Chamber and committees

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

There have been no drones detected at HMP & YOI Grampian in each of the last three years.

The Scottish Prison Service recognises the negative impact of drones being used to introduce illicit items (including drugs and weapons) into the prison estate and are currently considering a technological solution to support the identification of drones within SPS airspace.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

This information is not currently held by SPS. This type of information can only be obtained through analysis and testing via a laboratory setting.

We seek to ensure that people can access vaccination appointments as close to home as possible. Health Boards continue to recognise and support the needs of rural communities in planning and delivering the winter vaccination programme.

Health Boards continue to use outreach options to provide vaccination in rural areas. This winter, community pharmacies, ‘pop-up’ clinics and support from Scottish Ambulance Service mobile unit teams have been used to improve access and reduce travel distances.

Most Health Boards aim for a maximum travel distance of 10 miles or a travel time of 15-30 minutes and always consider public transport routes when choosing vaccination venues.

Community support and local transport solutions are utilised where possible in order to support those with additional barriers. Boards are also able to utilise local intelligence and provide flexible options including some weekend and evening appointments.

When booking their vaccination, I would encourage people to continue to check the online portal or call the national vaccination helpline as new appointments do become available regularly.

Professor Anna Glasier is Scotland’s independent Women’s Health Champion, and her remit encompasses all of the aims of the Women’s Health Plan.

There are many other issues and conditions that are important to women and their health, and there is a range of work under way to help women affected by dementia.

This includes the Scottish Government’s New Dementia Strategy, published in May 2023. The Scottish Government is also working together with COSLA and a lived experience panel, which includes women with a diagnosis of dementia, to agree priorities for the first delivery plan for the strategy, which will be published in January 2024.

The priorities for any future Women’s Health Plan are not yet determined. Consideration for future areas of focus and priorities will be informed by evidence and developed in collaboration with women and girls, a women’s health lived experience group, clinical experts and relevant stakeholders.

The Scottish Government recognises the disruption and harm that retail crime does to both businesses and the individuals who work there. We support the work of our Justice partners to tackle this, including through the innovative Scottish Partnership Against Acquisitive Crime strategy. This strategy is led by Police Scotland, together with other organisations, including retailers, and outlines a partnership approach to the prevention, deterrence and enforcement of a range of crimes including shoplifting.

The Criminal Proceedings National Statistics for 2021-22 were published on the 24th October 2023. These include the first partial year of activity for the earliest opening period under the Act (from August 2021 to March 2022). Due to this, some caution should be exercised in interpreting the figures. Over August 2021 to March 2022, 26 individuals were convicted in court where the main charge was a crime or offence under the Retail Workers Act. The type of sentences received included custodial (13 individuals), community-based (9), a financial penalty (3) or another sentence type (1).

The Criminal Proceedings National Statistics for 2022-23, which will represent the first full reporting year of activity under the Act (from 1st April 2022 to 31st March 2023) will be published in 2024. Separate to this, data about the number of charges (not people) resulting in a conviction has been extracted from the management information used to publish the Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services Criminal Disposals Dashboard (Source: Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services Criminal Disposals Dashboard ). This shows there were 543 charges under the Retail Workers Act that received a criminal conviction in court from August 2021 up to March 2023.

The Scottish Government continues to work to co-design a nationally-consistent, integrated social care and health record, with the public and our partners, including COSLA and the NHS. Work is underway to determine the scope, investment required and subsequent delivery times of the record.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19366 on 21 July 2023 in relation to the desktop review and a full list of the 254 properties identified as having two or more characteristics consistent with the presence of RAAC was placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 64387). NHS Scotland Assure also published the information on their website on 15 September.

An update on progress with the national survey programme, including the list of NHS buildings where RAAC is identified, will also be published by NHS Scotland Assure.

All NHS Boards have a dedicated RAAC webpage noting their current position with RAAC in their Estate.

As of 2 October, 114 NHS properties had been physically surveyed as part of the national programme.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government is aware of concerns raised by clinicians about the impact of social media on women’s contraceptive choices, and we are grateful to them for raising awareness of this important issue. We would always encourage women to seek advice from NHS professionals on their contraception options and the benefits and risks, rather than social media.

We are committed to ensuring that all women can access accurate information regarding contraception and are able to access services in a timely and convenient manner. This is something we continue to work towards improving through the Women’s Health Plan and the forthcoming Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Action Plan 2023-26

To support this aim, the Scottish Government has funded a project to develop a new sexual and reproductive health website on the NHS Inform platform, featuring a range of interactive, quality assured sexual health and contraception information.

The Scottish Government reports on progress on its aim to halve childhood obesity by 2030 on an annual basis in the regular Scottish Health Survey (SHeS) Report.

In 2021, almost two thirds of children were in the healthy weight range, the lowest the survey has recorded. Almost one in five children (18%) were considered at risk of obesity in 2021.

In our 2018 Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan we set out ambitious and wide-ranging action to deliver our vision for a Scotland where everyone eats well and has a healthy weight. We are taking forward a range of action across five key outcomes: giving children the best start in life; creating a healthier food environment; better access to weight management services; leadership and reducing health inequalities.

Although there has been no formal assessment of the impact of the 2018 Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan, the annual SHeS provides indicators relating to diet, including fruit and vegetable consumption, weight and physical activity.

Working Collaboratively with clinical colleagues across NHS Scotland, the Centre for Sustainable Delivery’s (CfSD) National Elective Coordination Unit (NECU) are working to support a nationally coordinated campaign to expedite treatment for patients waiting for specialised urogynaecological procedures: urethral bulking, fascial sling repair and colposuspension.

The initial phase of this work has been completed and patients waiting within these procedure groups have been contacted.

The CfSD is now working to support clinicians within this highly specialist area to both see and treat these patients, with a view to ensure all patients receive treatment as soon as possible. This is expected to focus initially on urethral bulking procedures.

The Chief Operating Officer for NHS Scotland wrote to Health Board Chief Executives in September outlining the Scottish Government’s expectations for the treatment of these patients.