Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W- 22039 on 30 October 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 .

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

As at 9 October 2023, the majority of cells occupied by more than one person across the prison estate had a living space of at least 7m 2.

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. Practitioner Services is the body that pays independent contractor dentists on behalf of the Health Boards.

The Scottish Government expects everybody to be treated fairly and with respect when seeking health care. All health boards have policies in place to fulfil their duties under the Equality Act 2010.

The Scottish Government supports the appropriate use of single sex exemptions to services when it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.

Responsibility for complying with the requirements of the Equality Act rests with individual organisations. The responsibility for oversight of compliance with the 2010 Act, rests with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).EHRC has issued guidance on how the Regulations should be applied in practice, including on hospital wards.

The EHRC is independent, and it cannot be directed by Scottish Ministers.

All mainland Health Boards now offer abortions for all patients up to at least 20 weeks’ gestation in line with the recommendations in the 2022 Healthcare Improvement Scotland Sexual Health Standards.

The abortion statistics for England and Wales show that from January to June 2022, 19 patients resident in Scotland were treated in England or Wales who were over 20 weeks’ gestation and 5 patients who were between 13 and 19 weeks’ gestation. It is not possible to confirm how many of those patients sought treatment in England or Wales by choice and how many were referred there by their Health Board.

We understand that there will be rare occasions where waiting times mean that women under 20 weeks’ gestation are required to travel to England as they would not be able to access the service in Scotland before 20 weeks. We are working with BPAS to seek data on this, but the majority of patients needing to travel are over 20 weeks.

We continue to encourage Health Boards to ensure that patients close to 20 weeks’ gestation are prioritised for appointments.

It is for local authorities to hold information on the type or condition of those devices that have been distributed across primary and secondary settings within individual local authorities.

The purpose of the Scottish Dental Access Initiative (SDAI) is not for the recruitment of dentists, but to improve access to NHS dental services by encouraging dentists to set up a new practice or extend an existing practice in areas where access to NHS dental services is challenging.

Since 2007, there have been seven dental practices in Dumfries and Galloway that have been provided with SDAI grants.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. However, dental registration statistics, including the percentage of adults who are registered with a NHS dentist in the Dumfries and Galloway area, are published by Public Health Scotland and can be viewed online at: Publications - Public Health Scotland .

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. I would advise the member to contact the NHS Health Board to obtain this information.

The number of Full-time Equivalent (FTE) Secondary Teachers with Music, Drama or Art as their main subject taught, broken down by local authority, is shown in Table A. FTE teacher numbers with Science as the main subject taught are shown in Table B. Science includes the following subjects: Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Science (general).

Teacher FTE numbers for individual subjects in Secondary schools are published in Table 8.9 in the annual Teacher Census Supplementary statistics available from https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-census-supplementary-statistics/ .

Table A: Secondary school teachers (FTE) with Art & Design, Music or Drama as main subject taught by local authority [Note 1][Note 2]