Chamber and committees

The information requested is not held by the Scottish Government. The operational deployment of Police Officers is a matter for the Chief Constable, with oversight by the Scottish Police Authority.

The information requested is not held by the Scottish Government. The operational deployment of Police Officers is a matter for the Chief Constable, with oversight by the Scottish Police Authority.

The Scottish Government collects and publishes annual information on Common assault of emergency workers within two National Statistics bulletins.

The first is Recorded Crime in Scotland [1] . Table A8 of the Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2020-21 National Statistics shows the latest 10 year trend in Common assault of an emergency worker offences for Scotland and this information can also be broken down by local authority area. It should be noted that these figures will not include certain attacks or assaults on emergency workers (for example should an emergency worker be assaulted and sustain a serious assault level injury, this would be recorded as a serious assault). From previous research into common assault and further information published by Police Scotland, the vast majority of police recorded offences of Common assault of an emergency worker relate to police officers.

The second is Criminal Proceedings in Scotland [2] . The number of people proceeded against and people convicted in Scottish courts for assaults against emergency workers under various criminal offences are published in additional tables [3] alongside the annual National Statistics publication. Assaults against police officers may be charged under a range of statutory offences including under section 90(1) of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012, section 1 of the Emergency Worker(s) Act (Scotland) 2005, and Section 89(1) of the Police Act 1996. People could be also proceeded against under Section 41(1) of the Police (Scotland) Act 1967 for offences committed prior to the introduction of the Police and Fire Reform Act. Over 1,300 people in Scotland had a main conviction for assaulting a police officer under these acts in 2019-20. In addition, serious assaults against police officers may be charged under common law of assault and counted as serious assaults in the publication. We cannot determine if a proceeding for serious assault was against a police officer.

Note that the Criminal Proceedings data shows the main conviction in a proceeding, which is the charge that received the most serious sentence. This means that some charges for assaulting a police officer may not be recorded in the publication, as they weren’t the main charge.

Care should be taken when comparing different data sources relating to the criminal justice system. For example, recorded crime statistics count crimes and offences at the time that they came to the attention of Police Scotland while criminal proceedings statistics report on cases which have concluded in court. This means that a crime may be recorded by the police in one year and court proceedings concluded in a subsequent year. In addition, the criminal proceedings statistics only count the main charge in a proceeding, but a person may be proceeded against for more than one crime or a set of crimes with more than one victim. There is also the possibility that the crime recorded by the police may be altered in the course of judicial proceedings.

[1] https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2020-2021/

[2] https://www.gov.scot/publications/criminal-proceedings-scotland-2019-20/documents/

[3] https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/statistics/2021/05/criminal-proceedings-scotland-2019-20/documents/emergency-workers-tables/emergency-workers-tables/govscot%3Adocument/emergency-workers-tables.xlsx

The work of Police Scotland’s International Development and Innovation Unit and the papers presented at meetings of their International Development Board are a matter for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland, who is operationally independent of the Scottish Government. The decision to enter into UK Government funded contracts to train police forces in countries such as Sri Lanka is also a matter for the Chief Constable with the Scottish Police Authority having responsibility for oversight and scrutiny of his decisions.

Police Scotland has confirmed that their work in Sri Lanka is aimed to improve community policing and gender equality, with all training underpinned by equality and human rights. The training was initially paused due to the coronavirus pandemic and they are now awaiting the outcome of the review of the Overseas Security and Justice Assistance assessment for Sri Lanka, which is the responsibility of the UK Government, so that this can be given due consideration.

The information requested is not held by the Scottish Government. The operational deployment of Police Officers is a matter for the Chief Constable, with oversight by the Scottish Police Authority.

Our shared priorities with the BMA were set out in the joint letter of 02 December 2021.

https://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/publications/DC20201203GMS_Contract.pdf

This letter sets out the actions we are taking across all the work streams supporting the 2018 GP Contact offer. This includes musculo-skeletal, urgent care practitioners and primary care mental health nurses.

We are taking additional steps on mental health as set out in our PFG. By 2026, every GP Practice will have access to a mental health and wellbeing service. This will fund 1,000 additional dedicated staff who can help grow community mental health resilience and direct social prescribing.

We have further increased our Primary Care Fund from £195m to £250m in 21-22 in direct support of general practice. As part of this investment support for the Primary Care multi-disciplinary team has increased for £110 to £155 million.

Figures published by Public Health Scotland about average numbers of close contacts are based on completed Test and Protect interviews and completed online tracing form data, where index cases identify their close contacts.

As of 19 September Test and Protect has been successful in reaching over 1 million unique contacts.

We have introduced a range of measures, including increased use of digital and SMS communications and shortened call scripts for index case interviews, to ensure the contact tracing system continues to trace the contacts of people with Coronavirus and ensure they are given the right public health advice as quickly as possible, even when case numbers rise substantially. All decisions in relation to operational delivery of the contact tracing system have made in line with public health advice, including the continued prioritisation of higher risk cases. A combination of these changes is likely to have affected the average number of close contacts reported per case.

Test and Protect relies on members of the public to report all of their close contacts, to enable public health advice to be issued to those that may have been exposed to the virus. The Scottish Government strongly encourages everyone to engage with Test and Protect when contacted and fully disclose all contacts whether contacted by phone or digitally.

Over nine consecutive years, qualified nursing numbers have grown and we have also steadily increased places on undergraduate nursing courses. Ahead of each academic year, the Scottish Government undertakes a robust student intake planning process which seeks to estimate the levels of student intake necessary to service Scotland’s nursing workforce requirements in future years. At the conclusion of each year’s process, recommended target intake figures are agreed across four fields of nursing: adult, mental health, learning disability, and children’s nursing. This allows us to ensure there are sufficient nurses entering the healthcare system who specialise in each field of nursing each year.

The Scottish Government is also committed to the growth of advanced nursing practice, which is why in 2017 we committed £3m investment over 5 years to train an additional 500 advanced nurse practitioners. In April 2021, the Scottish Government published a paper setting out key areas for further expansion of advanced nursing practice. The paper can be found at the link below:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/transforming-nursing-roles-advanced-nursing-practice-phase-ii/

We are currently working in consultation with partners and stakeholders to agree the scope and content of the National Workforce Strategy. The Strategy will be designed around objectives which support remobilisation, recovery and renewal of Health and Social Care Services. It will articulate a holistic, long-term health and social care workforce vision, alongside our strategic priorities for workforce growth, recruitment, retention, training and development.

The National Cancer Recovery Group (NCRG) are currently carrying out an exercise to identify workforce requirements, looking specifically at roles related to cancer. We will pay close attention to this work, in the development of the National Workforce Strategy.

The Scottish Government and National Services Scotland are working to ensure that COVID-19 records, in terms of vaccinations show complete accuracy.

This will be assisted by the digital application to record the COVID-19 vaccine, which will be available from 1 October.

Any suspected errors in a person’s COVID-19 vaccination record should be reported to the vaccinations status helpline on 0808 196 8565. The helpline can only resolve issues in relation to vaccinations administered in Scotland.