the form of a salary. In addition, their membership fees for the British Psychological Society (BPS) are paid.

As local authority employees, trainees are liable for tax and national insurance, but also benefit from employment rights including paid annual leave and the option to join a pension scheme. The Scottish Government agreed with the NSSGEP that employment in a local authority offers the experience and support needed for trainees in their third year.

As with all our major trunk road projects, Transport Scotland carried out a rigorous assessment process to establish the preferred line for the A82 Tarbet to Inverarnan scheme. This three-stage assessment process is based on the standards and good practice set by the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB), and covers environmental, engineering, traffic and economic considerations. Value for Money Reviews were carried out during each stage of the DMRB assessment process and I can confirm that all route options considered for the scheme were subject to this process. This has helped to ensure that scheme objectives are achieved while optimising value for money in terms of the potential costs, benefits, and risks. Further details on each stage in the assessment process is available from the project pages on the Transport Scotland website at https://www.transport.gov.scot/projects/a82-tarbet-to-inverarnan/project-details/ .

The Scottish Government supports Police Scotland’s international activity which involves reaching out to all parts of the world, including Colombia. This activity supports the prevention of crime at source and ensures the sharing of best practice in policing in order to help the stabilisation of communities beyond our borders. All Police Scotland activity is underpinned by a human rights-based approach which has a strong focus on community engagement. Central to that is an emphasis on de-escalating conflict and ensuring that the right to protest can be freely and peacefully exercised.

We set up the super sponsor scheme to remove the need for displaced people from Ukraine to have to apply for a visa with a named person as sponsor. When applying for their visa, displaced people can only select one sponsor – so they can select the Scottish Government as their sponsor or a specific individual host. Selecting the Scottish Government allows people to apply for their visa straight away, and not wait to be matched with an individual host. It also ensures that people are accommodated safely when they arrive, before being matched to longer-term accommodation.

N95 face masks are not used in the UK. The Scottish Government has considered the use of Respiratory Protective Equipment (FFP3) for those on the Highest risk list in community settings, including those who are immunosuppressed and there isn’t sufficient evidence to confirm the benefits as well as possible disadvantages. Care is needed to ensure that people don’t use wrongly or misunderstand the protection they provide in different settings.

Student nurses entering Scottish Government funded degree programmes will increase by 9% in 2022-23, to a total recommended intake of 4536 students. This will be the 10 th successive increase in recommended student numbers, with the intake doubling over the last decade. We anticipate most of these students will be eligible for the Paramedic, Nursing and Midwifery Student Bursary.

Every year, the Scottish Government undertakes a robust nursing student intake planning process to determine the target number of pre-registration students to which Scottish universities should recruit to in the following academic year to meet estimated future nursing workforce demands.

The Programme for Government (PfG) 2021 commits to expanding medical school places by at least 100 per annum over this lifetime of this Parliament and doubling the number of widening access places. The medical undergraduate intake for 2022-23 has been set at 1317, of which it is anticipated that 1,239 students will be Scots/UK/ROI or Gibraltar and 78 will be international including EU. This intake represents an increase of 200 places above the 2021/22 intake target of 1,117 thereby delivering the first two tranches of the PfG commitment.

The Scottish Government is committed to growing the number of Scottish domiciled students studying medicine at Scottish universities as a policy priority through widening access and other targeted interventions. Places reserved for widening access students are being increased by 30 (bringing the total to 90) and pre-medical entry places are being increased by 20 (bringing the total to 70 places) in 2022-23.

Intake targets for 2023-24 and 2024-25 have not yet been set but will be considered in light of the PfG commitment.

As postgraduate medical students do not form part of the controlled medical school intake the Scottish Government is unable to respond.

Universities are independent, autonomous institutions responsible for their own selection procedures and offers, with intake numbers and the breakdown of these a decision for each individual medical schools.

Attrition rates vary each year across all degree programmes, it is therefore not possible to predict attrition rates for future cohorts. However, we have observed that course completion rates for pre-registration nursing programmes have been steadily improving year-on-year, and we anticipate that this trend will continue.