Chamber and committees

There is no change to how the public contact SEPA’s 24-7 service. The public are still able to use the same telephone number or online contact form to report incidents.

SEPA’s external website provides clear information on how to contact SEPA and report an incident Contact us | Beta | SEPA | Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

As SEPA are directly responsible for its day-to-day operations, I have asked Nicole Paterson, Chief Executive of SEPA to respond. Her response is as follows:

As part of the early implementation of the enhanced out-of-hours service, SEPA successfully managed 182 calls that were received outside of working hours during the first four weeks of operation. This included 24 emergency service calls and 158 general inquiries, with a total of 21 calls requiring escalation, all of which were resolved promptly.

SEPA will continue to monitor call performance and customer experience through continuous engagement and involvement of the customer hub team and colleagues across the service, and through customer feedback surveys. A customer experience manager with significant experience of managing contact centres has been appointed to ensure the effective planning and performance management of SEPA’s customer service.

The Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM) is issued by the Scottish Ministers to provide guidance on the proper handling and reporting of public funds.

Under the terms of SPFM, the Scottish Government and SEPA operate a joint Framework agreement. Sections 25-26 and Sections 32-34 of that agreement details SEPA’s duties to develop Corporate and annual business plans, which include reporting on key performance targets.

This is readily accessible on the SEPA website here: SEPA Framework | Beta | SEPA | Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

COSLA and the Scottish Government published our Health and Social Care Data Strategy in February 2023. The strategy which outlines our approach to improving the interoperability of our health and social care data through the adoption and use of common standards.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-32136 on 18 December 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found athttps://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

This is an operational matter for Police Scotland.

An initial assessment of the Citizens’ Jury report demonstrates clear alignment with the Scottish Government’s cancer strategy and action plan published in June 2023. The four key priorities identified by the Specialist Cancer Charities Group regarding Diagnosis; Equal access to care; Mental health support; and Improving communication are directly referenced within the ambitions of our strategy.

A meeting is being arranged with the Specialist Cancer Charities Group to discuss their ambitions further.

The Scottish Government and the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) meet regularly with all Health Boards, including NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, to discuss the performance and delivery of all planned care specialities including urology.

We have developed our winter plan with input from the whole Health and Social Care system which brings together best practice and improvement work which we know works from lessons learned in previous winters, to ensure that the most appropriate care is received in the right place and at the right time.

This information is not held by Scottish Government as a number of benefits are reserved to the UK Government. Employment status is not part of the eligibility criteria for any Scottish Government benefits and as such we do not hold information about the number of benefit recipients who are unemployed.

As SEPA are directly responsible for its day-to-day operations, I have asked Nicole Paterson, Chief Executive of SEPA to respond. Her response is as follows:

SEPA plan the work it will deliver each year and regularly monitor, review and report on performance in a variety of formats.

The automated customer hub enables greater data insights for regular and accurate performance reporting. KPIs include first call resolution, average handling time, call abandoned, time spent customer facing as percentage of rota, forecast and adherence time and customer satisfaction.