The NHSScotland Scan For Safety Programme was established to provide rapid electronic traceability for high-risk implantable medical devices; linking patients to the medical devices used in their care, thus improving patient safety and fulfilling a key theme from the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Review and a future regulatory requirement. In addition, the improved medical device data will provide a patient implant record and with appropriate safeguards provide an opportunity to improve our knowledge of real world medical device outcomes.

Implementation of NHS Scotland Scan for Safety has now been successfully completed in four specialties within two Health Boards and the Programme Team is currently engaging with the local Board teams to measure the benefits being realised in these Health Board areas. The benefits to be realised over time will cover areas such as patient safety, operational efficiency and clinical productivity. While the level of each benefit will depend on the Health Board implementing scanning technology across all affected specialties within a Board area, the Programme Team will work closely with each Board to ensure the identified benefits are maximised as much as possible between now and programme closure in March 2026.

Since the rollout of the National Inventory Management System (IMS)(a pre-cursor in supporting rollout of the Scan for Safety Programme), across all Health Boards in March 2023, data is now available across all Health Boards which suggests savings may be made regarding stock management in each Board area. This data will be validated with each Health Board as part of the Scan for Safety Programme implementation activity, due to be completed by March 2026. The level of savings (or avoidance) will vary in each Board. These benefits will be aggregated at a national level in due course and reported through to the National Programme Board as implementation progresses. Some benefits, such as the digital tracking of medical devices in the event of a recall, can only be realised and verified if a recall notice is received and this may not happen during the lifecycle of the programme.

Scottish Government are in regular dialogue with NHS Boards and senior leaders on their community nursing services, including health visiting. Scottish Government policy officials are a member of the Health Visitor Leads Network which meets bi-monthly and includes representation from all of Scotland’s territorial Health Boards. The last meeting was held on 16 January 2024.

In addition, Scottish Government policy officials are undertaking bilateral meetings with all Health Boards, between November 2023 and March 2024, to discuss their health visiting services and the outcomes of the recent Evaluation of the Universal Health Visiting Pathway:

Universal Health Visiting Pathway evaluation - phase 1: main report - primary research with health visitors and parents and case note review - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the local economic impact of road closures. The impact of closing a road due to a collision depends on the specific circumstances such as the collision location, the time of day, the duration of the closure and any diversion route.

At a more general level, the Department for Transport has estimated the values assigned to the cost of road casualties and collisions in Great Britain, for use in cost-benefit analysis of the prevention of road casualties and collisions in road schemes. This information is used in the assessment of road schemes in Scotland via Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG) and is published in Transport Scotland’s annual Reported Road Casualties publication: https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/reported-road-casualties-scotland-2022/table-9a-b/

The Good Governance Steering Group has had oversight of the implementation of the addition of trade union nominees to college boards.

The Good Governance Steering Group is monitoring the progress of trade union nominations and the Scottish Government expects the Group to continue to keep abreast of good governance in the college sector and to inform the Scottish Government of governance issues.

The Scottish Government does not receive information on the number of people in Scotland who have loans payable to Erudio Student Loans Company.

The wrasse fishing season is open from 1 May to 30 November, so at present no vessels hold a derogation giving permission from Scottish Ministers to fish for wild wrasse. Applications are assessed on a year by year basis, and do not automatically carry over. In the 2023 season, 67 vessels were issued with a derogation and of those 51 used creels to fish for other species at some point over the course of 2023.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The health and wellbeing of those who live and work in our prisons is a key priority for the Scottish Prison Service and we continue to work with numerous organisations to offer those in their care a suite of support to address both their addiction and recovery journey.

1. The total number of Drug Recoveries from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2023 are appended in the following table. This data includes both in prison and preventative finds.

Based on the latest publication of National Statistics on the prison population, the average age of individuals spending any time in prison in 2022-23 was 37.4 years.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-prison-population-statistics-2022-23/pages/individuals-experiencing-imprisonment/

The Miners' Strike of 1984-85 is considered to be the most bitter industrial dispute in living memory. The Scottish Government recognises that the impact of the strike still runs deep in Scotland's former mining heartlands. Scotland is at the forefront across the UK in recognising the need to provide reconciliation, dignity and comfort to those communities still affected. That is why the Scottish Government brought forward legislation to provide a symbolic pardon to miners and other participants in the strike in relation to various offences committed during the dispute. We also continue to call on the UK Government to undertake a full UK-wide public inquiry into the strike.

The Scottish Government is therefore considering how best to raise the profile of the strike and its legacy in former mining communities, as the 40th anniversary of the dispute approaches.

In November Scottish Government published The General Practice Access Principles. This report, which sets out a clear framework for the core principles of how GP services should be delivered – equitably, sensitively, reasonably and appropriately, making the most effective use of resources and systems currently available.

The main principles are:

1. Access to General Practice is inclusive and equitable for people, based on the principles of Realistic Medicine and Value Based Health & Care. Care will be person-centred and based on what matters to the individual.

2. People should have a reasonable choice about how they access services.

3. Services should be approachable, sensitive, compassionate, and considerate to need.

4. General Practices should help people to get the right care from the best and most appropriate person or team to care for them (Right Care, Right Place, Right Time).

We continue to work together with all relevant partners to effectively implement these principles, including through our commitment to the ongoing recruitment of primary care multi-disciplinary teams as well as Phase Two of the GMS Contract.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s Primary Care Access Programme has already worked with over 100 general practices to improve access arrangements and continues to run with excellent uptake.