Chamber and committees

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care attends regular meetings with his counterparts in the UK and other Devolved Administrations to ensure that the Scottish Government is represented in relation to public health incidents which require a coordinated 4 Nations response.

Additionally, Public Health Scotland (PHS) are leading on the response in Scotland and are working with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), Public Health Wales and Northern Ireland HSC Health Protection Agency to ensure a coordinated response to monkeypox in the UK. Where appropriate, Scottish Government officials are also represented on 4 nations groups established to support these coordination efforts.

Each screening programme has a programme board that meets regularly and provides an assurance function on governance activity across the programme, acting on behalf of the programme to advise NHS National Services Division, National Screening Oversight, the Scottish Screening Committee, and Scottish Ministers. The programme boards ensure high quality, safe and effective standardised screening service delivery in a way that is delivered to national standards and addresses any screening inequalities.

Public Health Scotland also publishes annual statistics for the breast screening programme covering performance standards, uptake, cancer detection, and screening outcomes. Healthcare Improvement Scotland provides definitions of the acceptable and achievable performance measures for the programme.

The costs of temporary accommodation in hotels for displaced people from Ukraine are split into a number of components. There is a fixed rate per room, this does not vary based on occupancy. However, the cost of food and beverage will vary based on the number of guests in each room. Laundry and other incidentals can be charged per person or per occupancy, dependent on the hotel operator.

Education authorities have duties under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) Act (2004) to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils. This includes needs arising from the disruption caused by the mobility and deployment of a parent or carer in the Armed Forces and would include mental health and/or pastoral supports as appropriate.

We continue to support children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing through the provision of counselling through schools. This is now in place across secondary schools in Scotland. We have also introduced new guidance to support whole school approaches to mental health and wellbeing, complementing the work that education authorities and schools already do to support children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.

Children of service personnel in Scotland will have their needs met by the supports outlined above and as such there are no plans to introduce a Service Pupil Premium.

Local authorities play a vital role in the success of the Scottish Government’s Super Sponsor Scheme. They are uniquely placed to provide the support required to ensure those arriving are given the warmest possible welcome. This includes working with displaced people to identify and meet immediate and longer term needs. This will see displaced people registered with GP and school, provision of local information on services and area, advice and support to access benefits, receipt of initial financial support if required until benefits are accessed and paid, and advice and support on accessing further/higher education.

A full description of local authority responsibilities in supporting displaced people from Ukraine can be found in the Local Authority Guidance published by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government Practical Fire Safety Guidance for Existing High Rise Domestic Buildings includes a template and advice on carrying out a fire risk assessment of the building. The outcome of this assessment will give an idea of the relative risk of the premises and what mitigations might be helpful.

The Scottish Government worked with key partners including the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and Her Majesty's Fire Service Inspectorate for Scotland when drafting the guidance. The guidance was widely consulted on setting out the reasoning for the approach taken.

Scotland’s response to the crisis in Ukraine is a round-the-clock operation, supported by multi-agency teams, local authorities, CoSLA and the third sector to ensure individuals displaced from Ukraine are treated with care and respect and their complex needs are met.

Scottish Government continue to benefit from a good working relationship with local authorities where we are, jointly with COSLA, providing additional matching resource to support local authority activity.

Feedback to date from local authorities and other partners regarding the use of matching teams has been positive.

Evacuation alert systems were introduced to all new high rise domestic buildings over 18m to assist the Fire and Rescue Service in the unlikely event of a partial or full evacuation of the building following the outbreak of fire.

The guidance in the technical handbooks is not retrospective and applied to new buildings or conversions from 1 October 2019. Local authority building standards services hold building warrant records, which should show which buildings have evacuation alert systems installed.

The percentage of the population registered with a NHS dentist in Scotland is broken down by NHS Board rather than council area and is published by Public Health Scotland (PHS). As of September 2021, the percentage of patients who are not registered with a NHS dentist is as follows:-

Ayrshire and Arran

• 15.3% of children
• 1% of adults

Borders

• 14.6% of children
• 15.7% of adults

Dumfries and Galloway

• 13.7% of children
• 8.5% of adults

Lanarkshire

• 13.2% of children
• 0% of adults

Lothian

• 16.1% of children
• 7.9% of adults

There are currently no plans to translate the guidance into formal regulations, however the Scottish Government keeps this under review.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on individuals who have personal emergency evacuation plans (PEEPs). Further information on fire safety and PEEPs can be found in the Practical Fire Safety Guidance for Existing Specialised Housing and Similar Premises and Practical Fire Safety Guidance for Existing Specialised Housing and Similar Premises .