It is important to acknowledge that vaccines are medicines and like all medicines they can have side effects and, on rare occasions, cause injury. Thankfully, most side effects are mild and short lived, but the Scottish Government recognises that some are not.

The Scottish Government has corresponded with the Scottish Vaccine Injury Group on several occasions, and has routinely signposted members of the public to the vaccine damage payment scheme when they have raised issues of vaccine–related injury. The safety of medicines, including vaccines, and the subject matter of the Vaccine Damage Payments Scheme are matters which are reserved to the UK Government, therefore we are unable to comment on individual cases.

The Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry is currently underway and the forthcoming Module 4 of the UK COVID-19 Public Inquiry on Vaccines and Therapeutics will consider vaccine safety and other aspects, such as potential reforms to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme.

The Scottish Vaccine Injury Group is a core participant of both the UK and Scottish Inquiries and as such has a central role. Due to the group’s involvement with the Inquiries, it would not be appropriate for Ministers to meet with them at this stage.

I advised through recent correspondence with the Scottish Vaccine Injury Group that I would be open to meeting with representatives of the group once Module 4 of the UK Inquiry has concluded, and after Baroness Hallett has issued my recommendations. This would facilitate a full and open discussion to take place between both parties, where recommendations could be discussed, especially if there were any the group felt weren’t full addressed as part of the inquiry.

After a 20 month independent review, the Hearings System Working Group (HSWG), chaired by Sheriff Mackie, published its report on 25 May 2023.

Following detailed analysis, The Scottish Government published its response to the ‘Hearings for Children’ report in December 2023. Of the 138 ‘Hearings for Children’ recommendations, 63 were accepted in full, 26 were accepted with conditions, 42 were identified as requiring further exploration or consultation, and 7 were not accepted.

In January 2024, a strategic redesign board was then established to drive forward the non-legislative components of system redesign by 2026. Co-chaired by Scottish Government and COSLA, membership comprises the National Convener of Children’s Hearings Scotland, the Principal Reporter of the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration and Social Work Scotland.

In addition, a public consultation on the legislative elements of the redesign of the children’s hearings system launched on 26 July. That will run for 13 weeks and close on 28 October 2024. The Scottish Government intends to introduce legislation later this Parliamentary term. If passed, the legislative elements and the overall system redesign programme, will be introduced by 2030.

The Our Hearings Our Voice Board (OHOV) worked closely with Sheriff David Mackie and The Promise Scotland during the development of the ‘Hearings for Children’ report. Scottish Government officials have continued to build on this relationship and are keen to ensure OHOV members continue to amplify the voice of those with lived and living experience of the hearings system throughout the redesign work. Further engagement with children and young people is also being undertaken through the Children and Young Persons Participation Framework. Who Cares? Scotland and Barnardo’s have been appointed to lead.

Regrettably, a start date for the review is not confirmed at this time. It is important that the review of the guidance on patient travel expenses reimbursement is considered within the context of wider reform on access to health care which is already in progress. This will inform both how and when the review is taken forward.

In 2023 we prepared the draft Transport to Health plan and have been engaging with Health Boards, Regional Transport Partnerships and other partners to take forward a range of commitments to improve joined up working on transport to health. The plan will be published this Autumn and a workplan has been agreed.

Regrettably, a start date for the review is not confirmed at this time. It is important that the review of the guidance on patient travel expenses reimbursement is considered within the context of wider reform on access to health care which is already in progress. This will inform both how and when the review is taken forward.

In 2023 we prepared the draft Transport to Health plan and have been engaging with Health Boards, Regional Transport Partnerships and other partners to take forward a range of commitments to improve joined up working on transport to health. The plan will be published this Autumn and a workplan has been agreed.

There is no plan to re-introduce prescription charges in Scotland. Prescription charges were abolished in April 2011 because Scottish Ministers believed that they were a tax on ill health and a barrier to good health for many people. This was particularly so for those with long-term conditions and those on a low income who in the past faced choices about which medicines they could afford. The introduction of free prescriptions has been fully funded by the Scottish Government, at no cost to NHS budgets.

Although the deaths of the two captive-bred wildcats, who died after their release into Cairngorms National Park, is disappointing, these deaths need to be set in context. They bring the total deaths to date to three from a release of 28 wildcats since last year.

Conditions this year have been more challenging due to poor weather and this year representing a low point in the vole population cycle, which are one of the wildcats’ main prey species.

Some mortality is expected in reintroduction projects (as we would also expect in the wild population), with the current rate at the lower end of what we would anticipate. The survival rate of the wildcats released last year has been much higher than anticipated, and wild births have also increased wildcat numbers in the area.

This is down to the extensive planning and efforts of the Scottish Wildcat Action project and its partners to ensure that released wildcats have the best possible chance of survival following their release. The Saving Wildcats field team closely monitor all of the released wildcats using GPS-radio collars and a network of camera traps, and have been providing them with supplementary food in the weeks immediately after their release.?

A Ministerial Working Group, chaired by myself, has been set up to support the Scottish Government in considering the Grenfell Inquiry Phase 2 Report and how its 58 recommendations could apply in a Scottish context. Where necessary, we will take further action to address building safety.

The Scottish Government will consider each recommendation and its supporting evidence in order to prepare a response on the matters for which it has responsibility. A report will be prepared by Spring 2025.

Engagement with Ministers in the UK Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Assembly will take place throughout this process.

A delayed discharge occurs when a hospital patient (aged 18 or over) who is clinically ready for discharge from inpatient hospital care continues to occupy a hospital bed beyond the date they are ready for discharge. Public Health Scotland hold data relating to people aged 18 and over affected by delayed discharge.

Data for August 2024 is not yet available as it is due to be published on 1 October 2024. Therefore Table 1 presents the total number of people aged 18 or over who faced a period of delay, for any reason, in NHS Western Isles between 1 January and 31 July 2024.

Table 1: Number of people1 who faced a period of delay in NHS Western Isles hospitals in the period 1 January 2024 to 31 July 2024, by age group.

Every life lost to alcohol is a tragedy and the recent alcohol specific deaths statistics published by the National Records of Scotland is a stark reminder of the challenge we continue to face in tackling alcohol harm across Scotland.

The Scottish Government continues to prevent alcohol harm including continuing and increasing the minimum unit price of alcohol. Minimum unit pricing has been estimated to have saved hundreds of lives since it was first implemented in 2018 and the steps taken by this Government are expected to continue and increase the positive health effects of the policy. The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care has also set out the next steps for progressing work on alcohol marketing, which also seeks to develop further preventative approaches to reducing alcohol harm.

To support people already drinking at hazardous and harmful levels the Scottish Government provided record investment to ADPs in the 2024-2025 financial year. In addition to this we are currently developing a national treatment specification for alcohol treatment in Scotland which will look to build on the work of the forthcoming UK Clinical Guidelines for Alcohol Treatment. The Scottish Government also supports innovation to develop best practice on tackling alcohol harm including projects such as the Managed Alcohol Programme and the Primary Care Alcohol Nurse Outreach Service which has recently been embedded into mainstream services in Glasgow City ADP.

The then Minister for Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing issued a letter to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) supporting the release of Alcohol Focus Scotland’s guidance on undertaking alcohol death reviews on 24 September 2020. The letter asked that ADPs undertake an alcohol death review every three years.