Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not routinely provide funding for Public Access Defibrillators (PAD). The purchase of PADs is usually through fundraising in the community, from charitable sources or business resources. Charities and organisations including the British Heart Foundation provide access to subsidised defibrillators.

In March this year, the Save a Life for Scotland (SALFS) partnership published an updated Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest strategy and a key part of this programme of work is to ensure mapping, maintenance and accessibility of defibrillators.

The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) is committed to supporting and improving the use of defibrillators across Scotland. SAS support and advice on Public Access Defibrillators (PAD) is available to any council, community, organisation or business from their community resilience teams. Further information can be found at:

www.scottishambulance.com/YourCommunity/Default.aspx .

We would encourage anyone wishing to install a PAD to work with a community group, if possible a specific community PAD group, who will offer support should a PAD be vandalised.

Attendance and absence figures for 2020-21 are currently based on daily management information and has only been subjected to limited quality checking.

Bearing this in mind, since March 2021, this data shows that:

Primary Schools

• 26.1% of primary pupils were not in school more than 10% of the time
• 1.0% of primary pupils were not in school more than 50% of the time

Secondary Schools

• 50.1% of secondary pupils were not in school more than 10% of the time
• 5.0% of secondary pupils were not in school more than 50% of the time

Only pupils who had a total of at least 50 half day openings have been included in the analysis (note: where half-day sessions refer to mornings/afternoons when schools were providing learning), which was based on daily management information from 15 March 2021 – 2 April 2021 (inclusive - primary schools only) and 12 April 2021 – 25 June 2021 (inclusive - primary and secondary schools). Note that between 15 March 2021 and 2 April 2021 secondary schools were still closed to most pupils. As such, this period has not been included in the analysis for secondary schools.

The Scottish Government will be publishing its National Statistics on pupil attendance and absence in due course. These figures will be more subjected to quality assurance procedures, and as such, will be of higher quality than our current data.

Contractual monthly payments are made by Transport Scotland to the A74(M) concessionaire Autolink. The payments are based on a shadow toll. Provisional monthly payments are made based on historic traffic numbers using the A74(M) project road. A reconciliation is undertaken at the end of each year to adjust payments for actual traffic recorded. Monthly payments are also reduced to take into any account lane occupations by Autolink. The current provisional monthly payments are approximately £2.73m before VAT.

As concluded in the South West Scotland Transport Study, a new station at Beattock was one of the interventions recommended for the next stage of appraisal. This option is one of 58 potential new stations across Scotland that are being appraised as part of the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2).

The appraisal process for STPR2 is considering the performance of all options against the transport outcomes we are seeking, the Transport Planning Objectives, which are aligned to our National Transport Strategy priorities and outcomes. The interventions will seek to contribute to our vision of a sustainable, inclusive, safe and accessible transport system helping deliver a healthier, fairer and more prosperous Scotland for communities, businesses and visitors.

Therefore, we need to consider the social and economic benefits and impacts based on performance against these objectives and the five Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance criteria, to determine the overall Value for Money. This also takes into account risks, uncertainties and other factors such as affordability, deliverability and the wider acceptability of options. This will be an important consideration given pressures on current and future public finances.

Also underpinning STPR2 is the Sustainable Investment Hierarchy where we will aim first to reduce the need to travel unsustainably, make better use of and enhance existing infrastructure, before investing in new capacity. This hierarchy is also central to Infrastructure Investment Plan. STPR2 will conclude later this year, with publication of recommendations for investment and an appropriate statutory consultation period.

Until the appraisal process is completed, it is not possible to make individual decisions on potential new stations such as Beattock.

As I noted in my statement to Parliament on 24 June, a single NHS Board first discovered in December 2020 that a small number of women who had subtotal hysterectomies had been wrongly excluded.

In 2016, a review was carried out of all individual records on the Scottish Cervical Call-Recall System (SCCRS) which had both a subtotal hysterectomy entry and also an open exclusion on the record. This was prompted by an IT error that had led to ‘no cervix’ exclusions being automatically added to the system when a subtotal hysterectomy was recorded together with recommended management of ‘no follow up’ or ‘no further recall’. This error was swiftly addressed.

In the course of addressing the issue, a number of other cases were identified, where a subtotal hysterectomy had been recorded on SCCRS and a manual exclusion had subsequently been opened. As soon as this was discovered, a process was initiated to identify all records on SCCRS with subtotal hysterectomies and open exclusions.

Following a rigorous review of affected records, it was established that some exclusions had been opened in error. Anyone affected was re-instated to the screening programme, and provided with a full explanation. Recommendations were made for safeguards to be put in place to prevent further instances of inappropriate manual exclusions.

At that time, it was believed that the records review had captured all affected patients, and there was no evidence to suggest further widespread errors in the recording of subtotal hysterectomies or the general application of exclusions.

It should be noted that, in 2006, in preparation for the migration to SCCRS, a data cleansing exercise was carried out. GP practices were provided with a list of women where there were discrepancies between the exclusion status and screening history and asked to resolve these before the transfer to SCCRS was complete.

This data cleansing exercise was standard good practice prior to the migration to SSCRS and did not uncover significant coding or data issues that gave rise to widespread concerns. Once the inconsistencies were resolved, the migration to SCCRS was carried out. A decision was made to migrate total hysterectomy information and all exclusions but not subtotal hysterectomy information, as individuals with subtotal hysterectomies would continue to be screened.

Although the actions taken in response to the issues detected in 2006 and 2016 were reasonable in light of the available evidence, we will consider whether there were opportunities to detect the wider issues now identified, and, if so, what lessons can be learned to strengthen monitoring and auditing going forward.

There are voluntary agreements in some parts of Scotland around the use of jet skis, including duration of use and timings. We are not aware of a specific agreement covering Wardie Bay. These agreements are not a statutory requirement.

Our natural geography brings the benefit of increased opportunity to access both freshwater and our unique coastline and we will continue to promote and ensure the safe enjoyment of Scotland’s diverse landscape.

The Scottish Government works closely with Water Safety Scotland (WSS) and other partners, including local councils, Police Scotland and Scottish Fire & Rescue Service to implement and support initiatives that can help raise awareness, this includes providing grant funding to The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and the Scottish Community Safety Network to help promote a co-ordinated and preventative approach to water safety across the country.

WSS has produced a guide on Water Safety Policy in Scotland which is available online.

The Covid-19 test kits are home PCR kits provided by NHS Test & Trace. The cost of the kits is set by the UK Government and the process managed through its contract with the travel management company, so we are unable to influence the cost of these.

Currently, we are not using private test providers for international travellers arriving into Scotland from green and amber list countries.

We are having on-going discussion with the UK government on using private test providers, particularly about the speed and reliability of the flow of data from private companies. We are keen to understand fully the key performance indicators (KPIs) that have been recently set for these companies and the process should these not be met.

Special Advisers are appointed in accordance with Part 1 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 by the First Minister as a Special Adviser for the purpose of providing assistance to the Scottish Ministers.

Their specific responsibilities are as follows:

The majority of stock to complete second doses in this phase of the programme has now been received and is being made available to Boards, as it is required.

The Scottish Government has set up a National Vaccine Inclusive Steering Group with representatives from Health Boards, faith groups, third and community sector, and works closely with BEMIS, the national umbrella body supporting the development of the Ethnic Minorities Voluntary Sector in Scotland, and regularly participates in the Ethnic Minority National Resilience Group (EMNRG), which includes organisations representing the Polish Community.

Polish is one of the primary languages as set out by Public Health Scotland, and Polish translations have been prioritised for all coronavirus-related guidance, which has included regularly updated translations on NHS Inform, Strategic Framework updates on gov.scot and Polish translations of all National door drops. This is shared via SG Marketing, SG Policy, NHS 24 and via a number of stakeholders, to reach Polish communities.

Provision of messages/ guidance has been made to Polish community organisations in order to appropriately translate and share in language more likely to elicit action within the context of Polish culture/language. An explainer video for minority ethnic communities – tackling barriers – translated into Polish was developed as part of the Phase 2 campaign deliverables targeted at 18-49 year olds, which looks to address barriers to vaccine uptake identified by ME communities. The explainer video was produced in multiple languages including Polish, and provides key facts about the Covid vaccines for those who may be hesitant, or for those more likely to have been exposed to myths/misinformation. The content of this video has been shaped by engagement with BEMIS and the Ethnic Minority National Resilience Group, which includes input from the Polish community. This video has been distributed via partnership channels and via stakeholders to those groups who may not be as likely to be reached by traditional media.

FENIKS have been awarded funding via the Scottish Government award to BEMIS, for additional translations of Coronavirus vaccine information/materials into Polish. Feniks was set up in 2007 as a charity supporting integration and aiming at improving the wellbeing of the Central Eastern European Community in Edinburgh. It seeks to help individuals and families who have moved away from their homeland in facing the challenges which can result from immigration. https://www.feniks.org.uk

A live Q+A session was held online 6 July 2021 with Professor Jason Leitch, National Clinical Director, with the session chaired by Feniks. Key questions were gathered beforehand from members of the community, including issues causing some hesitancy, for example on vaccine efficacy and safety. The session was also translated live. The Scottish Government is continuing to support the work of Feniks on providing information and increasing uptake of Covid vaccine.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) are supporting the work of health boards including work continuing in local health board areas with the Polish community, including targeting workforces and large employers, including food processing.