Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is working to support a whole system change in delivering good family support, support that is flexible and sustained for as long as it is needed, and driven by the needs and voice of families. This will include supporting families with bereavement.

Since 2016 the Scottish Government has funded Cruse Scotland and Child Bereavement UK through the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention & Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund to provide support to individuals and families who have been bereaved.

Additionally, the National Family Support Directory can be accessed by families for information on bereavement help and support.

In March 2020 we awarded a contract to Includem to deliver a childhood bereavement coordinator for two years. This post has strategic oversight of childhood bereavement support services in Scotland and acts as a national champion, aiming to work with partners to develop an action plan and vision for support for those children and young people who have experienced bereavement.

The Scottish Government also fund and support the National Bereavement Care Pathways (NBCP) for 5 types of pregnancy and baby loss, led by SANDS UK, which are currently being piloted in 4 early adopter health boards. The NBCP Core Group will meet later this year to discuss timings for the next wave of boards joining. In addition to this psychological support for families using maternity and neonatal services is being implemented across Scotland as part of a wider £50 million investment in perinatal and infant mental health.

We continue to work with NHS Education for Scotland who support the education and training needs of those who work with the bereaved in Scotland.

The following table shows the number of cases submitted for annual invasive cervical cancer audits in the years from 2014 until 2018, which are the years where full data is available. For the year 2019 five health boards have provided data and 129 cases were reported; in 2020, one health board submitted 16 cases. The audit schedule for the 2019 period was affected by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on services as staff were redeployed to Covid duties. A catch-up schedule has been put in place to audit 2019 cases at the same time as 2020 cases and these will be reviewed this year. It is important to note that the cases are assembled annually and reviewed by a multidisciplinary team within each Health Board.

We have provided additional funding to NHS Boards where required to support prioritised care for individuals affected by the incident within the cervical screening programme.

Four Boards have requested funding to provide additional clinics as follows:

• Lanarkshire - £28,000
• Lothian - £8,098
• GGC - £5,000
• Fife: £2,700

No other Boards have requested funding, but we will keep the situation under review and will provide further funding if needed. Additionally, Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust, who are helping support the response with their Helpline, have also received funding from the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. Information on how many NHS dental consultations were emergencies is held with the individual dentist. However, the overall number of NHS dental consultations can be found on Public Health Scotland at: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/dental-statistics-fees-and-treatments/dental-statistics-fees-and-treatments-statistics-as-at-march-2020/ .

As set out in our Programme for Government in 2020, we are working with local authorities, the deposit return scheme administrator and potential investors to explore options that will unlock reprocessing investments and to ensure that we manage more of our own waste within Scotland. This has included an assessment of volumes of materials, including plastics, collected for recycling.

The latest annual statistics from Public Health Scotland show that uptake of cervical screening is still lower in the most deprived areas of Scotland, compared to the least deprived areas. We recognise that there is further work required to tackle this issue, and that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have increased the importance of this work. We have therefore committed £2 million over the next two years to build a programme of evidence-based, sustainable and scalable projects that tackle inequalities in a systemic way.

The Scottish Government is also supporting work to explore the potential introduction of self-sampling into the screening programme, which could be an important tool to widen access to the programme and tackle inequalities. Allowing people to take the test in their own home could overcome some of the barriers that prevent people taking up screening, such as accessibility issues, embarrassment or previous trauma. The UK National Screening Committee is evaluating research ahead of making a recommendation on its use, and we have established a working group to contribute evidence and plan for implementation so that we can act quickly following any recommendation.

The British & Irish Lions rugby match was a flagship event approved by the Scottish Government through an events gateway process. Flagship events are internationally significant events which maintain Scotland’s longer-term profile as a host of major events, with an eye to recovery from the pandemic, and with appropriate Covid-19 mitigations in place. There are a very small number given the quite high bar of international significance.

Scottish Rugby submitted a comprehensive spectator proposal that was considered by Scottish Government Clinicians and the Chief Medical Officer before it was approved to enter the gateway process by the First Minister. The proposal for 25% capacity at Murrayfield was based on a fixed seating plan with seats sold in singles which required an exception for a reduction in physical distancing. Clinicians were satisfied with the comprehensive and robust plans that Scottish Rugby and the British Lions had in place and with the public health measures to help keep people safe. The proposal was considered at local level by City of Edinburgh Council at Event Planning & Operations Group Meetings which was also attended by others including Police Scotland and NHS Lothian.

It was made clear that fans should take a lateral flow test before attending to reduce the risk of spreading the virus. Flagship events provide an opportunity to monitor and learn from events operating with reduced physical distancing and a comprehensive range of mitigations like maximising points of entry and staggered arrival times to ensure that fans could attend safely for this outdoor event. The Scottish Government and event organisers will use this knowledge to support the wider restart of events across Scotland.

Couples can attend together for all NHS IVF appointments, subject to local risk assessments and physical distancing requirements, which provide the best protection for patients and staff and ensure that services continue to be provided as the Covid-19 pandemic continues.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00813 on 14 July 2021. 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

We do not hold this information centrally. However, we do have a close collaborative relationship with the owner of the electricity network in the City of Edinburgh, Scottish Power Distribution (SPD).

SPD has developed and published Distribution Future Energy Scenarios (DFES), which consider various decarbonisation routes to achieve Scotland’s Net Zero targets. These incorporate a 100% transition of cars / small commercial vehicles to full Electric Vehicles (EVs), including between 240,000-310,000 in Edinburgh by 2050.

SPD’s DFES anticipates growth in demand from customers on its Edinburgh distribution network to double by 2050, with 40% of this related to growth in EVs, as well as heat demand. Meeting this extra demand will need a combination of traditional network reinforcements but also flexibility from other energy resources (e.g. generators and battery storage).

SPD’s high level estimate is that this will require between £150-400 million investment in its Edinburgh network by 2050. The actual scale of investment will ultimately be driven by the technologies adopted by customers and the ways in which they are used.

SPD is currently preparing a draft business plan for investment across all of its distribution networks. The Scottish Government will continue to work with SPD, as well as with Scotland’s other network owners and Ofgem, to ensure that our energy and climate change commitments and targets are fully reflected in these plans and the investment that they will require.