Chamber and committees

In 2015, FSS took the decision to establish the Scottish National Database (SND). as part of its strategic commitment to address recommendations of the Scudamore Expert Advisory Group, which was established by Scottish Ministers in February 2013, to review the lessons learned from the Horsemeat incident.

The report recommended that:

“The New Food Body should ensure that integrated IT systems are in place for recording data relating to official controls and other interventions at food businesses. These systems should be mandated for use by all competent authorities in Scotland”.

Following successful pilot of SND the system was rolled out across all 32 Scottish Local Authorities with completion in January 2018.

SND allows the real time collection of food law intervention data direct from the Local Authority Management Information Systems via a secure portal.

This technology allows:

• Data information can be used in a more strategic way, to enable datasets to be linked and give new insights and analysis.
• Significant reduction in the administrative burden placed on LAs in preparing and sending data to FSS.
• LAs in Scotland already have well established MIS systems and procedures, the approach was implemented without impacting on the day to day operations of their systems.
• A toolset for reporting has been introduced. This provides the means for FSS and LAs to co-create a comprehensive suite of dashboards and reports to serve across all of the enforcement community.
• The Food Law enforcement community in Scotland should be more robust and adaptable to future changes in the regulatory landscape, by having a flexible means to collect expanded datasets and a more effective means of horizon scanning.

FSS is currently working with Scottish Government Digital teams under the CivTech Programme to explore a digital system that will be open to businesses and Local Authorities to provide effective means to enhance our digital systems.

The Food Crime and Incidents Unit currently have 23 members of staff compared to 14 members of staff in 2018.

The Food Standards Scotland (FSS) website provides a range of curriculum for excellence linked resources to support educators develop lesson plans and deliver food safety and healthy eating messages.

Food safety & healthy eating education | Food Standards Scotland | Food Standards Scotland

In addition, FSS provide a free, online healthy eating tutorial which aims to provide an introduction to nutrition for people who may be required to provide healthy eating messages to others as part of their job. This could include those working in health and social care, education, community groups, local authorities, retail, catering and/or food manufacturing. This tutorial may also be of interest to consumers who want to learn more about healthy eating.

Healthy Eating Tutorial | Food Standards Scotland

The National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care is working with Health Boards and Health and Social Care partnerships to drive improvements in sustainability, and the capability of remote, rural and island primary and community care services, avoiding a one size fits all approach.

Their work includes programmes to enhance the education and training for multi-disciplinary teams working in rural and island areas, as well as evaluation of new ways of delivering improved primary and community care health services in partnership with practitioners, citizens and partner agencies.

The National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care has developed a new training programme and supervisory training hub for Rural Advanced Practitioners and is developing a community training hub pilot to increase the amount of training taking place in remote, rural and island primary and community healthcare settings.

Further details on the work of the National Centre can be found here: National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care: Information Hub | Turas | Learn

The Scottish Government currently has no plans in place to implement mobile care units for rural areas across Scotland. It would be for NHS Boards to determine best use of available resources and implement this initiative locally, should they feel the service meets the needs of their local population.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on the audiology workforce.

Responsibility for delivery and commissioning of services lies at a local level - with local authorities, NHS Boards and integrated health and social care partnerships. Operational decisions, including whether there is a need for audiologists, are therefore matters for those bodies to make and should take into account the numbers of patients in their local areas.

The Scottish Government works with the SCTS in line with the Framework Document agreed between the SCTS and the Scottish Ministers.

The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) is a non-ministerial office established by the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008. Scottish Ministers do not oversee the performance of the SCTS. The SCTS is accountable to the Scottish Parliament .

As part of the Scottish Administration, the SCTS is subject to the accountability and audit provisions of Part 2 of the Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000 and adherence to the guidance contained within the Scottish Public Finance manual .

As required by the 2008 Act, the SCTS prepares a draft corporate plan every 3 years for approval by Scottish Ministers. The corporate plan informs the development of a separate annual business plan with key targets and milestones, a copy of which is sent to Scottish Ministers.

In addition, the SCTS publishes an annual report of its activities together with its audited accounts after the end of each financial year. The annual report and accounts are laid before the Scottish Parliament and cover the main activities and performance against agreed objectives and targets for the previous financial year.