Chamber and committees

I last met with the Royal College of Nursing on 1 October 2021, where we discussed a range of issues.

The Scottish Government’s position on nursing and midwifery vacancies is set out in my responses to the Member's associated questions: S6W-02826 and S6W-02827 on 21 September 2021.

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

Reported incidents of spiking are likely to be recorded by the police as either (i) crimes of administering a substance for sexual purposes under section 11 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009, or (ii) drugging (assault). The former is recorded when a person intentionally administers a substance, or causes a substance to be taken, with the purpose of stupefying or overpowering, to enable any person to engage in a sexual activity involving the victim. The latter is similar in that a crime is committed when drugs are feloniously administered with intent to produce stupefaction, however there doesn’t need to be further intent, and it is not necessary that any injury to the victim is caused.

The data we receive from Police Scotland does not include information on the circumstances of individual crimes. We are therefore unable to identify how many of these crimes specifically involve drink spiking or spiking by injection.

Number of crimes of administering a substance for sexual purposes recorded by the police, by local authority, 2016-17 to September 2021

We want to ensure that wherever women seek menopause support, they get the care that they need. Menopause care is provided in different settings and in a variety of ways, in both primary and secondary care. We do not currently have the data to be able to accurately describe the variety of sources of menopause care in Scotland.

A key aim of the Women’s Health Plan is to ensure that when required women will have timely access to menopause support and services, be that though primary or specialist care.

To help achieve this we will provide access in each primary care team to a healthcare professional who has a special interest in menopause. We will also provide a specialist menopause services in every NHS Board – including a buddy system where sub specialisation is impractical.

We will be working closely with NHS Boards in order to progress these actions which will also enable us to build a comprehensive picture of the delivery of menopause care in Scotland.

Data on the number of people who have attended for menopause care in NHSScotland are not routinely available.

We have strengthened smart ticketing measures for local transport authorities in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 to further enable growth in adopting multi-modal smart and integrated ticketing schemes. We continue to work with regional bodies like Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT Zonecard) to support existing schemes move onto smart platforms.

Our vision is that all journeys on Scotland’s public transport networks can be made using some form of smart ticketing or payment and progress has already been made towards achieving this ambition. Scotland is the first in the UK to offer smartcard compatibility across modes – where multiple tickets for different modes can be loaded onto one smartcard - and contactless payment is also now being accepted on over 95% of buses in Scotland.

We are also taking forward our Fair Fares Review to ensure a sustainable and integrated approach to public transport fares, this will look at the range of discounts and concessionary schemes which are available on all modes including bus, rail and ferry, and will look at both cost and availability of services.

There is no specific offence for 'drink spiking' however the Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database shows there were no people convicted for offences under section 11 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 (administering a substance for sexual purposes) or for drugging from 2015-16 to 2019-20.

The Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland (PHS) continue to work with health boards to support their planning and the safe delivery of immunisation services during the pandemic.

The latest HPV immunisation statistics published by Public Health Scotland (PHS) for academic year 2019/20 show that uptake for the HPV vaccine remains high. Further information is available online on the PHS website: HPV Immunisation Statistics Scotland 22 December 2020 - Data & intelligence from PHS (isdscotland.org).

Public Health Scotland collate data on the HPV vaccination programme for the previous school year every autumn. Data for school year 2020-21 will be collated in autumn 2021 and published in December 2021. Therefore, we cannot provide information on the most recent school year.

The act of ‘spiking’ women is absolutely abhorrent and the Scottish Government remains absolutely committed to working with partners to tackle this unacceptable behaviour.

I chaired an urgent roundtable with partners and representatives from across the sector on Thursday 4 November, including from police and industry, to discuss how we can achieve the right balance of targeted and universal intervention to ensure the safety of the public.

Our Equally Safe Strategy sets out Scotland’s ambition to tackle and eradicate all forms of violence against women and we will continue to implement this with a clear and decisive focus on primary prevention of violence. We are dedicating resources to tackling attitudes and inequality within every space for women and girls.

The Scottish Government has committed to invest at least £1.8 billion over the course of this parliament to kick-start market growth in zero emissions heat and energy efficiency, and to support those least able to pay. Households in or at risk of fuel poverty can receive support through Warmer Homes Scotland and our local authority-led Area Based Schemes. In addition, through Home Energy Scotland we offer low and zero interest loans and cashback grants for energy efficiency and zero emissions heating systems.

We are working to develop an appropriate market framework to support consumers, and to secure further private investment to help meet the costs of the transition. We are establishing a Green Heat Finance Taskforce. We continue to work with the UK Government and press for measures to address market disincentives to switching to zero emissions heat.

Home Energy Scotland provide free, impartial advice and can be contacted on 0800 808 2282.

Electricity generation capacity in Scotland is currently around 16 GW, 12 GW (75%) of which is renewable power. The Scottish electricity system is considered secure, meaning it has enough secure supply capacity to meet peak demand.

The recent energy price crisis, which saw record electricity and gas prices in the UK, was predominately a result of tight gas supplies across the UK and EU. However, we are aware that low levels of electricity generation from renewables (20% reduction compared to the same period last year) contributed to the extent of the crisis as it increased the reliance on gas for power generation.

The Scottish Government believes that onshore wind has a significant role to play in both our future energy mix, and in our net zero ambitions and has launched a consultation on a draft Onshore Wind Policy Statement. This consultation will run until 21 October 2021 and can be accessed at https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781802014990.

I welcome the report from the Climate Emergency Response Group and its emphasis on delivering action to tackle the climate emergency. The Scottish Government continues to work constructively with the Climate Emergency Response Group (CERG) on delivering the change required to end Scotland’s contribution to climate change within a generation. To that end, I have already met with CERG representatives to discuss their most recent report and its recommendations. On such matters, my officials continue to engage with the group on a regular basis.

I thank CERG for their continuous work offering recommendations to the Scottish Government and for their part in ensuring the climate emergency remains at the top of the political agenda.