Chamber and committees

Integrated Joint Bodies are best placed to decide how funding can be used to best respond to local needs in their own communities. To allow them to do so, Scottish Government funding to support Alcohol and Drug Partnership projects is transferred to the NHS Boards via their baseline allocations for onward delegation to Integration Authorities. This year NHS Ayrshire and Arran received £6,779,624.

That funding has increased dramatically as part of the national mission to tackle the drug deaths emergency in Scotland: we are allocating an additional £250 million over the next five years to improve and increase access to services for people affected by drug addiction.

We are clear that any opportunities to engage with people in crisis, including those who have experienced near-fatal overdose, should be explored in order to encourage access to appropriate treatment. The implementation of the new Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) standards will ensure that anyone identified through hospital admission as being at risk of drug-related harms or near-fatal overdose will be identified, prioritised and supported into the treatment that is right for them.

The Scottish Government fleet (including Government Car Service and Transport Scotland) is currently made up of 221 vehicles.

This number will reduce in the coming weeks, as new vehicles are issued and their replacements are disposed.

The following table details the fleet broken down by purpose, manufacturer and model and year of registration.

As advised in response to the question S6W-03892, the booster vaccination programme is administered by health boards and GP practices. NHS health board costs across Scotland will vary depending on their location, cost structures, and local delivery mechanisms.

The Scottish Government is conscious of demonstrating value for the public pound and to this extent, it costs £12.58 per vaccination dose (whether first, second, third or booster) when administered by GP practices.

We must make sure our decisions on all of the COVID protection measures are necessary, proportionate and targeted in delivering our four harms approach to alleviating the direct harms of COVID-19, the indirect health harms, and the social and economic harms. We continue to take and review decisions based on the latest evidence from clinical and scientific literature, from public opinion, and from international experience.

Our review process includes regular engagement with businesses about the protection measures which will help us to break the chains of transmission, and that is set out in the Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment.

The Scottish Government provides baseline funding to NHS Boards and it is for Boards to determine how to use this funding to meet the healthcare needs of their resident population.

In 2021-22, Health funding exceeds £16 billion with £11.6 billion allocated to our frontline Health Boards, and a further £1.9 billion to address pressures relating to Covid-19 across health and social care.

Detail on how funding has been used specifically for the assessment and treatment of deep vein thrombosis would require to be requested from NHS Boards.

The Scottish Government’s commitment to train 500 Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANPs) by 2021 was met by August 2021. As of September 2021, 536 nurses had completed their Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Nursing Practice (PG Dip ANP).

The Scottish Government is continuing to work with the operational and clinical teams in NHS Dumfries and Galloway to support the remobilisation of all services, including surgery for orthopaedic patients.

Whilst local capacity for surgery has been reduced, due to ongoing pressures, the Board have utilised orthopaedic capacity at Golden Jubilee National Hospital for a mix of routine long waiting patients and urgent patients.

To support the system as a whole we published our NHS Recovery Plan, which is backed by more than £1 billion of investment, sets out how we will take forward our aim of increasing NHS capacity by at least 10% in order to address the backlog of care and meet the ongoing healthcare needs of the country.

We will include record of booster vaccination in the NHS Scotland Covid Status app from 9 December and on paper certificates from 15 December.

The flu vaccination and covid vaccination is a joint programme in Scotland, eligible citizens are offered both vaccinations at a single appointment. Staff can therefore not be delineated by vaccination type. Management information indicates that during the period 17 – 23 Nov c. 1,470 whole time equivalent (WTE) vaccinators were deployed by Health Boards (1 x WTE = 37.5 hours per week); staffing deployment on the programme is kept under active review Head count will be significantly higher as vaccinations staff work a variety of different working patterns, in line with local needs and clinic opening hours. This figure does not include administration and support staff which varies by both Health Board setting and clinic type.

The Scottish Government is clear that we expect gamekeepers, alongside other land managers, will play a key role in our plans to protect and restore biodiversity, and ensure that the land is managed to help us mitigate and adapt to climate change. We also recognise the economic and social value that sporting estates can bring to rural communities. As we develop and implement policy in these areas we will seek opportunities to engage with gamekeepers both formally and informally and we hope they will continue to share their expertise and experience.