Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08571 on  30 May 2022. 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

The Scottish Government is working with Public Health Scotland to develop an online platform for members of the public to access information on the average waiting times for a range of treatments within their health board area. We expect the platform to be available this summer.

All of Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) inspection reports and action plans are published on the following website address. Find an NHS hospital or service: inspection reports (healthcareimprovementscotland.org)

In relation to HIS inspections, the QEUH has only had unannounced inspections since it opened in April 2015.

Child abuse is a broad term that doesn't have a specific legal definition. For context the World Health Organisation has defined 'Child maltreatment' as ‘the abuse and neglect that occurs to children under 18 years of age. It includes all types of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect, negligence and commercial or other exploitation, which results in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power'. ( Child maltreatment (who.int) )

In general the Scottish Government does not hold information centrally on those convicted of crimes against children, as the Official Statistics on criminal proceedings do not include details on the age of the victim. This would include cases of non-sexual violence such as assault, and some sexual crimes such as rape and attempted rape. We can however provide this information for those crime types where it is clear from the legislation used that the victim was either a child or the intention of the perpetrator was to target a child.

We have received a clarification from the member who indicated they were interested in the Sexual assault of older child (13-15); Sexual assault of young child (under 13) and Sexual Abuse of trust of person under 18 crimes only. This is presented in the table below, showing convictions that did not result in a prison sentence for the years 2010-11 to 2019-20. The 2020-21 criminal proceedings Official Statistics will be published on 21 June.

People convicted for the Sexual assault of older child (13-15); Sexual assault of young child (under 13) and Sexual Abuse of trust (where main crime), excluding custodial sentences, 2010-11 to 2019-20 .

The Clyde 2020 Action Plan was published in April 2015, following the Clyde 2020 summit in 2014 and subsequent workshops. The Action Plan identified 13 objectives (under 5 high-level objectives), with accompanying actions under each objective. Of these, 2 have been completed, 2 have been partially completed, 5 are still underway and 4 have not yet been completed.

There are many pieces of ongoing research related to the work of Clyde 2020 and Marine Scotland undertakes ongoing survey work of relevance to the Clyde 2020 Action Plan. Research gaps identified by the Research Advisory Group have been incorporated into research priorities within PhDs and by organisations around the Clyde. A full list of related research and science projects currently underway or completed can be provided by Clyde 2020.

The significant expertise of members of Clyde 2020 has been utilised in the process of developing a draft regional marine plan for the Clyde marine region.

The Clyde 2020 initiative is currently considering its remit moving forward. As a sub-group of the Clyde Marine Planning Partnership, the partnership are drafting a proposal on how Clyde 2020 will evolve, contribute and support the Clyde marine planning process. It is anticipated that the Clyde 2020 group will play an important role in the future governance of the Clyde Marine Planning Partnership.

As of May 2022, 33 applications had been received for properties located in Shetland for the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme’s interim voucher, which offers up to £400 to secure a temporary superfast connection. Twenty six of these vouchers have been issued so far.

A total of 4 applications have been received for the R100 SBVS main voucher which offers up to £5,000 to secure a permanent superfast connection. Three of these vouchers have been issued so far.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland is working to provide updated advice to NHS Boards to enable routine prescribing of sapropterin. We now expect this to be in place in June. In the meantime, doctors can request access to medicines that are not generally available on the NHS on an individual case-by-case basis through local health board medicine governance processes.

We launched the Fisheries Climate Change survey in November 2021 during COP 26 to assess the fishing sector’s readiness/ preparedness to respond to the climate change challenge. We said then that the results will be used to inform a stakeholder workshop in 2022.

The analysis is complete and we are now in the process of compiling a summary of the responses received and we will be publishing the summary shortly.

We are also in the process of planning the stakeholders workshop where we will present and discuss the results from the Fisheries Climate Change survey.

To enable the building to be commissioned, the hospital will be fully equipped to treat orthopaedic patients around 3 months prior to the opening date.

The Scottish Government has committed a further £20 million over the parliamentary term to our Detect Cancer Early Programme, which aims to provide greater public awareness of signs and symptoms of cancer to improve earlier diagnosis rates.

Significant funding has also been targeted at increasing diagnostic capacity across NHS Scotland. This includes our Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal plan to specifically support scope based diagnostics backed by £70 million and our £1bn NHS Recovery Plan which sets out our plans and ambitions for the next five years.

The NHS remains under sustained pressure as a result of COVID-19, with the number of people awaiting diagnostic tests now at the highest level since 2018. Patients continue to be seen based on their clinical urgency, for example those referred with an urgent suspicion of cancer continue to be prioritised for key diagnostic tests.