The Scottish Government remains committed to transparency on this important issue. Since the last update to Parliament on 15 September, I can confirm that:

• As was the case in September, no invasive cervical cancer has been detected in any individuals who were written to over the summer on this issue and who have subsequently attended either for screening or gynaecological exam.
• Work in reviewing exclusions has continued to be prioritise based on risk, and in early autumn, an audit of all records where an obstetric hysterectomy has been performed was carried out. All individuals identified as either having been or likely to have been wrongfully excluded have now been contacted and re-instated in the screening programme or invited for examination as required.
• Work is ongoing to review the remaining exclusions; the NHS is committed to completing this as quickly as possible, and I will update Parliament on progress in due course.
• Dr Karin Denton is a consultant pathologist with North Bristol NHS Trust and leads the laboratory service for Cervical Screening in the South West of England. She has been appointed to chair the Healthcare Improvement Scotland review of the systems and processes of exclusions in the cervical screening programme. It is anticipated that the review findings will be published in autumn 2022.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04154 on 17 November 2021.

In relation to other technologies that could reduce pressure on the pharmacy sector, community pharmacies have had access to NHS Near Me since 2020. This offers an additional communication tool for use with healthcare professionals and patients. Pharmacists also have access to the Emergency Care Summary and we are working with Health Boards to ensure pharmacists have appropriate access to patient information through the Clinical Portal. The ePharmacy Programme continues to oversee and develop technology used in community pharmacies to support the provision of NHS pharmaceutical care services.

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.

Regulation of the pharmacy profession is applied on a UK basis. However, people arriving in Scotland with pharmacy qualifications from other countries are able to contact NES Pharmacy to explore additional training needs to enable them to practice in Scotland. NES would be able to assist with training gaps, or help to put forward a case to the GPhC.

The Schools of Pharmacy in Scotland have no plans to reintroduce the OSPAP scheme for overseas students.

Since 2015 the Save a Life for Scotland (SALFS) partnership has equipped over 640,000 people in Scotland with the skills to perform CPR. The refreshed strategy seeks to increase this to 1 million people by 2026. This will be achieved through continued partnership working to raise awareness, and the delivery of CPR training across Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05156 on 10 January 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 Chief Pharmaceutical Officer is putting together a workforce forum to look at the workforce challenges and bringing together stakeholders from pharmacy education and pharmacy service provision to set a strategic workforce plan for the profession.

The Scottish Government will also continue to work with our key partners to ensure that the balance is maintained across the whole pharmacy workforce in the hospital, community, and GP practice sectors.

The Scottish Government workforce integrated plans commits to increasing the pharmacy pre-registration training places by 120 over the next 4 years and we are currently increasing training places available for pharmacy technician training, which will bring more staff in to the profession.

All patient conveying vehicles including paramedic response units carry defibrillators and staff are trained to use them. Community First responder vehicles also carry defibrillators, and the Scottish Ambulance Service has access to a system which is used to direct members of public to the closest registered defibrillator.

The refreshed Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) Strategy 2021 to 2026, published in March recognises the importance of defibrillation registration. We are key partners within the Save a Life for Scotland Partnership (SALFS).

We would urge all defibrillator guardians to register their defibrillator so that the Scottish Ambulance Service call handlers can direct people to them in incidents of cardiac arrest. Registration of defibrillators in Scotland will build the evidence to support people and organisations in making informed decisions about where to place their life saving device.

Data on nationality is not collected as part of the COVID vaccination programme.

We commenced the collection of ethnicity data as part of the vaccination programme in November 2021. This is to help tackle racialised health inequalities. Once this data becomes available it will help us to better design and tailor services to improve people’s health outcomes. This data is collected following a recommendation from the Expert Reference Group on COVID and Ethnicity (ERG).

The ethnicity question is a mandatory field, and so everyone should complete this field, though there is an option for people to select the option ‘prefer not to say/don’t know’. The ethnicity question used is taken from Census 2022 Question 23.

Full information on what personal information we process , including ethnicity, and how we use your data as part of the COVID-19 vaccination programme can be found on NHS Inform under Data, Privacy and Ethics.

Public Health Scotland already publishes information about equality of vaccination uptake. The most recent data can be found at COVID-19 Statistical Report - 1 December 2021 - COVID-19 statistical report - Publications - Public Health Scotland . The report contains information about the data sources used.

The Scottish Government’s commitment to the early diagnosis of cancer is reflected in our £44m Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme, which adopts a whole-systems approach to diagnosing and treating cancer as early as possible – ranging from screening and public awareness campaigns to diagnostics and data. The NHS Recovery Plan, published August 2021, commits an additional £20m for the Programme.

In terms of data, Scotland already publishes a range of quality data-sets which include blood cancers. Some examples of these are our quarterly published Cancer Waiting Times data which includes lymphomas, our annually published Cancer Mortality data which has blood and lymphatic cancers included, and our annually published Cancer Survival stats which includes blood cancers.

In addition to this, the National Cancer Data Group is an established advisory group containing relevant clinicians and stakeholders, and meets regularly in order to seek improvements in data collection to, in turn, improve cancer outcomes in Scotland.

Our officials are currently in discussion with the Blood Cancer Alliance to arrange a meeting early this year, to explore how further improved outcomes for patients diagnosed with blood cancers can be achieved.