Chamber and committees

Any proposal to get more young people engaged and involved in the democratic process is worthy of close consideration.

The Scottish Government believes that 16 and 17 year olds should have the right to vote in all elections. We’ve led the way in Scotland, putting young people at the very heart of deciding how our communities and country are run.

Increasing participation in the Scottish Cervical Screening Programme is a key objective for the Scottish Government.

Last year we ran a successful advertising campaign ‘Flower’ to raise awareness of cervical screening among women aged 25-35. In 2018, we will focus on the overall benefits of early detection for all cancers.

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.

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.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

Where any person in our care is identified as eligible to apply for release on Home Detention Curfew (HDC), and wishes to be considered, then they are asked to complete an HDC Prisoner Information Request form. This form does not ask if an individual has a live appeal in process, as appellant status does not result in statutory exclusion.

Once an application for HDC has been submitted, then a full risk assessment is undertaken. Should an individual be contesting their conviction or sentence, then this would be considered.

Those in our care who wish to progress to less secure conditions, such as at the Open Estate, are asked if they are appealing against their conviction or sentence.

It is for the Scottish Courts to determine an individual’s guilt; SPS’ role is to accommodate those committed to custody. The principal objective of SPS is to contribute to making Scotland Safer by protecting the public and reducing reoffending. Where an individual does not acknowledge guilt, then this may understandably impact upon their ability to demonstrate that they have satisfactory addressed their offending behaviour. The measures taken by an individual to address their offending behaviour constitute a key consideration in the risk assessment process.

The Scottish Government provides interest-free loans through the Energy Saving Trust for taxi drivers and firms to replace older hackney cabs with new, efficient Euro 6 diesel or electric models to reduce harmful emissions.

Children and young people should know where to go if they have worries or concerns, which is why all staff in schools share a responsibility for identifying the care and wellbeing needs of children and young people. Schools should establish open, positive, supporting relationships across the whole school community, where children and young people will feel they are listened to, and where they feel secure in their ability to discuss sensitive aspects of their lives. This can be especially important in the case of body image, which is consistently mentioned by young people themselves as a significant worry.

The vision and aspirations of our 10-year Mental Health Strategy apply to young people with body image issues as much as they do to any other group - they should only have to ask once to get help fast.

The Scottish Government funds NHS Health Scotland to provide a range of programmes to improve mental health in the workplace, including Scottish Mental Health First Aid (SMHFA) training. We are committed to continuing support for this work, and in our engagement paper on suicide prevention, which we published on 8 March 2018, we outlined a draft action on the development of a new mental health and suicide prevention training programme. The Scottish Government provides £1 million per year for See Me’s work to end the mental health stigma and discrimination. A new programme – See Me in Work – has been developed to support employers to create mentally healthy workplaces.

The decision to concentrate the Scottish Driving Assessment Service (SDAS) into a single national centre in Edinburgh was made by NHS Scotland Boards’ Directors of Planning in 2013 and endorsed by Board Chief Executives.

Planning and delivery of the SDAS is a matter for NHS Boards and the Scottish Government has no plans to review the delivery of the service, and recognises increased capacity and improvement in equity of access.

The Scottish Driving Assessment Service (SDAS), located at the Astley Ainslie Hospital, Edinburgh, undertakes driving assessments for those who have been affected by a stroke or any other condition which results in them having to be assessed as fit for driving. Appointments for assessment are provided free under the NHS and are requested through referrals from General Practitioners and secondary care.

In the last year - from May 2017 to April 2018 - 846 new/re-referred patients were seen by the SDAS. Of these, 62 patients (7.3% of the total) waited longer than ‎18 weeks.

The SDAS is striving to return to the 100% 18 week compliance it has previously achieved since centralising the service.

The Scottish Driving Assessment Service (SDAS), located at the Astley Ainslie Hospital, Edinburgh, undertakes assessments for those who have been affected by a stroke or any other condition which results in them having to be reassessed as fit for driving.

Appointments for assessment are provided free under the NHS and are requested through referrals from General Practitioners and secondary care. The SDAS has not historically offered to reimburse travel expenses for patients who are attending for assessment: some NHS Boards may have their own arrangements for reimbursing patients’ travel expenses and costs. The Scottish Government does not provide assistance to those travelling to the SDAS for assessment.

The Scottish Driving Assessment Service (SDAS), undertakes assessments for those who have been affected by a stroke or any other condition which results in them having to be reassessed as fit for driving.

The decision to concentrate the SDAS into a single national centre in Edinburgh was made by NHS Boards’ Directors of Planning in 2013; this delivery model was implemented in April 2015.

For the 5 year period between 1st April 2009 and 31st March 2014 (i.e. when the mobile service was still in operation), the average number of assessments carried out per year (including new/re-referred and review) was 725.

Data for 1st April 2014 to 31st March 2015 is not included as during this time the mobile service was being scaled down in preparation for the fully centralised service.

Between 1st April 2015 and 31st March 2018 (i.e. following the transition to a fully centralised service), the average number of assessments per year was 882.

The number of assessments has therefore increased by 157 (i.e. 21.7%) per year (averaged over the respective five and three year periods) since the service was centralised.