Chamber and committees

The refreshed Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) Strategy 2021 to 2026, published in March recognises the importance of defibrillation registration. We are key partners within the Save a Life for Scotland Partnership (SALFS).

We would urge all defibrillator guardians to register their defibrillator so that the Scottish Ambulance Service call handlers can direct people to them in incidents of cardiac arrest. Registration of defibrillators in Scotland will build the evidence to support people and organisations in making informed decisions about where to place their life saving device.

Data on nationality is not collected as part of the COVID vaccination programme.

We commenced the collection of ethnicity data as part of the vaccination programme in November 2021. This is to help tackle racialised health inequalities. Once this data becomes available it will help us to better design and tailor services to improve people’s health outcomes. This data is collected following a recommendation from the Expert Reference Group on COVID and Ethnicity (ERG).

The ethnicity question is a mandatory field, and so everyone should complete this field, though there is an option for people to select the option ‘prefer not to say/don’t know’. The ethnicity question used is taken from Census 2022 Question 23.

Full information on what personal information we process , including ethnicity, and how we use your data as part of the COVID-19 vaccination programme can be found on NHS Inform under Data, Privacy and Ethics.

Public Health Scotland already publishes information about equality of vaccination uptake. The most recent data can be found at COVID-19 Statistical Report - 1 December 2021 - COVID-19 statistical report - Publications - Public Health Scotland . The report contains information about the data sources used.

The Scottish Government’s commitment to the early diagnosis of cancer is reflected in our £44m Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme, which adopts a whole-systems approach to diagnosing and treating cancer as early as possible – ranging from screening and public awareness campaigns to diagnostics and data. The NHS Recovery Plan, published August 2021, commits an additional £20m for the Programme.

In terms of data, Scotland already publishes a range of quality data-sets which include blood cancers. Some examples of these are our quarterly published Cancer Waiting Times data which includes lymphomas, our annually published Cancer Mortality data which has blood and lymphatic cancers included, and our annually published Cancer Survival stats which includes blood cancers.

In addition to this, the National Cancer Data Group is an established advisory group containing relevant clinicians and stakeholders, and meets regularly in order to seek improvements in data collection to, in turn, improve cancer outcomes in Scotland.

Our officials are currently in discussion with the Blood Cancer Alliance to arrange a meeting early this year, to explore how further improved outcomes for patients diagnosed with blood cancers can be achieved.

The Fuel Poverty Strategy was published on 23 December.

The Strategy sets out a range of comprehensive actions that will be taken to tackle the drivers of fuel poverty and meet the Scottish Government’s commitment to eradicate it as far as reasonably possible by 2040 as required by the

2019 Fuel Poverty Act.

Work to deliver the actions within the Strategy will be overseen by the new statutory Scottish Fuel Poverty Advisory Panel, membership of which was also announced on 23 December.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05156 on 10 January 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

The Scottish Government recognises how important free bus travel will be to those young people under the age of 22 who need to make essential journeys during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. For this reason the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme remains set to come into operation on 31 January 2022. Details on how to apply are available on the Transport Scotland website ( https://www.transport.gov.scot/concessionary-travel/young-persons-free-bus-travel-scheme/#69510 ). At this time, given the high levels of transmission associated with the Omicron variant, we are asking that only those with an essential need to travel by bus apply and that anyone travelling should follow the latest advice to keep themselves and others safe. The high profile marketing campaign which was planned to accompany the opening of the application process has been delayed until a time when it better aligns with wider public messaging, once current guidance on staying at home as much as possible and avoiding mixing in larger groups has been eased. As a result, initial usage of the scheme is expected to be less than it would otherwise have been.

The Scottish Government has enough testing stock to meet demand into next year and we are working with the UK Government on procuring additional stocks.

I refer to member to the answer to question S6W-05124 on 10 January 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.

Spirometry is already a key recommendation in national clinical guidelines and we expect clinicians to deliver care in line with all relevant clinical guidelines when assessing patients who present themselves at healthcare settings with respiratory symptoms.

We also recognise that data plays an important role in improving services and understanding respiratory care in Scotland. That is why in our Respiratory Care Action Plan we have committed to develop a core respiratory data set that will help us understand the areas for improvement in respiratory care.

This procedure is usually performed in an outpatient setting. Public Health Scotland can confirm that the SMR00 dataset contains outpatient clinic records where spirometry is listed as the main operation.