NHS Scotland health care workers supporting those with blood cancer are from a wide range of professions, often supporting patients with other conditions too. There are no plans to model a blood cancer care workforce specifically.

National standards for staffing and facilities providing services are set by guidance such as the Staff Governance Standard. This applies to all staff employed by NHS Scotland Boards. It provides a system of accountability for the fair and effective management of all staff and requires all NHS Boards to demonstrate that staff are: well informed; appropriately trained and developed; involved in decisions; treated fairly and consistently, with dignity and respect, in an environment where diversity is valued; and, provided with a continuously improving and safe working environment, promoting the health and wellbeing of staff, patients and the wider community.

The report has been proposed for peer review, which will take some weeks. Release of a draft of the report is not proposed before the review stage is completed.

I wrote to the then Secretary of State for Scotland on 29 February and made a commitment to keep the UK Government appraised of progress on this matter as it develops.

Supporting fair and green economic growth is a core priority for this Government, as highlighted in our recently published Programme for Government. Since 2007, Scotland’s GDP per capita has grown by 10.7%, outpacing the UK’s growth of 5.6%. Productivity in Scotland has also increased at an average of 1.1% per year, well above the UK average of 0.4%.

It is encouraging to see Sir Tom Hunter lending his support and expertise to promising businesses in Scotland. The ScaleUpScotland programme aligns well with the broad range of initiatives we support to help businesses grow, such as the Techscaler programme, Scottish EDGE, and the support from our Enterprise Agencies and the Scottish National Investment Bank. All of these efforts are integrated into our New Deal for Business, creating a strong foundation for economic success.

Yes, everyone who accesses the safer drug consumption service will be offered Dry Blood Spot Testing (DBST) via the nursing staff and health care support workers. Sexual health nurses are integrated into the wider Hunter Street services and will support any positive test results and follow up treatment.

The Stigma Action Plan was published on 12 January 2023 as part of the Cross Government response to the Drug Deaths Taskforce. As part of this, a “Design Team” made up of people with lived and living experience are currently exploring what concrete future actions should be taken to minimize the impact of stigma for people who are experiencing problems with their drug or alcohol use.

A number of existing initiatives are already working to reduce the stigma people who use drugs and their families experience. For instance, the Charter of Rights, to be launched on December 11th this year will articulate the Right to Health for this community, a Mental Health Protocol, delivered by Health Improvement Scotland addresses the barriers to accessing co-existing mental health and substance use problems, and an initiative named Humanising Health Care is working with medical students, providing opportunities for them to meet and speak to people in recovery to learn about the human costs of drug and alcohol problems.

We have been working closely with a range of stakeholders to make sure that children, young people and families affected by harms of alcohol or drug use are supported in their own right, as well as being involved in their loved one’s treatment and recovery without having to suffer the shame of stigma which we knows drives people away from support.

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

By 18 September 2024, 57 people of the 477 who left custody as part of the emergency release (ER) programme in June and July 2024 had returned to custody before their original Earliest Date of Liberation (EDL), i.e. the date when they would originally have been liberated.

SPS have proactively published a range of data relating to ER and we recently published a summary report of ER return to custody data. We are unable to publish return to custody data for HMP Barlinnie and for other establishments because some of the data could relate to a small group of individuals, which could lead to inadvertent identification.

To support practitioners in applying the Six Principles of Good Rehabilitation, Scottish Government has developed a self-assessment tool in partnership with the National Rehabilitation Network. This tool was issued to all 14 health boards in September 2024, to be used as a local benchmarking assessment in line with local rehabilitation strategies, for monitoring and evaluation purposes as well as improvements in patients care.

The data collected through the self-assessment will be used to demonstrate the impact of rehabilitation services across health and social care services.

Since the strategy was published Scottish Government has also awarded funding to support the delivery of the Once for Scotland Approach. This includes £526,650 to the Care Inspectorate to enable them to scale up their Care About Physical Activity Programme and £250,000 to Thistle Foundation to support rehabilitation teams to adopt person-centred rehabilitation.

As part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to reduce waiting times, significant activity is already underway following an additional £30 million investment to target backlogs, announced in the spring1.

This will see around 12,000 new outpatient appointments, around 12,000 inpatient procedures and over 40,000 diagnostic procedures delivered2. A breakdown of the committed funding at both Specialty & Health Board levels are shown in the tables. The final allocations will be made to respective NHS boards following delivery of the activity.

We will continue to work with all NHS boards to maximise current resources and productivity. I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29287 on 12 September 2024. 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.

While the work of Police Scotland’s International Academy is a matter for the service, Police Scotland has a proven track record in working with other countries. In terms of training partnerships, these are in place for the work undertaken in Malawi and Zambia which predominately address gender-based violence and contribute towards achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in promoting peace, justice, and strong institutions.

In addition to this, Police Scotland host a number of international events where there is mutual collaboration and sharing of good practice with law enforcement colleagues around the world. In recent years this has involved programmes with colleagues from a variety of countries which includes USA, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Germany, New Zealand covering a range of themes including probationer training, de-escalation, recruitment and retention, equality diversity and inclusion, senior leadership and criminal justice.

Further information and detail on all International activity can be obtained from Police Scotland’s International Business Development Manager who can be contacted at [email protected].