Chamber and committees

Delivery of the police 101 and 999 services and the recruitment and deployment of resources are operational matters for the Chief Constable, with oversight provided by the Scottish Police Authority.

The Scottish Government will continue to support the Chief Constable, who along with the Scottish Police Authority, will ensure the capability and capacity of Police Scotland.

Police Scotland’s call handlers continue to work hard to ensure that calls to the service are answered as quickly and as safely as possible. Figures published by the Home Office for July 2022 show that Police Scotland was well above the UK average for 999 call answer times with 79.9% of calls answered in under 10 seconds, compared to 68.3% for the rest of the UK.

There are no plans at this time to carry out a full review of the Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) however the Scottish Government has recently liaised with all Health Boards to discuss the implementation of the fund following its first full year of operation. Health Boards also routinely provide data on uptake to support the Scottish Government monitoring processes.

Those claiming under the YPFF are not required to specify the diagnosis of the young inpatient when making a claim. Therefore the Scottish Government does not propose to use YPFF monitoring or evaluation work to inform our support for young cancer patients and their families.

With respect to what further support is needed to support young cancer patients and their families, I refer the member to S6W-11449 on 4 November 2022.

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

Scotland’s Digital Health and Care Strategy was published in April 2018 and refreshed in October 2021 supersedes the eHealth strategy 2014-2017. The Digital Health and Care Strategy embraces the aims and progress as previously set out but incorporates a broader and more collaborative aim for digital transformation across Health and Care.

A copy of the 2021 Digital Health and Care Strategy can be found on the Scottish Government website Digital health and care strategy - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The Scottish Government expects GPs to provide face to face appointments where clinically required within a timescale determined by the need of the patient.

The works to resurface the A9 around the A822/A923 junction at Dunkeld were completed in late 2021, including changes to road markings to prohibit overtaking through the junction. Illuminated road studs were also installed as part of these works to provide better definition of the junctions during darkness. Solar powered illuminated bollards were also installed at five junctions between the B867 and Dalguise.

In advance of future dualling works Transport Scotland is currently considering further short-term improvements for the A9 between Perth and Inverness, which includes the Birnam and Dunkeld junctions. Officials met with community representatives from the area on 31 October to discuss road safety performance and the scope for short term improvements.

Those aged between 18 – 25 years old continue to have access to the Patient Travel Expenses Scheme or the Highlands and Islands Travel Scheme, both of which provide eligible claimants with support to meet travel costs associated with outpatient appointments.

Further to this, the introduction of the Improving the Cancer Journey scheme provides all adults diagnosed with cancer with the opportunity to be referred to a link officer under the joint partnership. The link officer will complete a Holistic Needs Assessment and will generate a care plan to meet the needs identified. This programme is the first of its kind in the UK. It looks to ensure that every cancer patient who can access emotional, financial and practical support. Local community assets can at this stage be identified and utilised to support the service user in meeting their needs.

The Scottish Government is not aware of any monitoring that takes place with regards to the release of rehabilitated seals from rescue centres. However, advice from the Special Committee on Seals ( 2019 Report ) is that rehabilitated seals typically behave like wild seals shortly following release. Rehabilitated seals are released back into the wild close to the sites at which they were found. No non-native seals are released in Scotland.

There are no plans to send Ministers or officials to Qatar during the 2022 World Cup.

With funding from the Scottish Government, in December 2021, SEPA contracted an environmental consultant to manage the construction of a leachate management system at the former landfill site at Tarbolton Moss, to prevent the ongoing discharges of landfill leachate to neighbouring watercourses and make it possible for leachate disposal to the public sewerage system. The design phase is now complete. As the answer to S6W-11600 on the 4 November 2022 updates, we are working with public partners to begin work to implement leachate management as soon as possible. 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 .

SEPA continues to monitor ongoing environmental risks at the site and completed its latest survey in August 2022. This found no significant increasing trends associated with the migration of landfill gas or impact to groundwater from leachate.

SEPA publishes monitoring updates and the latest update (August 2022) will be available shortly here: Tarbolton Moss Landfill | Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)