Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10773 on 
23 September 2022.

As committed to in our Programme for Government, the Public Health (Restriction of Promotions) Bill will be introduced to the Scottish Parliament in the 2022-23 parliamentary year.

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 National Referral Mechanism is the UK-wide framework for identifying victims of human trafficking and exploitation and ensuring they receive appropriate support. The NRM is operated by the Single Competent Authority and Immigration Enforcement Competent Authority within the Home Office.

NRM data can be accessed via the Modern Slavery: National Referral Mechanism statisticswhich contains records back to 2013.

In addition to this, police recorded crime statistics include several types of crime in relation to the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 as detailed below

• Slavery or forced labour (under sections 1 and 4 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015)
• Human organ crimes (under section 1 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015)
• Breach of Trafficking & Exploitation Order crime (under section 32 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 and
• Immoral traffic (under section 1 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015, section 22 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 and section 11 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995)

This act came into effect on 31 May 2016, with the first recorded crimes falling in the 2016-17 recording year (see Table One).

Prior to the implementation of the 2015 act, data is only available on Immoral traffic crimes recorded in Scotland (under section 22 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 and section 11 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995). These are shown in table 2.

Table 1 – Recorded crimes under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015, Scotland, 2016-17 to 2021-22

Notes:

1. As the act came into effect on 31 May 2016 this is not a full recording year.

2. Although this crime pre-dates the act, some charges under the act were assigned to this crime beginning with the 2016-17 recording year.

Table 2 – Recorded crimes of Immoral traffic, Scotland, 1999-00 to 2015-16

Source: Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2021-2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Place Directors are senior civil servants (directors or deputy directors) who volunteer for the role alongside their day-to-day responsibilities. Each Place Director represents Scottish Government in one of Scotland’s 32 local authority and Community Planning Partnership areas. They don't receive any additional remuneration beyond their existing salary.

The role of Place Directors is to understand, promote and support how public services work together and with communities, to improve wellbeing and outcomes on local and national priorities. They provide a bridge between local areas and the Scottish Government, providing two-way intelligence, constructive criticism and, where valuable, support for local capacity building. Their strategic role complements the more detailed responsibility of civil servants in relevant Scottish Government policy teams for testing and supporting how specific policies, services and reform programmes are taken forward in places across Scotland.

Cancer remains a priority for the Scottish Government with NHS Scotland continuing to prioritise urgent suspicion of cancer (USC) referrals and delivering high-quality care, in the safest possible way, to those who need it most. We’re continuing to invest in cancer pathways to improve waiting times, including through up-skilling nurses and have begun testing the use of Single Points of Contact in cancer pathways to support patients from the point of referral.

In addition, we have stood up a National Oncology Taskforce of NHS Board Chief Executives and Medical Directors to seek national solutions to ensure long term resilience of oncology services in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is committed to tackling health inequalities and providing access to the highest quality of care for all. We work across the clinical research system to ensure sponsors of clinical studies understand their ethical and legal responsibilities, including increasing equitable access to clinical trials. We recognise the benefits of innovative approaches to the future of clinical trials, including the opportunities presented by increased use of data and digital technologies, and learning from the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Information on how many midwives there have been in the NHS in (a) Scotland and (b) each NHS board area, in each year since 2016, broken down by (i) headcount and (ii) full-time equivalent terms can be found in the following link: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

Neither the Scottish Government nor Public Health Scotland (PHS) currently gather data on paediatric audiology waiting times. You may wish to contact NHS Highland directly to request this information.

We welcome the findings of the report which adds to the picture of health across Scotland. Scottish Government is targeting the three biggest factors that impact preventable ill-health. These are tobacco use, diet and alcohol.

Our vision is to have a Tobacco-Free Scotland by lowering smoking rates across our communities to below 5% by 2034. In autumn 2023, we will publish a refreshed Tobacco Action Plan. As part of this we are considering a range of evidence-based interventions with an emphasis on reducing smoking and vaping.

Our 2018 Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan sets out how we are taking wide-ranging action to support healthier choices. This includes a challenging aim to halve childhood obesity by 2030 and significantly reduce diet related health inequalities. Our Public Heath (Restriction of Promotions) Bill will restrict the promotion of unhealthier food and drink and will be introduced as part of the 2022-23 legislative session.

We are evaluating the impact of minimum unit pricing (MUP) at the current price of 50 pence per unit and will assess what level MUP should be set at going forward, if MUP is to continue.

We will soon consult on potential restrictions on alcohol advertising and promotion to protect children and young people, and those in recovery. Subject to the outcomes of this consultation, we will introduce legislation within the lifetime of this parliament.

Significant work has been done by COPFS, toxicologists and pathologists to address this issue. Since the beginning of 2021, there has been no backlog of toxicology reports. In some cases, the toxicology analysis requires to be supplemented by further scientific testing to assist the pathologist in establishing the cause of death. The dedicated team established by COPFS in November 2021 continues to manage the submission of the final post mortem reports which then require to be considered by Procurators Fiscal.

In this reporting year, over 90% of final post mortem reports have been received within 12 weeks of the date of post mortem and the number of reports still to be processed by COPFS has been substantially reduced from a peak figure of almost 2200 in December 2021 to 356 the week commencing 20 October 2022.

The Scottish Government 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.

In addition, next year we will publish a refreshed Tobacco Action Plan which will include a range of evidence-based interventions with an emphasis on reducing smoking and vaping among children and young people.