Chamber and committees

Scottish Government officials have a weekly call with NHS Tayside’s Cancer Team to track all patients on an urgent suspicion of cancer (USC) pathway and update on service delivery, including workforce.

In March 2021, after a request for national support, Scottish Government representatives met with NHS Tayside Chief Executive and senior medical staff and other health boards to provide support to ensure the continuation of its breast oncology services following the departure of one consultant.

We are continuing to work with NHS Tayside to ensure the long term continuation of service for women in the NHS Tayside area. A new consultant has been appointed who took up post in mid-July and there is ongoing recruitment for a further post. Ongoing clinical support will continue to be provided by NHS Grampian.

The Scottish Government set out the local arrangements that should be put in place to provide clinical and professional multi-disciplinary team oversight for social care services during the COVID-19 pandemic in a letter dated 17 May 2020.

These arrangements, which build on the foundations of health and social care integration, have contributed to the protective arrangements for care home and care at home services during the pandemic. The Scottish Government wrote to local MDT oversight teams in March 2021 setting out the expectation that these arrangements should continue for the remainder of the pandemic and beyond, although these will need to evolve taking account of learning and local circumstances.

The additional funding announced will enable both the establishment of new multi-disciplinary teams and strengthening of existing teams.

The provisions of the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000 enable the Scottish Ministers to make a formal proposal to establish a new National Park. We are aware that there are several areas which may be interested in obtaining National Park status. There is therefore a need to have an initial non-statutory evaluation process to determine what area or areas should be subject to a formal proposal. This evaluation process will be fair and transparent and stakeholders will be closely involved in developing it.

Further, section 3 of the Act allows the Scottish Ministers to require NatureScot, or another public body with relevant expertise, to report to Ministers on a proposal for a National Park. The reporter appointed under section 3, as part of preparing the report, must consult with every local authority and community council whose area (or part of whose area) is within the area to which the proposal relates, persons the reporter considers are representative of the interests of local residents and businesses, any other persons as the reporter thinks fit.

The first steps in the process of identifying potential areas for National Park status will be to develop and publicise the evaluation process which will be used to determine the area or areas to be proposed as the next National Park in Scotland.

It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage and maintain the school estate across Scotland. The Scottish Government asked local authorities to detail any ventilation mitigations or remedial action arising throughout the CO2 monitoring exercise. Areas of potentially poor ventilation should be identified by reference to the Scottish Government’s Reducing Risks in Schools Guidance, which makes clear at what level of CO2 concentration remedial action should be considered.

To date, local authorities have reported only limited instances of remedial action being required in their learning estates.

The Scottish Government confirmed a total of £10m funding allocations to local authorities in its grant letter on 14 October 2021. The funding allocations for all local authorities have been agreed and grant payments will be made in line with standard processes and timelines. Local authorities have confirmed that they have been progressing their purchases of CO2 monitors on the basis of confirmed funding allocations. We have requested formal confirmation by the end of November that all funding provided has been, or will be, used for the specified purposes.

The M80 northbound Junction 4a Low Wood off slip spur to Cumbernauld Town Centre has been closed alongside lane restrictions passing over the motorway overbridges on the A8011 to allow structure inspections and investigation works to be carried out. This stage of the works is expected to be completed by the end of November.

The Scottish Government do not hold the data on individual CO2 assessments, this is held at a local authority level.

However, I wrote to the Education, Children and Young People Committee on Friday 29 October 2021 and provided a comprehensive factual update on the latest position relating to the CO2 monitoring assessments being carried out by local authorities.

Up-until 2020 100% of sheep flocks selected for inspection had to have a full head count.

For 2020 in order to minimise Covid-19 related risks for farmers/crofters and Scottish Government inspectors the requirement to undertake a full head count at every inspection was removed.

For 2021 a partial head count was reinstated but only for sheep maintained on a farmer/crofter's main holding and sheep maintained on other land within a 5 mile radius of the main holding.

For 2020 and 2021, for farmer/crofters primarily with small flocks or where significant errors are found, some of the inspection controls have the same effect as undertaking a full head count.

The percentage of full flock head counts undertaken in each of the last five years which relate to inspections carried out in Shetland are set out in the following table. Figures for the current year aren't available as inspections are ongoing.

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