Chamber and committees

The use of the mezzanine deck on MV Hebrides is a primarily an operational decision for CalMac Ferries Ltd (CFL). CFL continue to engage with the communities and businesses who use the service regarding the use of the mezzanine deck and the potential impacts on timetables, number of sailings and overall capacity for passengers and vehicles. The mezzanine deck was brought back into use on sailings from 9 August 2021.

The £3 million funding was part of the emergency COVID-19 support for culture, protecting jobs and addressing some of the financial pressures facing the three organisations. It was announced on 17 January 2021, comprising £1.4 million for Aberdeen Performing Arts, £800,000 for Eden Court Highlands and £800,000 for Capital Theatres. Funding is being delivered through Creative Scotland. The funding agreements with the three organisations require that the funds must be used in addressing the problems linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in order to enable the organisations to be financially stable in order to develop and present cultural activity when restrictions allow. Later in 2021 Creative Scotland will require the organisations to provide information on the use of funding, including how they have spent it, whether it has allowed them to maintain their workforce and stabilised their financial position.

Proposals to the Bus Partnership Fund are assessed against criteria which focus on the climate benefits of mode shift from private car to public transport. The criteria and weightings are as follows:

• Evidence of congestion and ideas to reduce congestion, through improved bus services (40%)

• How the proposal fits with the partnership area’s overall strategy for integrated transport, to encourage a modal shift from cars to more sustainable transport and reduce emissions (25%)

• Partnership strength and demonstrated commitment, which will include match in kind (20%)

• Deliverability: the ability of the lead local authority and its partners to deliver the proposed developments, including local political buy-in (15%)

Successful bidders to the fund are required to submit monthly progress reports to Transport Scotland. Each subsequent tranche of funding will be dependent upon their passing gateway reviews, which will provide further assurance that the funded infrastructure developments support action on climate change.

As agreed in the ADT Highlands and Islands Working Group terms of reference, the Group met three times. The last of these meetings took place on 4 February 2019

The Group offered external challenge to our consideration of options, and made a valuable contribution to the evidence base in support of maintaining the Highlands and Islands exemption, producing new analysis that underlined its importance to the region.

There are no current plans for the Group to meet again. Scottish Ministers will however continue to consider this on an ongoing basis, taking account of relevant developments.

More information on the Highlands and Islands Working Group can be found here:

https://www.gov.scot/groups/adt-highlands-and-islands-working-group/

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

Information relating to the number of women aged (a) 50 and over and (b) under 50 currently waiting to start treatment for (i) primary and (ii) secondary breast cancer, would be held by individual Health Boards.

At present, we only collect Detect Cancer Early data for breast, colorectal and lung cancers. Information on patients diagnosed with breast, colorectal or lung cancer during the two-year period 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2019 by cancer stage is available in the Detect Cancer Early Staging publication at

https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/detect-cancer-early-staging-data/detect-cancer-early-staging-data-year-8-1-january-2018-to-31-december-2019/

Information for the two-year period 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2020 is due to be released on 19 October 2021. This information will be broken down by quarter.

Public Health Scotland are currently developing a dashboard to include provisional monthly and quarterly data for 2020 compared with both 2019 and the average of 2017-2019 for the three cancer sites (breast, colorectal and lung). It is expected that this will be released over August as part of the Covid-19 wider impacts dashboard .

Data published by Public Health Scotland shows that at 31 March 2021, the number of patients waiting for treatment as an inpatient or day case was 94,781. The number of patients waiting over 12 weeks at 31 March 2021 was 61,901 (65.3%).

Further breakdown of this data can be accessed on page 28 of the full report at NHS waiting times - stage of treatment - Quarter ending 31 March 2021 - NHS waiting times - stage of treatment - Publications - Public Health Scotland

Data showing the number of patients waiting to be admitted for treatment as an inpatient or day case at 30 June 2021 will be published by Public Health Scotland on 24 August 2021.

I would firstly like to thank the fantastic, flexible and supportive response from anaesthetists across the UK in supporting the pandemic surge requirements, particularly in Intensive Care, and as we now move to remobilise the NHS.

From the recruitment that has taken place so far in 2021, there were 67 posts advertised in Core Anaesthetics and 66 in ST3 Anaesthetics. All advertised posts have been filled. There were 5 appointable candidates who were not allocated a Core training post and 15 appointable candidates who were not allocated an ST3 post. This was a result of competitive entry and is similar both to previous years and the ratios seen in several other specialties. It does not automatically mean that these doctors are unemployed. This is because applicants ordinarily apply for multiple training posts and where an applicant is unsuccessful with one application, they may still be able to secure a post in another medical specialty or UK Nation. Unsuccessful applicants are also able to take up employment in alternative medical posts which are crucial to NHS Scotland, such as locum training posts (time which can count towards training), and are not prevented from reapplying for specialty training posts in subsequent recruitment rounds.

Where trainees are experiencing issues regarding their progression, NHS Education for Scotland are working with them and their educational supervisors on an individual basis to address these.

We are unaware of any alleged technical failures with Medical Royal College examinations and would encourage any trainee who feels that they have been disadvantaged to raise this matter formally with the College in question. We are also unaware of any alleged communications disruptions which have impacted on the specialty trainee recruitment process. Trainee recruitment this year has so far been an unprecedented success, with 94% of specialty training posts having been filled and one recruitment round still remaining.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-01559 on
‎ 24 August 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

NHS Scotland’s staffing levels are at a record high and the nursing and midwifery staff group is the largest, accounting for just under 64,000 Whole Time Equivalent (42%) of the workforce, an increase of 5% from the previous year. Information on the number of Clinical Nurse Specialists by specialist cancer fields is not held centrally.