Chamber and committees

Local authorities are responsible for enforcing Smoke Control Areas and investigating smoke nuisance complaints under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Decisions on whether to install defibrillators in schools are a matter for local authorities. The Scottish Government published a guide in 2018 providing advice on purchasing and installing a public access defibrillator. This can be found at the following link: Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: guide to public access defibrillators - gov.scot.

The Scottish Government Cancer Quality Performance Indicators (QPI) programme are vital in ensuring people have access to safe, effective, and person-centred care across Scotland and provides regular assessments of various aspects of cancer care. We work with regional cancer networks to ensure that NHS Boards meet these national standards of quality in cancer services and address any areas of concern to ensure equitable care.

Further to this, Scottish Government established the National Oncology Coordination Group to provide a coordinated and collaborative response to immediate and foreseeable service and capacity pressures. It provides rapid real-time assessment of highest risk services and proactively develops risk mitigation proposals across regions, in line with the overall strategic aim for cancer.

The Scottish Government is committed to collaborate with key partners across the NHS in Scotland to ensure that relevant information, with the appropriate safeguards in place, is available to all healthcare professionals, including community pharmacists, when and where they need it.

As community pharmacists expand their clinical role, there is an increasing need for them to have read/write access to clinical records to ensure that they can safely assess and agree a clinical management plan for a person and any associated actions or treatments can be viewed by other healthcare professionals involved in a person’s care, without any unnecessary delay.

Community pharmacists currently have access to the Emergency Care Summary (ECS) which provides information on recent acute and repeat prescriptions and allergies and the Key Information Summary (KIS) where available, which provides information about a person’s health issues, a carer’s name and contact details, preferences on how a person would like to be cared for, the treatment they would like and where they would like to be cared for.

In addition, several health boards are providing community pharmacists access to their clinical portal which provides additional clinical information, although the level of access varies from Health Board to Health Board. Clinical portals support Health Boards to allow healthcare professionals to access information about an individual, including in some cases those from other Health Boards when required, with their permission.

There are several barriers that currently make full access to clinical records difficult including the interoperability of the different IT systems used across the NHS and providing assurances on data protection and information governance requirements.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer is exploring how read/write access to clinical records can be delivered incrementally.

Whilst the Scottish Government sets the strategic policy direction for the NHS in Scotland, operational matters including staffing are in the first instance the responsibility of the relevant NHS board.

Decisions will depend on the service needs of each board taking account of national, regional and local priorities, and we expect NHS boards to plan and provide safe, effective and high-quality care, in line with their statutory service provision and workforce planning responsibilities.

In line with the requirements of the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019, the Scottish Government expects Health Boards to ensure that at all times there are sufficient suitably qualified staff to support the provision of high-quality care.

This includes reviewing staffing levels daily, with decisions regarding real time staffing being made on an ongoing basis.

Ferguson Marine was brought into public ownership in 2019 to ensure completion of the Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa vessels at Port Glasgow and to retain commercial shipbuilding on the Clyde. During that time, the Scottish Government has supported the business with £32 million of funding to support operating costs and capital investment.

The Scottish Government is committed that extended producer responsibility for packaging (pEPR) should cover the full net costs of both binned and ground litter cleanup and disposal, and to its introduction in regulations as soon as practicable. However, binned and ground littered household packaging cleanup and disposal costs are not yet included in disposal cost fees producers are obligated to pay under the pEPR scheme.

In line with the Verity House Agreement, funding resulting from extended producer responsibility for packaging (pEPR) will not be ring-fenced or directed, unless there is a clear joint understanding to do so. However, the purpose of the funding, to pay for the cost of managing household packaging waste - is clearly set out in legislation.

Payments under pEPR will support the costs of effective and efficient collection systems for household packaging waste. This includes the costs of incineration. Payments will be adjusted in future years to account for additional costs that local authorities may face, including those incurred under the proposed expansion of the emissions trading scheme.

The Scottish Government supports the full range of businesses primarily through its enterprise agencies, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise. As such the allocation of this direct funding to the size of businesses is held by each agency along with the number of businesses supported outside the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. Please email Scottish Government Enterprise Sponsorship team on [email protected] if you would like to contact the agencies directly.

The Scottish Government has, for a number of years, engaged with the private company that expressed interest in taking on the site at Tarbolton Moss. Engagement continues to identify next steps.