Chamber and committees

Local authorities and schools are required to ensure that all food and drink served in schools meets the nutritional standards set out in The Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2020. Further information about nutritional standards is available in our Healthy Eating in Schools guidance which is available on the Scottish Government's website through the following web link: Healthy eating in schools: guidance 2020 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

There is no specific requirement for school meals to be hot although it would be difficult to meet the nutritional standards set out in the Regulations without providing hot options. The Regulations provide flexibility for local authority school caterers to design menus which meet local needs and circumstances. This would allow for example, more hot choices to be offered during the colder winter months and more cold options during warmer months.

The safety of patients and staff within our A&E Departments is paramount. This is why the Scottish Government is providing Boards facing the greatest challenges, including University Hospital Monklands and Forth Valley Royal Hospital, with enhanced support over the winter period. The level of delayed discharge is driving up A&E long waits, which is why we are working jointly with Health Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships to ensure people leave hospital without delay, freeing up vital beds for those who need them most.

Since the beginning of 2021, HIS has been carrying out COVID-19 focused inspections of acute hospitals, using methodology adapted from their previous ‘safe and clean’ inspections. As at November 2022, HIS have carried out nine Safe Delivery of Care acute hospital inspections.

Through our £600 million winter plan we are recruiting 1,000 new NHS staff. Additionally our £50 million Urgent and Unscheduled Care Collaborative looks to drive down A&E waits by improving the systems and processes to deliver better communications and robust escalation. This approach also aims to reduce unnecessary attendances through redesign of urgent care which signposts people to more appropriate care, avoiding admission where possible through Hospital at Home and our Out-patient Antimicrobial Therapy service which allows patients to be treated at home or in the community, ensuring people are discharged as soon as fit and ready.

Our Right Care Right Place media campaign aims to help the public to better understand the healthcare services available to them so they can make more informed choices about the right care in the right place for their specific health care needs which is not always emergency care.

Beds data by NHS board and hospital are already published by Public Health Scotland. The most recent quarterly publication is ‘ Acute hospital activity and NHS beds information (quarterly) - Quarter ending 30 June 2022 ’, which was published on 29 November 2022. This is the latest available data that can be released as we are now within 12 weeks of the next scheduled publication in February 2023.

The beds data can be found on the Data files page by scrolling down to the heading “Hospital beds to June 2022”, where there is a link to the following Excel file:

• Beds by NHS board of treatment and specialty (csv | 4.5Mb).

This is quarterly data for the five year period up to and including April – June 2022.

Below is an excerpt from this file that contains the latest values for Highland hospitals.

The Scottish Government is considering the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) latest advice on greenhouse gas emissions targets and will respond as soon as possible. Under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, the CCC’s advice on future target levels must be sought at least every five years to ensure they are still in line with, among other things, current international carbon reporting practice.

Scottish Water operates 759 wastewater treatment works in the Highlands and Islands region. (includes Highlands, Western Isles, Orkney, Shetland, parts of Moray and parts of Argyll and Bute)

The Scottish Government’s ambition is to explore fully the opportunities across the energy sector for public ownership in an independent Scotland. As an independent state, we would have full powers in relation to energy generation and borrowing and as such would enable Scotland to consider large-scale public sector involvement or ownership in key technologies.

We remain supportive of the future potential for a public energy company in Scotland and, through the new agency, Heat and Energy Efficiency Scotland, we will support others with an interest in exploring options to take forward new models for energy provision.

The Scottish Government has regular engagement on energy with the Welsh Government.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to delivering a world class health service for the people of Scotland in a sustainable model that remains fully aligned with the founding principles of the NHS. This will deliver high quality, safe, effective and person-centred care to all patients as they access services. Our Progress Update on the NHS Recovery Plan outlines the actions that are underway as services remobilise from the pandemic. We regularly work with Healthcare Improvement Scotland Community Engagement through their Citizen’s Panel work to understand more clearly views across Scotland regarding their health service.

The Scottish freight gauge programme identified several sections of the Aberdeen to Central Belt route that would benefit from infrastructure interventions to allow larger intermodal freight containers that are common in road haulage which would support modal shift from road to rail. Such works would also facilitate the clearances between trains and infrastructure necessary for electrification.

I am advised by my officials in Transport Scotland that Network Rail is refining its proposed scope of works for the Aberdeen to Central Belt project, which will be considered by the Scottish Ministers in the new year.

The recent Covid 19 pandemic highlighted the need for a national medical equipment management system in Scotland that provides an NHS Scotland-wide overview and visibility of critical medical equipment. To deliver this requirement, a National Medical Equipment Management System (NMEMS) is currently being developed by NHS National Services Scotland, NHS Scotland, and the Scottish Government. Once in place the system will also allow for improved strategic planning of medical equipment replacement and will aid the response to medical equipment related safety notices.

The system will be launched in 2 phases: Phase 1 commenced in October 2022 and aims to install medical equipment management systems in all the NHS Boards that currently do not have one. Work for phase 1 is currently underway with a provisional completion date of Spring 2023.

Phase 2 aims to link all the NHS Board medical equipment management systems centrally and is currently on track to commence in early 2023, with completion projected for summer 2023.