Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is providing the funding per the following table for the financial year 2023-24. Health boards can use this funding to manage and remove asbestos as and when it is appropriate to do so.

Public Health Scotland currently publish a range of statistics relating to Primary Care services in Scotland: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/?ic=topics-primary-care&q=&fq=topics%3APrimary+care%23&sort=pdesc .

We continue to work with all partners to develop a clear and evidence-based approach to ensure robust data is available. A Primary Care Data and Intelligence Programme Board has been established to inform this development work going forward.

A substantial amount of progress has already been made, notably with the introduction of a new publication of General Practice activity data. This collaborative effort between ourselves, the profession, National Services Scotland and Public Health Scotland, was a significant step in our journey to improving access to General Practice data.

This is in addition to the continued investment in the national GP IT re-provisioning programme, which allows Health Boards the ability to offer new and advanced, modernised systems for General Practice in Scotland. This will enhance access to GP data, and enable quality data to be stored and reused many times for multiple purposes, to allow us to better understand and improve the provision of care.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19616 on 6 July 2023. 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

The decision on whether or not to issue a statement of prosecution policy in relation to the prosecution of users of any proposed safer drug consumption facility is for the Lord Advocate to consider in her position as independent head of the systems of prosecution and investigation of deaths. This decision is independent of Scottish Government so the timing of this response is unknown.

Once the Lord Advocate reaches a decision the Minister for Drugs and Alcohol Policy will be able to respond appropriately, likely including a ministerial statement.

The death of any child or young person is a tragic event and our sympathies are with all parents and families affected. We are awaiting the results of the preliminary investigations into the April 2023 data from Public Health Scotland before we can confirm our next steps. We will continue to work closely with Public Health Scotland, NHS Boards and Healthcare Improvement Scotland on our maternity safety programme of work.

In order to reduce the number of preventable deaths and harm to children and young people, the Scottish Government is funding a National Hub to review all child and neonatal deaths. The National Hub will draw on the evidence from pre-existing reviews and data, including PHS data, Serious and Adverse Event Reviews and Fatal Accident Inquiries, to identify and share learning through the provision of national guidance and annual reporting. The Hub is jointly operated by Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Care Inspectorate and will issue its first annual report this Autumn. In June 2023 the National Hub published a new national information booklet about the child death review process designed for practitioners to share with bereaved parents, carers or other family members.

The advice provided on the Scottish Government website is correct. Home owners may use either sealed battery or mains-wired fire alarms to meet the Tolerable Standard guidance. The Building Standards Domestic Technical Handbook 2022 sets a higher standard requiring two power supplies for new buildings under the Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004, as amended.

Since 1 February 2022, the Tolerable Standard has required every home in Scotland to have interlinked smoke alarms and a CO alarm where there is a carbon-fuelled appliance.

This requirement already applied to new build and private rented properties since 2013. The Tolerable Standard ensures the same level of protection now applies to all tenures, regardless of whether someone owns their home or rents from a private or social landlord.

The Tolerable Standard sets out the following requirements for coverage in every home:

• One smoke alarm installed in the room most frequently used for general daytime living purposes (normally the living room/lounge);

• One smoke alarm in every circulation space on each storey, such as hallways and landings;

• One heat alarm installed in every kitchen;

• All smoke and heat alarms to be ceiling mounted; and

• All smoke and heat alarms to be interlinked.

Having an interlinked system means the occupier will be alerted immediately, regardless of the room in which the alarm is triggered, increasing the chance to escape.

Sealed battery alarms or mains-wired alarms are compliant with the standard. Both types of alarm are interlinked by radio frequency and do not need WiFi.

If battery alarms are used, they must be sealed tamper-proof units and have long-life lithium batteries. Batteries last for the duration of its operational lifespan, which may be up to 10 years or more - although sensors degrade over time.

The Tolerable Standard is a minimum standard, and does not preclude more effective or extensive systems provided that they meet the basic requirement of (a) a secure power source for the lifetime of the unit, and (b) effective means to provide an immediate alert in the event of any part of the system being actuated.

New build homes and homes undergoing refurbishment work that requires a building warrant are required to comply with the Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004, as amended. Guidance on this is set out in the Building Standards Domestic Technical Handbook. This requires that smoke alarms be mains operated with battery back-up and all alarms interlinked.

However, long-life and tamper-proof battery powered alarms have been allowed as part of the Tolerable Standard in recognition that it may not be possible or may be prohibitively costly to install mains powered alarms in existing properties where there is no refurbishment work planned.

Whilst there are no plans to collect GP waiting time data, Mr Yousaf announced last November the formation of the General Practice Access Group, with a view to understanding the challenges and issues affecting access to General Practice. This group will establish high level core principles to support and enhance patients’ experience of accessing ‘The Right Care, Right Time, Right Place’. Patient groups have been consulted and we expect the group’s work to be published later this summer.

The General Access group will help to build on the findings from the Health and Care Experience survey ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/health-care-experience-survey-2021-22-national-results/pages/3/) , which seeks out peoples experiences of accessing and using their GP practice and Out of Hours services.

As part of wider improvements to General Practice (GP) IT, testing found that Scottish Primary Care Information Resource (SPIRE) could not continue to be fully supported without considerable redevelopment. This means that by the end of August 2023 SPIRE would be unable to provide a representative national data extract from GP systems.

A transition is underway in NHS Scotland from SPIRE to a new data extraction tool. This tool, recently procured by National Services Scotland (NSS), provides similar functionality to SPIRE but has greater national coverage. The tool is trusted and highly valued having successfully been used for vaccination data purposes during the pandemic, and subsequently in obtaining other GP data

Public Health Scotland (PHS) analysts are working closely with NSS to replicate local reports currently used by some practices, using the data provided by the new tool.

The local authority that has asked for financial support is East Lothian Council.

We need to understand if there are any underlying causes that explain the increase in neonatal mortality across Scotland in 2021-22 and that is why we have commissioned Health Improvement Scotland (HIS) to undertake a review of the deaths. The review will consider the systems, processes and governance for the delivery of neonatal care which are relevant to the review scope. The HIS report will be published later this year.

In addition, the Scottish Government is funding a National Hub to review all child and neonatal deaths which was launched on 1 October 2021. The National Hub is jointly operated by Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Care Inspectorate, following the successful piloting of the approach in NHS Lothian, NHS Tayside and NHS Lanarkshire.

The Hub’s focus is to use evidence to inform practice to reduce the number of child and young people’s deaths in Scotland and to report annually on its findings. The aim of the National Hub is to ensure that a quality review is undertaken following the death of every child in Scotland and identify themes and trends via the use of standardised forms and processes for Health Boards and local authorities.