Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is taking the recently published papers into account, alongside existing evidence and advice from Scottish Natural Heritage, in assessing any next steps to be taken in relation to the protection and management of mountain hares in Scotland. An announcement will be made in due course.

We are committed to delivering the best outcomes possible for missing people and their families and are working with all organisations who work with, locate and support people who go missing.

That is why we are investing over £200,000 to increase awareness of support available from the Missing Persons Runaway helpline and through the development and delivery of return discussion training for frontline staff to ensure that the underlying causes of going missing are understood and the specific support needs of the individual are identified to help prevent them from going missing in the future. Frontline staff across local authorities have benefitted from the delivery of this training.

Additionally, I have written to Chief Executives of Local Authorities this month to highlight the importance of the National Missing Person’s Framework including the need for all organisations to demonstrate leadership by working in partnership with other agencies, taking responsibility for those they are serving to prevent people from going missing and ensure they receive the best possible support when they do.

In May 2018, one year on from the publication of the Framework, the Scottish Government published a report on progress being made on delivering the Framework’s objectives, as well as setting out priorities for the future ( https://blogs.gov.scot/justice-safety/2018/05/29/national-missing-person-framework-for-scotland-an-update/ ).

I refer the member to the answer to the question S5W-18151 on ‎28 August 2018. All answers to the 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 majority of vaccine supplies are purchased centrally by Public Health England (PHE) under a UK contract for all 4 countries including Scotland. PHE is currently working to ensure sufficient supply of vaccine for Scotland in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

In addition, all flu vaccines are centrally procured through NHS National Procurement who are considering how best to ensure supplies of flu vaccine for Scotland in the event of a no deal Brexit.

The Scottish Government continues to seek clarity from the UK Government about its plans to avoid medicine stock shortages in the event of a no deal Brexit.

I wrote to the UK Health Secretary, Matt Hancock on 10 July, to ask the UK Government to share with us the full report that they commissioned from Ernst & Young on the consequences of Brexit on medicines supply and have yet to receive a reply.

The Scottish Government has also sought further details about how the UK Government’s plans to invite pharmaceutical companies to stockpile medicines will work in practice.

Any costs arising from the UK Government’s requests of pharmaceutical companies are a matter for the UK Government.

A relatively small amount of fresh frozen plasma is imported into the UK by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) for use in Scotland. The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) is in discussions with NHSBT to ensure there is sufficient supply of this plasma for Scotland in the event of a no-deal Brexit. In addition, some solvent/detergent-treated fresh frozen plasma is also imported directly into Scotland for the treatment of patients with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and SNBTS has been asked to consider how best to ensure supplies in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

The Scottish Government is in regular contact with the UK Government about EU Exit in relation to donated organs for transplant.

We do not expect there to be any impact on the transport arrangements or associated transport costs of the small number of organs coming to Scotland from other EU countries as a result of the EU Exit, but we will continue to monitor this.

NHS Blood and Transplant will be working with the donation organisations in the other EU countries which sometimes provide donated organs to the UK to ensure appropriate arrangements are in place for EU Exit.

The number of transplants carried out in Scotland in each of the last 10 years using organs from donors in other EU countries is:

Withdrawing from the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) Treaty is an unwelcome and unnecessary consequence of the UK Government’s intention to take the UK, and therefore Scotland, out of the EU.

It is imperative that the UK Government continues to secure a sustainable daily supply of time critical deliveries of medical radioisotopes, including those used in the diagnosis and treatment of certain cancers, that is right for Scotland. We are in discussions with the UK Government about this issue and the UK’s future relationship with Euratom.

In the event that there is any additional expense in securing medical radioisotopes as a result of EU-exit, we expect the UK Government to meet the cost in full on a UK-wide basis.

Marine Scotland Science does not sample for microplastics within the water column. It does however sample for floating Microplastics between 300 microns to 5mm, that are found on or just under the water surface. Samples have been taken at a number of locations around Scotland since 2014, including within the Firth of Forth, where content has varied between 0 and 63,000 microplastic particles per square kilometre. These values are within the range observed elsewhere in the world's oceans. Samples of sub-tidal sediment in the Lothian region have been analysed and their microplastic content has been zero, or close to zero.