Chamber and committees

Reported incidents of spiking are likely to be recorded by the police as either (i) crimes of administering a substance for sexual purposes under section 11 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009, or (ii) drugging (assault). The former is recorded when a person intentionally administers a substance, or causes a substance to be taken, with the purpose of stupefying or overpowering, to enable any person to engage in a sexual activity involving the victim. The latter is similar in that a crime is committed when drugs are feloniously administered with intent to produce stupefaction, however there doesn’t need to be further intent, and it is not necessary that any injury to the victim is caused.

The data we receive from Police Scotland does not include information on the circumstances of individual crimes. We are therefore unable to identify how many of these crimes specifically involve drink spiking or spiking by injection.

Number of crimes of administering a substance for sexual purposes recorded by the police, by local authority, 2016-17 to September 2021

The Scottish Government is currently consulting on draft policy options for the installation of electric vehicle charge points in a number of different building types, including an option that sets out a minimum requirement for all new residential buildings with parking spaces.

The consultation ( Scottish Building Regulations: Proposed changes to Energy Standards and associated topics, including Ventilation, Overheating and Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure ) can be found on the Scottish Government's website.

We aim to publish a consultation response in early 2022.

Since 2016 the Scottish Government has directly funded or provided the following training specifically aimed at supporting disabled people in using public transport:

• The rail First Time Traveller Programme – supports people with autism in experiencing rail travel for the first time in order to raise awareness of what to expect and to build confidence.
• Railway Awareness Open Days at major stations – ScotRail, working alongside third sector organisations, invite disabled people to come and familiarise themselves with stations and train travel as well as answering any questions they may have.
• Travel training programmes – one in Clackmannanshire and Stirling where trained support workers help young people as well as individuals with dementia and autism access and navigate public transport increasing their confidence to travel independently; and the other in East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde and Greater Glasgow which did the same for people with learning difficulties or autism.
• Working with Disability Equality Scotland, Transport Scotland has undertaken a series of webinars and polls with disabled people and disabled people’s organisations exploring a range of issues important to disabled people, including how confidence in returning to public transport post-pandemic could be strengthened

In addition, the Scottish Government has funded or provided training for public transport operators and their staff in order to raise awareness of the needs of disabled passengers. For example, sensory packs and staff awareness training were rolled out across the Calmac ferry fleet on behalf of the National Autistic Society, and training has been funded for staff at Scottish airports on a range of topics from British Sign Language to autism awareness.

When making the difficult decision to suspend any non-urgent elective surgery, Health Boards are following local decision making on an daily and weekly basis, dependant on where the most pressures are ensuring urgent elective and Cancer surgery continues.

Where there are any changes being made to a patients treatment plan we expect discussions to take place between patient and clinician. The Clinical Prioritisation Framework is being used by Health Boards to ensure that patients with the greatest clinical need are treated first.

To support elective activity mutual aid is being sought between Health Boards and the NHS Golden Jubilee are supporting various Boards across Scotland undertaking Cancer, Ophthalmology and Cardiology services.

Moving forward we have published our NHS Recovery Plan. Recovery focusses on alternatives pathways of care that allow people to be treated more quickly closer to home and also delivers long term sustainability. The plan is backed by more than £1 billion of investment over the next five years.

The level of future funding associated with this Programme for Government commitment will not be confirmed until publication of the Scottish Government multi-year spending review, currently expected to be spring of 2022. The Scottish Budget for 2022/23 will be published on 9 December.

However, the Scottish Government has already committed £2.3 million of funding for genomic medicine for 2021–2022. The funding for 2021-2022 will support the extension of ‘The Bridge to a Scottish Strategy for Genomics Strategy’ which increases laboratory capacity and frontline genetic services for rare and inherited disease.

The Scottish Genomics Leadership Group, jointly chaired by Professor David Crossman, Chief Scientist for Health for the Scottish Government, and Susan Buchanan, Director for NHS National Services Division, are our expert group in genomic medicine and are providing advice to the Scottish Government to plan our long-term agenda for genomic medicine in Scotland.

Test and Protect continues to inform schools of a positive Covid-19 PCR test for one of their pupils where it is deemed necessary after being risk assessed by public health officials. As set out in Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance on reducing the risks in schools , parents, carers and young people are also strongly advised when they receive a positive test to inform the school or early years setting.

The following table outlines the total number of Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) approvals since April 2016 to the end of June 2021. These approvals are broken down by their current status; not started, currently on site, completed, and those that were approved but have subsequently now been withdrawn from the programme.

In relation to the funding provided to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service from Scottish Government, all of the funding was spent in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 financial year.

The Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland (PHS) continue to work with health boards to support their planning and the safe delivery of immunisation services during the pandemic.

The latest HPV immunisation statistics published by Public Health Scotland (PHS) for academic year 2019/20 show that uptake for the HPV vaccine remains high. Further information is available online on the PHS website: HPV Immunisation Statistics Scotland 22 December 2020 - Data & intelligence from PHS (isdscotland.org).

Public Health Scotland collate data on the HPV vaccination programme for the previous school year every autumn. Data for school year 2020-21 will be collated in autumn 2021 and published in December 2021. Therefore, we cannot provide information on the most recent school year.

Completions dates for housing projects change on a regular basis for a variety of reasons and overwrite previous estimated dates. We are therefore unable to advise on the exact number of approvals where completion dates have been revised.

Due to the pandemic, construction was paused for three months in 2020-21 followed by a phased re-opening of sites in compliance with COVID guidance and restrictions. That impact has now been compounded by the current difficulties with the rising cost of materials and shortages in supplies and labour.

As a result and, based on management information, at the end of 2020-21 there were 9,017 less affordable homes delivered than were originally estimated to be completed at the start of 2020-21 and the estimated completions for 2021-22 have decreased by 267 since the start of this financial year.