Chamber and committees

Currently, several key national programmes have undertaken safety cases - this includes the national vaccination programme and work on Connect me (remote health monitoring). More broadly, we are currently developing our national policy approach to safety cases within digital health and care. This will be developed in line with national work being taken forward through the Scottish Patient Safety Programme.

GlobalScots by location

There was minimal impact, and no disruption to any of VisitScotland's services as a result of the Public and Commercial Services Union industrial action, on 1 February 2023. No sites managed by VisitScotland were closed, as such, no costs were incurred as a result of the strikes.

Details of the projects funded through the Neurological Framework can be found on the following page: Neurological Framework Funding: list of organisations funded - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . As projects reach completion, they are asked to submit a final report which details the outcomes achieved. These reports will be made available on this page in due course.

The Scottish Government, alongside the Neurological Alliance of Scotland, are hosting a series of practice-sharing sessions to help to showcase and promote innovative work undertaken by the funded projects. The first of these sessions were held in December 2022 and recordings of these initial three sessions can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/@neurologicalallianceofscotland . Further sessions are currently being planned, to be held on 01 and 08 March 2023.

In its 2022-2023 Programme for Government, the Scottish Government committed to publishing a consultation on a Heat in Buildings Bill during 2023. This consultation will seek views on proposals for a regulatory framework for reducing emissions across Scotland’s existing non-domestic building stock.

The SPCB is pleased to be able to confirm that it is a member of Capital Credit Union. SPCB staff and staff employed by MSPs are reminded that they can make regular monthly deposits into their savings account directly through payroll and a link to the Capital Credit Union website is provided to all staff on the SPCB’s payslips platform.

The SPCB is committed to supporting staff with the cost of living and as part of a range of measures to support staff it is actively working with Capital Credit Union and Work and Save Scotland to develop a range of resources designed to promote the benefits of credit union membership.  Further details will be shared with SPCB staff and MSP staff in due course.

The Scottish Government continues to consider the use of Artificial Intelligence in health and social care through Scotland's AI strategy and the forthcoming Data Strategy for Health and Social Care.

Digital Health and Care provides funding to DHI which in turn supports enterprises of assorted sizes to develop ideas and solutions that can be applied in health and care settings. We support DHI with their industry leadership group which meets with medium sized organisations for input and feedback.

The Scottish Government held several roundtable meetings to bring together partners including representatives from the major events sector to discuss the prevalence of spiking and a range of initiatives and information available on spiking, which they are adopting.

With concerts, festivals and other events resuming following the pandemic, Police Scotland have been working with partners to identify appropriate vehicles for the delivery of the key messaging. For example, as an interim measure and in advance of the Harry Styles concert at Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow on 11 June 2022, an overview of ByStander theory was provided to the event organiser for inclusion in Steward’s briefings, in lieu of being able to facilitate a full ByStander awareness session. Feedback from this approach was very positive and Police Scotland rolled this out nationally for Event Policing Leads in advance of a number of events scheduled over the summer 2022 period.

We have also worked with members of the roundtable to bring together the range of initiatives and key messaging on safer.scot to reassure the public that there is a coordinated response to the dangers of spiking, in whatever form it might take.

The Scottish Government has taken a proactive approach to understand the prevalence, raise awareness and address concerns about the incidence of reported spiking in Scotland.

Several roundtable meetings have taken place to help steer the joint Scottish Government and public sector response to the act of spiking. These meetings have been designed to discuss the range of initiatives and information available on spiking. Significant work was undertaken to raise awareness and heighten vigilance in the run up to the return to college and university campuses. Information has also been made available on the safer.scot website, to inform and support the public around the subject of spiking. This has been promoted through the roundtable membership and by the representative organisations and sectors.

Furthermore, Police Scotland has prioritised its response to incidents of spiking. A comprehensive Investigative Strategy has been developed and circulated to provide guidance and direction to staff responding to and investigating incidents of spiking. A Detective Superintendent has national investigative oversight and Senior Investigating Officers have been appointed within each policing division to lead on all spiking related investigations locally.