Chamber and committees

The timetable that we have set to fund all deferrals from August 2023 is realistic and ensures that the roll out of 1140 hours of funded early learning and childcare to all eligible children from August 2021 is not put at risk.

To progress implementation, the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) have agreed a Joint Implementation Plan under which local authorities will pilot early implementation of this obligation in 2021-22 and 2022-23. The local authorities who are piloting this approach from August 2021 will be: Angus; Argyll and Bute; Falkirk; Scottish Borders; and the Shetland Islands. The Scottish Government has committed £3 million to support the pilot authorities this financial year.

We have committed to working to increase the number of authorities implementing the obligation fully or partially from August 2022, to further increase our evidence base ahead of the legislation coming into force the following year.

The reusable nappy voucher was first included in Scotland’s Baby Box in April 2019. The number of nappies claimed each year was as follows:

2019 – 4912

2020 – 7192

2021 – 3128 (this is up to 02-07-2021)

Scotland’s Baby Box Managing Agent, APS Group (Scotland), has continued to work with suppliers since the start of the programme to reduce the use of single use plastic in the Baby Box where possible. Currently, only items which require individual wrapping for safety or hygiene purposes are individually wrapped. This includes the baby wrap and the mattress which are packaged to ensure the important safety information is not missed and the teether which is packaged for hygiene purposes.

All clothing is delivered to APS Group (Scotland) as multiples in single protective outers (rather than individually wrapped) for protection in transit. The protective packaging included in the Baby Box is made from 50% recycled paper and is FSC accredited. Other packaging such as cardboard outers, is also recyclable.

We will continue to evaluate how Scotland’s Baby Box is helping families and continue to monitor how it can be improved. We will keep the contents under review and adapt these to meet the needs of babies and parents. This will certainly include removing single use plastics wherever possible.

At 31st March 2021 there were 7816 directly employed staff within the core Scottish Government and 52 operated offices, however all staff continued to work from home where possible during this time.

Headcount and number of offices split by local authority are provided in the following table. Please note that staff may work from locations other than Scottish Government offices.

Enforcement of the Coronavirus Regulations is a matter for the Chief Constable and Police Scotland.

The latest data available on Police Scotland’s website Enforcement and Response Data - Police Scotland shows that as of 14 July 2021, 16,993 fixed-penalty notices have been issued and 971 arrests have been made under these regulations.

The published figures are not broken down to show the reasons for issuing of fixed-penalty notices or arrests; the presentation and format of Police Scotland data, is an operational matter for the Chief Constable.

A new Early Cancer Diagnosis Programme Board has been formed – this group will be responsible for shaping and supporting the delivery of Scotland’s early cancer diagnosis efforts over the coming years. The exploration of any future public awareness campaigns will be considered here and will be undertaken with close consultation from the Scottish Cancer Coalition, which includes third sector ovarian cancer representation.

The Scottish Government is committed to finding cancer early when the chance of survival and even cure is higher – this is reflected in our £44 million Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme.

September marks Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month - DCE’s social media channels will help raise awareness of common signs and symptoms, signposting to an online interactive ‘symptom checker’ tool.

Tackling health inequalities remains a clear ambition for this Government. Our Programme for Government 2020 sets out our commitment to promote lifelong health and wellbeing including a renewed focus on tackling health inequalities.

The impact of persistent deprivation, poverty and other long-standing social inequalities – which we know impact on health – have been thrown into sharp relief by COVID-19. In the face of the pandemic we acted quickly to ensure that local authorities, third sector partners and community organisations were empowered to take the action needed to protect people from the social harms of the virus. In the course of 2020-21, we allocated over £1 billion to help people and communities impacted by the pandemic and to build resilience in public services. We will continue to give our communities and local services the support they need to tackle these issues head on.

We know that socioeconomic inequalities drive health inequalities and we must focus our efforts on addressing poverty, promoting fair wages and improving our physical and social environments. In line with the Scottish Fiscal Commission forecasts, we are committing £3.5 billion in forecast social security payments which will reach over 800,000 people. Money which will go directly to the people in Scotland who need it the most. This includes £68 million for the first full year of the Scottish Child Payment, a ‘game changing’ new benefit which will be instrumental in tackling child poverty. We are bringing this together with healthcare through our Welfare Advice and Health Partnerships that integrate local authority and third sector welfare rights and money advice services into primary care services.

Scotland has a proud history of taking ambitious action to improve health and we continue to make progress against our Public Health Priorities and major healthy living action plans. These strategies are already tackling some of the most significant health challenges we face including diet, alcohol and smoking. These bold packages of measures will help tackle key issues and support everyone in Scotland to live longer healthier lives. This includes bringing forward legislation to restrict promotions of unhealthier foods, evaluating the impact that Minimum Unit Pricing of alcohol has had and introducing a smoke-free perimeter around all hospital buildings.

As we look to renew and recover as a society, we will continue to ensure the necessary resource is directed at improving equity for our people and communities who are most in need.

Information on the number of patients within NHS Scotland who were waiting for diagnostic procedures as of 31 March can be found here:

NHS waiting times - diagnostics - Quarter ending 31 March 2021 - NHS waiting times - diagnostics - Publications - Public Health Scotland

The information shows the number of patients waiting for diagnostic procedures up to 31 March 2021. Diagnostic treatment at 1 July 2021 will be published by PHS on 24 August 2021 and can be found using the same link.

The Scottish Breast Screening Programme invites women between the ages of 50 and 70 for routine breast screening every three years. This is in line with advice from the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), which is an independent scientific body that advises all four nations of the UK on screening matters. The Scottish government will only act to widen screening age ranges if this is recommended by the UK NSC.

I will shortly be writing to the UK NSC to ask them to examine the merits of lowering the current age thresholds for screening programmes. I recognise in doing so that any change to age ranges for screening must be based on the highest standards of evidence, and balance both potential harms and benefits.

On 22 June 2018 the Scottish Government and COSLA wrote to public sector leaders, including all chairs and Chief Executives of public bodies, inviting them to submit proposals to the Local Governance Review. 20 Local Authorities, 6 Community Planning Partnerships and 16 other public bodies responded. Appendix One of the summary report published in May 2019 sets out the full list of respondents.

On 28 November 2019, the Scottish Government and COSLA provided an update to all public sector leaders . This highlighted opportunities for functional, fiscal and community empowerment and invited place-specific proposals for alternative governance arrangements. Councils have been working with local partners to develop proposals and dialogue with Scottish Government officials has commenced to explore the proposed changes and how they could improve outcomes.