Chamber and committees

ScotRail advises that it extended its contract with Trainline Plc as a holding position to maintain continuity of service while waiting for details of the alternative approach to ticketing which has been promised as part of the proposed Great British Railways arrangements.

You will appreciate that the UK Government has now again postponed delivery of it proposed rail reform process. Such uncertainty and delay are unhelpful.

As part of a suite of measures introduced on 1 February 2022, dentists now receive an enhanced examination fee for seeing patients, including a new additional child examination fee. These changes also included the extension of Childsmile fees for children and young people up to 17 years of age (before up to 5 years of age), and fluoride varnish application between 2 and 12 years of age (before between 2 and 5 years of age). Childsmile fees are weighted so that NHS dental teams receive three times the payment for children from SIMD areas 1 and 2.

The Childsmile Programme has an emphasis on prevention, rather than treatment, and has resulted in significant improvements in children's oral health through being delivered via nursery schools, primary schools, and dental practices, and includes free, daily, supervised toothbrushing, the application of fluoride varnish, and dietary and oral hygiene advice.

The Scottish Government remains committed to achieving elimination of Hepatitis C (HCV) in Scotland by 2024. We are pleased that excellent progress has been made to date, despite the additional challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. An update on the progress of this work has recently been published by Public Health Scotland, and the report can be found here: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/media/15549/surveillance-of-hepatitis-c-in-scotland-oct22.pdf

Clinicians and carers across Scotland are encouraged to identify those with risk factors for HCV and test them. To support this activity, the Hepatitis C Clinical Leads Group of the Scottish Health Protection Network (SHPN) published Recommendations on Hepatitis C Virus Case-finding and Access to Care in 2019, and this can be found at: https://hps.scot.nhs.uk/web-resources-container/recommendations-on-hepatitis-c-virus-case-finding-and-access-to-care/

In 2019, NHS Tayside were world-leading in eliminating HCV within their Health Board area, a key part of their strategy involved innovative testing models using community pharmacy. Officials are exploring what a national roll out of that approach requires.

The Scottish Government publishes quarterly National Statistics on crimes recorded by the police. This includes recorded crimes of 'Theft of a motor vehicle' which covers both cars and other motor vehicle types. These have fallen substantially over the longer term, with a 69% reduction from 15,000 in 2006-07 to 4,691 in the year ending June 2022. In terms of the last five years, levels have remained fairly constant, except for a significant fall in the year ending June 2021, that may have been a consequence of pandemic-related restrictions. The number of crimes recorded in each of the last five years for the year ending in June is set out in the following table.

There are no plans to discontinue national standardised assessments for P1 learners. The Scottish Government commissioned David Reedy to conduct an independent review of the assessments for P1 children in response to motion S5M-13945. The Reedy review (2019) concluded that the P1 SNSA was compatible with a play-based approach to learning, had valuable potential and should continue. The report further identified “scant evidence of children becoming upset when taking the P1 SNSA” – a finding which is borne out by pupil survey responses from P1 learners in 2021/22, which indicate 92% of children felt happy completing their assessments.

The Scottish Government remains focused on strengthening our screen sector and creating the conditions for continued growth through our support for increased studio infrastructure.

Working with Screen Scotland, the Scottish Government has facilitated the delivery of studio facilities across Scotland, including the large-scale film and high-end TV FirstStage Studio in Leith and a multi-camera studio at Kelvin Hall in Glasgow. This is creating the conditions for continued growth across production, development, talent and skills.

Kelvin Hall in Glasgow’s West End, which was part-funded with £7.9m of Scottish Government funding through Screen Scotland, contains a flexible production space, as well as being developed to house a dedicated “entertainment” production facility for comedy, quiz, factual entertainment and “shiny floor” shows.

The Scottish Government also welcomes private and public sector projects to develop film studio infrastructure in Scotland. The enterprise and development agencies are continuing to offer support, with various aspects of business planning, including to secure financing, land and specialist advice, while respecting commercial confidentiality.

The Scottish Government provides annual funding to Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). It is a matter for the Chief Constable and the Chief Fire Officer to determine the most appropriate allocation of resources and operational approach to preparing for, and responding to incidents during, bonfire night.

Since 2018 Operation Moonbeam has been the national multi-agency response to the bonfire night period. The well-established operation is running again this year, with the planning and preparation involving Police Scotland, SFRS, local authorities, COSLA, Scottish Community Safety Network, Scottish Ambulance Service, British Fireworks Association and Trading Standards. The Scottish Government has engaged with senior officers from Police Scotland and SFRS who have advised that robust multi-agency systems are in place again this year.

In terms of legislative change, on 10 October two key measures of the Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Act 2022 came into force – a proxy purchase and supply offence criminalising people who purchase fireworks for, or make fireworks available to, under 18s; and a statutory aggravation for attacks against emergency workers involving fireworks and pyrotechnic articles. The statutory aggravation requires courts to take this into account when determining the most appropriate sentence. This provides an important reassurance to emergency workers that the Scottish Government is committed to such behaviour being firmly addressed.

The Scottish Government is aware that those experiencing poor mental health are more likely to smoke, and to smoke more, than those with good mental health. Reducing the inequalities caused by higher rates of tobacco use among this group is an important area of consideration and one is being looked as part of our revised Tobacco Action Plan due to be published in Autumn 2023.

Our vision is to have a Tobacco-Free Scotland through lowering smoking rates in our communities to below 5% by 2034 and to create a generation of young people who do not want to smoke, with all the health and economic benefits that follow. We are developing an expert group that will be reporting on smoking cessation services early next year. We are also committed to working with our NHS cessation coordinators and pharmacy colleagues across Scotland to refocus and remobilise these services to ensure we are reaching those in our communities who are in most need of support to quit.

Work is also ongoing to develop a new Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy. We have received a broad range of evidence and views through our engagement to date, including through our public consultation, which closed on 9 September and received around 500 responses. These will be carefully considered over the coming months as we continue our work with stakeholders to shape the Strategy and Delivery Plan.

Transient elastography, commonly measured with a FibroScan, is currently used in several NHS Boards throughout Scotland to assess liver disease in hospital settings.

However its use in community settings is less well established. Local trials of its use in the community to assess those at high risk of liver disease have been initiated.

As we strive to deliver evidence-based policy, we await a more full evaluation of the data before considering the next steps. Experience so far has shown it to be feasible to introduce this technology in primary care and community settings and this could improve early detection of liver disease. Early detection of those with unrecognised advanced liver disease provides greater opportunity to prevent liver-related illness and deaths.

The Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database is not a live system and the latest available information is for the financial year 2020-21. Statistics are presented on the number of people dealt with by the Scottish Criminal Justice System where proceedings have concluded.

Our records show one person was prosecuted in Scottish courts in 2018-19, where the main charge was under the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011. They were found not guilty.