Chamber and committees

A new Early Cancer Diagnosis Programme Board has been formed – this group will be responsible for shaping and supporting the delivery of Scotland’s early cancer diagnosis efforts over the coming years. The exploration of any future public awareness campaigns will be considered here and will be undertaken with close consultation from the Scottish Cancer Coalition, which includes third sector ovarian cancer representation.

The Scottish Government is committed to finding cancer early when the chance of survival and even cure is higher – this is reflected in our £44 million Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme.

September marks Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month - DCE’s social media channels will help raise awareness of common signs and symptoms, signposting to an online interactive ‘symptom checker’ tool.

The Scottish Breast Screening Programme invites women between the ages of 50 and 70 for routine breast screening every three years. This is in line with advice from the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), which is an independent scientific body that advises all four nations of the UK on screening matters. The Scottish government will only act to widen screening age ranges if this is recommended by the UK NSC.

I will shortly be writing to the UK NSC to ask them to examine the merits of lowering the current age thresholds for screening programmes. I recognise in doing so that any change to age ranges for screening must be based on the highest standards of evidence, and balance both potential harms and benefits.

The Scottish Government only collects school pupil attendance and absence information every 2 years, so no data is available for 2017-18.

Information for 2018/19 shows that for term 3 (covering the period roughly April-June) the combined authorised and unauthorised absence rate was 7.6%.

In 2019-20, schools/hubs were only open to the children and young people of keyworkers, and those who were vulnerable, in the period April to June 2020.(due to the Covid pandemic). Therefore, most children and young people were not to attend school during this period. As such, at its highest, only around 1.7% of all pupils were attending these schools/hubs at any given time during this period.

For 2020-21, for the period in question (i.e. April to June 2021), the combined rate for pupils not in school due to Covid-19 related reasons and Non-Covid-19 related reasons was 10.4%. Note that this data has been produced on a slightly different basis to the biennial National Statistics publication. For example, some pupils who are currently counted as 'not being in school' may in fact be recorded as being in attendance (e.g. pupils who were self-isolating but were able to learn from home)when the Scottish Government publishes its usual National Statistics publication on School Attendance and Absence 2020/21 which is due later this year.

Care should be made if attempting to compare results across academic years due to varying ways in how this data was gathered over the most recent academic years, together with variation in the levels of quality assurance being undertaken on the data gathered.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government or by Public Health Scotland.

Information relating to the number of patients awaiting a colposcopy and their length of wait would be held by individual Health Boards.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-01507 on
‎ 30 July 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at Written questions and answers | Scottish Parliament Website

Tackling health inequalities remains a clear ambition for this Government. Our Programme for Government 2020 sets out our commitment to promote lifelong health and wellbeing including a renewed focus on tackling health inequalities.

The impact of persistent deprivation, poverty and other long-standing social inequalities – which we know impact on health – have been thrown into sharp relief by COVID-19. In the face of the pandemic we acted quickly to ensure that local authorities, third sector partners and community organisations were empowered to take the action needed to protect people from the social harms of the virus. In the course of 2020-21, we allocated over £1 billion to help people and communities impacted by the pandemic and to build resilience in public services. We will continue to give our communities and local services the support they need to tackle these issues head on.

We know that socioeconomic inequalities drive health inequalities and we must focus our efforts on addressing poverty, promoting fair wages and improving our physical and social environments. In line with the Scottish Fiscal Commission forecasts, we are committing £3.5 billion in forecast social security payments which will reach over 800,000 people. Money which will go directly to the people in Scotland who need it the most. This includes £68 million for the first full year of the Scottish Child Payment, a ‘game changing’ new benefit which will be instrumental in tackling child poverty. We are bringing this together with healthcare through our Welfare Advice and Health Partnerships that integrate local authority and third sector welfare rights and money advice services into primary care services.

Scotland has a proud history of taking ambitious action to improve health and we continue to make progress against our Public Health Priorities and major healthy living action plans. These strategies are already tackling some of the most significant health challenges we face including diet, alcohol and smoking. These bold packages of measures will help tackle key issues and support everyone in Scotland to live longer healthier lives. This includes bringing forward legislation to restrict promotions of unhealthier foods, evaluating the impact that Minimum Unit Pricing of alcohol has had and introducing a smoke-free perimeter around all hospital buildings.

As we look to renew and recover as a society, we will continue to ensure the necessary resource is directed at improving equity for our people and communities who are most in need.

Enforcement of the Coronavirus Regulations is a matter for the Chief Constable and Police Scotland.

The latest data available on Police Scotland’s website Enforcement and Response Data - Police Scotland shows that as of 14 July 2021, 16,993 fixed-penalty notices have been issued and 971 arrests have been made under these regulations.

The published figures are not broken down to show the reasons for issuing of fixed-penalty notices or arrests; the presentation and format of Police Scotland data, is an operational matter for the Chief Constable.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-01507 on
‎ 30 July 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at Written questions and answers | Scottish Parliament Website

The option for all women aged 71 and over to self-refer for a breast screening appointment will resume once capacity in all screening centres returns to pre-Covid or close to pre-Covid levels. This is based on the recommendation of the Scottish Screening Committee, the National Screening Oversight and the Breast Screening Programme Board, all three of whom are keeping the situation under regular review. They are also working closely with Health Boards to increase appointments and meet this criteria as soon as possible.

As breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, it can occur in more than one family member by chance, and most cases of breast cancers are not hereditary. However, particular genes, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2, can increase the risk of developing breast cancer, and these can be passed on from parent to child. Arrangements have therefore been made to ensure that women aged 71 and over can continue to be screened for the duration of the self-referral pause if they have been identified as being at very high risk because they have BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes.

We also continue to emphasise that everyone should remain symptom aware and report any symptoms to their GP immediately for these to be investigated.

We know that high quality early learning and childcare (ELC) can make a huge difference to children’s lives, particularly those experiencing the most disadvantage. That is why we target funded ELC to two year olds who are most likely to benefit from early access. This includes children who have experienced care themselves or have a parent who has, and children whose family receive a ‘qualifying benefit’, (including out of work benefits or income-related benefits).

We estimate this eligible group equates to around a quarter of the total two year old population. Within this group there will be children who require additional support for learning and the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 (‘the 2004 Act’) extends to children in funded ELC. The 2004 Act places duties on education authorities to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their children. More information on how the 2004 Act supports children in funded ELC can be found in the refreshed Statutory Guidance here: Early learning and childcare: statutory guidance - July 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

In addition to the increased number of funded hours of ELC (rising from 600 to up to 1140 hours a year from August 2021) local authorities have discretion to offer funded or subsidised ELC that goes beyond the existing legal entitlement. Local authorities can and do use this discretion to accept referrals from health visitors and other agencies for children who they believe will benefit from this provision who may not meet the statutory criteria for a 2 year old place.

The Scottish Government has also committed to expanding funded early years education to all 1 and 2 year olds, starting with children from low-income families in this Parliamentary session. As we develop future policy we will continue to consider the best way to support our youngest children with additional support needs.