Chamber and committees

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows: A decision on the future of prisoner phone services including pricing mechanisms is currently under active consideration.

SPS estimate that to continue with the current scheme, it will cost approximately £60,000 per month.

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

SPS do not record information on the number of staff who may have been hospitalised as a result of assaults by prisoners.

The six-month secondment of two officers from the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security to Police Scotland concluded in April 2021. The Scottish Government has not held recent discussions with Police Scotland on plans to further engage with the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security.

Human trafficking has no respect for borders and it is vital that Police Scotland develop and strengthen professional relationships with international law enforcement partners in order to disrupt the networks behind this crime.

Police Scotland’s National Human Trafficking Unit continues to seek out and engage with relevant international partners.

I am extremely disappointed that there has been a further delay to the introduction of the new booking ticketing and reservations system.

I have been assured by CalMac that the new system should now be operational in early 2023.

As noted in my response of 3 November 2022, for survivor privacy reasons, given the small number of applications which have been determined in which NHS Scotland Boards are named, we cannot provide a further breakdown to the level of individual organisation as this would not be appropriate at this time.

NHS Scotland Boards contribution to Scotland’s Redress Scheme is a collective contribution on behalf of all 22 NHS Boards and NHS Scotland Boards have committed to pay an agreed proportion of all relevant cases. This is noted on Scotland’s Redress Scheme: contributor list, which also details NHS Scotland Boards joining Scotland’s Redress Scheme on 23 May 2022.

There are agreed financial arrangements in place between Scottish Government and NHS Scotland Boards to ensure NHS budgets are adjusted accordingly to account for any relevant Redress Payments.

Delivery of the Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy 2021-2026 is undertaken by a number of organisations who make up the Save a Life for Scotland Partners.

Recent updates include:

• The launch of the Play your Part campaign by Save a Life for Scotland which seeks to make CPR training inclusive for individuals living with a disability: More information can be found here Accessible CPR Resources - Save a Life for Scotland .
• The launch of GoodSAM, an app that allows the Scottish Ambulance Service to notify volunteers to attend and provide CPR at a cardiac arrest before the ambulance arrives. More information and sign up details can be found here: GoodSam - Save a Life for Scotland .
• Scottish Government provision of funding for Chest, Heart & Stroke Scotland and the Research Resuscitation Group (Edinburgh University) to deliver a pilot project of aftercare support for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest bystanders.

The number of school inspectors employed by Education Scotland is as follows:

Of the 750 additional NHS nurses, midwives and allied health professionals NHS boards collectively have told Scottish Government the number of international recruits they could accommodate, (a) up to 53 were indicated by NHS Ayrshire and Arran and (b) up to 217 by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Save a Life for Scotland maintain a portal showing how many people have been equipped with CPR skills by partners in the delivery of the Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy.

Recent figures can be found here: Home - Save a Life for Scotland .

Beyond this, The Scottish Health Survey 2021 , published 8 November 2022, finds that nearly two thirds of adults have reported ever attending CPR training.

Whilst responsibility for recruitment and retention of pharmacists in community pharmacies is a matter for individual community pharmacy contractors, Scottish Government is increasing the number of pharmacist pre-registration training places by 120 over 5 years from December 2019, to create the opportunity for more pharmacists to enter the profession. To date we have increased places by 66, with the remaining places due to be available by 2024-25.

In addition to ensure the competencies required of pharmacists to meet future workforce demands, the pharmacy regulator, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), has introduced new standards for the initial education and training of pharmacists to ensure pharmacists are equipped for their future roles. These changes include: incorporating the skills, knowledge and attributes for prescribing in order to enable pharmacists to independently prescribe from the point of registration; introducing a new set of learning outcomes to assess the full five years of education and training (undergraduate and pre-registration) and which can link into post-registration education; and making the fifth year of initial education and training a pre-registration foundation training year with strengthened supervision and support and collaborative working between higher-education institutions, statutory education bodies and employers.

In order to aid retention of pharmacists in community pharmacy we have developed a Community Pharmacy NHS Post Registration Foundation Programme, which sees up to 130 places made available for a two and a half year programme for early career pharmacists. The programme is an experiential learning programme designed to develop confidence in pharmacy practice specific to Scotland, building on the skills and resilience established during the pre-registration Foundation Training Year. A Scottish NHS community pharmacy contractor will employ post-registration pharmacists qualifying in the summer of each year as pharmacists in a permanent role.