Chamber and committees

The Food Crime and Incidents Unit currently have 23 members of staff compared to 14 members of staff in 2018.

In 2015, FSS took the decision to establish the Scottish National Database (SND). as part of its strategic commitment to address recommendations of the Scudamore Expert Advisory Group, which was established by Scottish Ministers in February 2013, to review the lessons learned from the Horsemeat incident.

The report recommended that:

“The New Food Body should ensure that integrated IT systems are in place for recording data relating to official controls and other interventions at food businesses. These systems should be mandated for use by all competent authorities in Scotland”.

Following successful pilot of SND the system was rolled out across all 32 Scottish Local Authorities with completion in January 2018.

SND allows the real time collection of food law intervention data direct from the Local Authority Management Information Systems via a secure portal.

This technology allows:

• Data information can be used in a more strategic way, to enable datasets to be linked and give new insights and analysis.
• Significant reduction in the administrative burden placed on LAs in preparing and sending data to FSS.
• LAs in Scotland already have well established MIS systems and procedures, the approach was implemented without impacting on the day to day operations of their systems.
• A toolset for reporting has been introduced. This provides the means for FSS and LAs to co-create a comprehensive suite of dashboards and reports to serve across all of the enforcement community.
• The Food Law enforcement community in Scotland should be more robust and adaptable to future changes in the regulatory landscape, by having a flexible means to collect expanded datasets and a more effective means of horizon scanning.

FSS is currently working with Scottish Government Digital teams under the CivTech Programme to explore a digital system that will be open to businesses and Local Authorities to provide effective means to enhance our digital systems.

It is not possible to separately identify which charges and prosecutions for assault were specifically for assaults on doctors

(a) The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of penalties issued for speeding offences by specific trunk road location or road number. This level of detail is not recorded in the Criminal Proceedings database.

(b) The latest available information on convictions is for the financial year 2022-23.

Number of people convicted for speeding offences (regardless of location), where main crime, by result, 2018-19 to 2022-23.

It is not possible to separately identify which convictions for assault were specifically for assaults on nurses

Each territorial Health Board across Scotland has agreed performance improvement plans in place, detailing what is being done at local level to drive improvements. The Scottish Government has a sustained focus on the delivery of these plans and meet with Cancer Management Teams in all Health Boards across Scotland frequently, including NHS Grampian, to identify challenges, explore solutions, and share best practice.

This year we have allocated an additional £30 million funding to reduce waiting times across a range of specialities, including diagnostics and cancer. As part of this, NHS Grampian were allocated almost £200,000 for the treatment of skin cancer.

If approved by Parliament, the Scottish Government’s budget for the coming year will invest a record £21.7 billion in Scotland’s health and social care services, including £200 million to reduce waiting lists and improve capacity.

In addition, our National Digital Dermatology Programme, backed by £1.8 million funding, will help to reduce long waits for outpatient dermatology appointments across Scotland’s NHS. This allows for images of skin conditions to be captured in Primary Care and securely transferred to clinicians so diagnoses and follow-up appointments can be arranged. This leads to a better and quicker service for patients – allowing clinicians to see patients in the right place sooner - and could potentially reduce demand for outpatient dermatology appointments by up to 50 per cent.

The Digital Dermatology Programme was launched in November 2024, with patients in Dumfries and Galloway and Greater Glasgow and Clyde the first to benefit from this new pathway, and is due to be deployed to all Health Boards, including NHS Grampian, by Spring 2025.

In response to part a) of the question, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-26265 on 15 April 2024, in which I detailed the total cost of the Childsmile programme in the five financial years between 2019-20 and 2023-24.

In response to part b) of the question, Scottish Government does not hold this information.

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

The Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGORR) is the Scottish Government’s central co-ordination mechanism for responding to civil contingencies emergencies. SGORR activates when and for as long as the severity and complexity of an emergency is such that urgent co-ordination, support or strategic direction from or within the Scottish Government is required and cannot be provided effectively through business-as-usual structures or other Scottish Government response mechanisms. Incidents which may meet this threshold include but are not restricted to severe weather events; terrorist attacks; pandemics; significant disruption to the supply of essential services/utilities or large-scale public disorder.