Chamber and committees

Cervical screening saves around 5,000 lives a year and prevents up to 8 out of 10 cervical cancers.

Increasing coverage in the Scottish Cervical Screening Programme is a key objective for the Scottish Government and that is why up to £5m of funding from the Cancer Strategy 'Beating Cancer: Ambition and Action' 2016 is being invested in our screening programmes, including cervical screening, to reduce inequalities and improve uptake, particularly amongst those less likely to participate in screening.

We are also supporting the work of charities like Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust to increase awareness of screening and address some of the barriers. To enable the charity to expand their reach we are funding their innovative new outreach service targeting women less likely to attend.

Scottish Government officials meet cervical screening coordinators from all NHS Boards on a quarterly basis to discuss a range of issues relating to the national screening programme, including promoting screening services and initiatives to improve uptake. NHS Boards have responsibility for publicising screening within their local area and for working closely with their communities to increase screening uptake.

Thanks to cervical screening and the HPV vaccination programme, cervical cancer is now preventable.

We have set out our proposals for our Draft Budget for 2018-19. Once the Budget process in the Scottish Parliament is complete, we will be able to set out our more detailed proposals for community safety funding in 2018-19, including for issues such as tackling sectarianism.

As outlined within the 2008-09 – 2015-16 Needle Exchange Surveillance Initiative (NESI) report, (http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/resourcedocument.aspx?id=5863) the estimated HIV prevalence of injecting drug users in Greater Glasgow and Clyde is 2.5%. The NESI data is not published by gender, local authority area or involvement in prostitution.

The 2016-17 NESI data is due to be published later this year.

Data provided by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde reports that there have been 109 new confirmed HIV infection cases in people who inject drugs since 2015, predominantly within Glasgow. The number of cases identified outwith Glasgow is less than 5 therefore figures are not disclosed.

Work is on-going within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to identify information relating to number of deaths and those in sustained HIV treatment with a reduced viral load.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-13632 on 24 January 2018. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The provision of addiction services in Glasgow, including needle exchange services, is a matter for Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership. Following the announcement of the closure of the service within Glasgow Central Station, Ministers supported efforts by partners to have the service re-established. Unfortunately the proposals from Network Rail offered only very limited movement and would not have seen the service re-established.

I will continue to work with the HSCP as they address the wider public health issues in the city.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-13632 on 24 January 2018. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-13632 on 24 January 2018. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Support for employee ownership is delivered by Co-operative Development Scotland (CDS), who raise awareness of the value of co-operative and employee ownership models, and provide specialist advise. CDS currently supports 92 of these businesses, with approximately 7,000 employee-owners generating a combined turnover of £930 million. The most recent expansion to support this area is the ‘Succession Expert Support’ programme, delivered by Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. This is available to all Scottish businesses and is designed to assist with succession planning. Advice on employee ownership is part of this service. Other services CDS deliver to promote employee-ownership include the ‘Successful Succession’ promotion campaign and ‘Employee Ownership Day’ which aims to promote the values and benefits of employee ownership within the wider business community.

The Scottish Government supports and promotes all types of co-operatives through the work of CDS. This includes worker co-operatives where businesses are owned and managed by employees.

The decision to use agency staff is a commercial decision for ScotRail. The Scottish Government does not hold details of what proportion of ScotRail on-board hospitality staff are employed through agencies.