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The Scottish Government last received an update from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) on the national Community Asset Register (CAR) at a meeting in early June 2023. SFRS confirmed that a CAR ‘action plan’ has been developed, to monitor progress of the actions required to improve the CAR, and SFRS will keep SG officials updated as progress is made. Before the end of 2023, SFRS plans to carry out further promotion of the CAR internally, and to review the Service Level Agreement between SFRS and the other emergency responders. SFRS also reiterated its intention to continue to further develop the digital platform currently being used for the CAR but has stated, however, that the planned Information & Communication Technology (ICT) improvements could not be delivered in the current financial year due to existing demands within the current SFRS ICT work plan. The necessary improvements are to be tabled for discussion as a priority for inclusion in the 2024-2025 ICT work plan.

It is not possible to make a precise assessment of the payment reform changes and their impact on future oral health inequality patterns at this stage.

The Government has for some time been working apace on payment reform for NHS dentistry, and on the 27 July this was communicated to the sector, with implementation scheduled for 1 November 2023. The new model seeks to improve and protect patients’ oral health by focussing on more patient-centred care such as preventative periodontal – gum disease – treatments.

This is a complex, far reaching change with longer-term implications. Payment reform will provide a range of data that will enable the Government to assess the impact on dental activity and longer-term oral health inequality patterns. The enhanced payments to practices for the treatment of patients in Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 1 areas has also been retained.

Payment reform should also be seen in the context of well-established and proven programmes such as Childsmile which specifically targets child oral health inequalities by providing fluoride varnish treatment to nursery and early years schoolchildren from SIMD 1 areas. Tackling oral health inequalities requires a multi-faceted approach, not necessarily confined to the patient-dentist relationship, and a recognition that intervention in the early years is critical to the establishment of good oral health habits.

The 2022-23 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) outbreak season started on 1 Oct 2022. HPAI H5N1 has since been confirmed (as 15 August) in 197 premises in the UK: 30 in Scotland, 8 in Wales, 1 in Northern Ireland and 158 in England. Of the 30 infected premises in Scotland 18 have been in commercial premises, 9 in backyard flocks and 3 captive bird premises. 16 of the cases have been in the North East of which 11 were in commercial premises, 3 in back yard flocks and 2 in captive bird premises.

One case of Low Pathogenic Avian Influenza (LPAI) H7N3 has also been confirmed in premises in Scotland this season.

APHA carries out year-round avian influenza surveillance of dead wild birds submitted via public reports and warden patrols across Great Britain on behalf of Scottish Government, Defra and Welsh Government. It is not designed to provide how wild birds are impacted by the disease but provide an indicator of the presence of disease in a specific area to help establish background risk levels to poultry and other captive birds. This information helps support how Scottish Government responds to changing disease risk. From 1 October 2022, the GB Dead Wild Bird Surveillance Scheme has identified 1,552 wild birds infected with HPAI H5N1, with 326 findings of HPAI H5N1 in Scotland. The surveillance scheme is designed to detect the presence of avian influenza.

NatureScot’s Wild Bird Mortality Surveillance Network, set up to provide early intelligence on the spread of the outbreak on wild birds and to give an indication of the impacts on different species, has received reports of a total of 10,087 dead and sick wild birds since 17 October 2022. Just under half of these (4,244) have been reported from NE Scotland (Aberdeenshire, Angus, Moray). This data is provided from key areas selected for monitoring and does not represent total wild bird deaths which will be much higher and may not all be solely attributable to HPAI H5N1. On 11 August Ministers launched the Wild Bird HPAI Response Plan that sets out how the Scottish Government and its partners will respond to any further outbreaks of HPAI in wild birds in Scotland.

However, this recent spike in wild bird occurrences has not translated into a corresponding spike in cases amongst poultry and captive birds. Although Scotland has confirmed 30 poultry and captive bird premises infected with H5N1 since October 2022, only 9 cases have occurred since 1 April 2023.

Scotland’s Chief Vet and officials continue to monitor the situation closely and remain in daily contact with other UK administrations to discuss policy options, control measures and future strategies for the control of avian influenza. The Scottish Government will continue to review the range of potential proportionate responses available. Together the three nations of Great Britain have an agreed notifiable avian disease control strategy which underpins our collective response to the disease.

In response to the recommendations of the Storm Arwen review report, the Scottish Government undertook a programme of enhanced engagement with key resilience organisations which included a series of Winter Preparedness Meetings. Following the conclusion of the programme of engagement, a review was conducted which found the Winter Preparedness Meetings to have been useful, met the Terms of Reference, and recommended that The Scottish Government considers continuing to undertake season based resilience meetings. This summer, Summer Resilience Meetings have been hosted in relation to summer resilience issues.

In addition to this, the established multi-agency Resilience structures in Scotland,attended by SG officials, all considered the Storm Arwen report and recommendations for their collective and organisational preparedness.

The 2023-2024 Delivery Plan which was recently published confirms that we expect the Digital Front Door to be delivered by the end of the current Parliamentary term in 2026.

You can read more about the Digital Front Door in our delivery plan here - Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2023-24 (www.gov.scot)

The rollout of the new National GP IT system is being delivered by the national ‘GP IT’ re-provisioning programme and is now fully underway with the first 4 NHS Health Boards(NHS Tayside, Lanarkshire, Lothian and Grampian). To date there are 110 GP practices currently live with the new system. We expect all Health Boards to enter into agreements with the Supplier by mid-2024, and full rollout completed by 2026. More information is available in our refreshed delivery plan of the Digital Strategy: Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2023-24 (www.gov.scot)

Scottish Government regularly engages with representatives from the care sector to discuss the challenges facing social care and how we can work together to improve services.

The Scottish Government have invested over £65 million in ChargePlace Scotland (CPS), Scotland’s public charging network, which now has more than 2500 publicly available charge points, over 90,000 member registrations and over 2.3 million successful charging sessions recorded in the last 12 months.

The figure of 7977 does not relate to ‘complaints’. This was the total of number of customer service tickets raised by the ChargePlace Scotland helpdesk over the 12 month period.

There are many reasons why a ticket can be raised, but these are not always a complaint and do not necessarily relate to issues which affect the operation of the charge point itself. If it relates to a ‘fault’, then that fault may be reported by more than one member of the public and this will also be reflected in the figures. Ticket and fault information are published monthly on the ChargePlace Scotland website for the general public to view.

The Scottish Government remains committed to ensuring that everyone who needs it can access seamless, timely and high-quality palliative care.

We are currently developing a new National Strategy for Palliative and End of Life Care for Scotland and, as part of this work, we are reviewing the information and evidence we have, and need, to develop the strategy. This includes gathering and analysing data on current and projected needs for palliative care for the population of Scotland.

We will study the Marie Curie figures in comparison to our own ongoing analysis in order to assess increased palliative care need over future years to inform the development of the new strategy.