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GP practices are independent contractors and therefore decisions relating to telephony are at their discretion. On top of practices’ core funding allocation, the Scottish Government is making an additional £600,000 funding available this year for the Health Boards to allocate to GP practices for the purpose of upgrading or replacing telephony systems.

Scottish Government has been working with heath boards most likely to be impacted by COP26 and have put in place measures to support provision of health services to official delegates and others visiting Scotland during the summit period.

Hosting this event does place an additional demand on our NHS and we continue to work closely with Scottish and UK partners to mitigate potential impact on NHS services and staff workload.

Special Advisers in the Scottish Government are bound by the Special Adviser Code of Conduct and the standards of integrity and honesty required of all civil servants as set out in the Civil Service Code. The Scottish Government has accepted the Hamilton Report proposal to give further consideration to matters relating to Special Advisers. We will cooperate with the Independent Advisers on taking this forward as part of any wider revisions to both the Ministerial Code and the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers that might be required.

It is expected there will be approximately 40,000 delegates and retinues from international countries in Glasgow for the event. In addition to that, there will be civil society activists who will visit Glasgow during COP-26. Current estimates suggest there may be between 50,000 and 250,000 activists attending during the course of the event.

In response to the pressures on NHS services caused by the pandemic over the past 18 months, the First Minster launched the NHS Recovery Plan, on the 25 August. The Plan sets out the Scottish Governments key headline ambitions and actions to be developed and delivered now and over the next 5 years.

While it is important to stress that recovery is the immediate task, this Plan is fundamentally about ensuring that the process of 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.

Our Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme is aimed at increasing early diagnosis rates of Scotland’s most common cancers while reducing health inequalities. Following an options appraisal exercise, melanoma was selected as the next tumour type for inclusion in the DCE Programme in 2016.

DCE’s website (getcheckedearly.org) and digital channels help to increase awareness of symptoms of a number of tumour groups, including melanoma, on an ongoing basis. The Programme also works closely with third sector to share patient experience stories, to prompt others to take action.

DCE launched a new overarching campaign – Survivors - in September 2018 to reduce fear of cancer and empower people to act early, if they noticed any possible signs of cancer. The NHS Recovery Plan, published 25 August 2021, commits a further £20 million investment to the DCE Programme which will include additional public awareness campaigns.

The Scottish Government has been working with partners including Integration Joint Boards, COSLA and Alzheimer Scotland through the first four months of 2021 and subsequently to review the provision of dementia post-diagnostic services.

This year’s Programme for Government confirmed that we would provide extra resources to help ensure that everyone who is entitled to the service has the option for referral. We will be allocating the annual equivalent of £3.5m for this purpose on a recurring basis.

The following table shows the number of people diagnosed with dementia and referred for post-diagnostic support from a named Link Worker in financial years 2018/19 and 2019/2020. Information on people diagnosed with dementia who are not referred for PDS is not available centrally.

For 2018/19, 8,021 people equates to approximately 43.4 % of those estimated to have been diagnosed with dementia in that year. Of those referred in 2018/19 for post-diagnostic support, 75.1% received a minimum of one year’s support. Full 2019/2020 figures will be published next year.

Table 1: Number of people diagnosed with dementia and referred for post-diagnostic support by financial year of diagnosis: Scotland: 2018/19 to 2019/20

Our proposed licensing scheme will assist in ensuring that short-term lets are safe and used for lawful purposes. Police Scotland is represented on the Short Term Lets Stakeholder Working Group and has expressed concern about some short-term lets being used for criminal purposes. Residents and community groups have also raised concerns with the Scottish Government.

The information requested is not collected and held centrally