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The Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints wrote to the Corporate Body on the evening of 17 February 2021 seeking an urgent decision by the SPCB, as the publisher of parliamentary material, on whether the submission on the Ministerial Code phase of its inquiry made to it by the former First Minister Alex Salmond could be published.  The Committee had decided earlier that day by a majority that it could not publish the submission due to legal restrictions imposed by the Lord Justice Clerk at the High Court of Justiciary under the Contempt of Court Act 1981 in the case of HMA v Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond dated 10 March 2020 (as varied on 11 February 2021).  As the Committee’s decision not to publish was not unanimous, it agreed – also by majority – to refer the matter to the SPCB for consideration.

The SPCB discussed the matter at its meeting on the morning of Thursday 18 February and reconvened that afternoon to give it further consideration.  Having considered advice received from officials the SPCB reached a collective decision on the matter, Andy Wightman MSP having recused himself from the afternoon meeting and the decision given his membership of the Committee. In doing so, the SPCB was fully aware of its legal obligations to abide by the terms of the court order and, after careful consideration of all factors, the SPCB decided on balance that it was possible for the submission to be published. It then referred the matter back to the Committee for publication in line with its written statement on handling of information and evidence.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, noting press coverage of the SPCB’s decision, wrote to the SPCB on 22 February reminding the SPCB of the terms of the court order recognising that decisions on publication are a matter for it.  On the publication of the submission by the Committee on the evening of Monday 22 February, the COPFS again wrote to the SPCB. In response, the Presiding Officer called an urgent meeting of the SPCB for the following morning to consider the terms of that letter. Clarification on that letter was sought from COPFS and received and was available for the SPCB’s consideration at its meeting on Tuesday 23 February. 

The SPCB is unable to publish that letter or its contents as the Crown Office requested it be treated as confidential. The SPCB respects that request given the sensitivity of the contents and the terms of the order. After due consideration of its contents and mindful of the balance of judgements it had undertaken in relation to its earlier decision, the SPCB  decided that, while the submission could still be published, some of the content of the former First Minister’s submission required to be redacted.  Andy Wightman again recused himself from this decision. The submission was immediately removed from the Committee’s webpages and a redacted version was posted in its place. 

The SPCB takes it duty to support parliamentary scrutiny and to promote public transparency very seriously indeed but is acutely conscious of the need to act lawfully in all circumstances. These obligations do not always necessarily sit comfortably together. The SPCB, which is a six-member committee with representation from nearly all the parties in the Parliament, recognises that this is a matter of some complexity and also of great concern to fellow Members and others. It has sought to undertake its responsibilities with care and diligence throughout its handling of this very challenging issue, at the heart of which is the protection of the identity of the complainants.

Each decision of the SPCB in relation to this matter has been taken collectively and with great care.

Care for people towards the end of life is an important priority for the Scottish Government. Good care at end of life requires collaborative, multi-disciplinary support, which is why Integration Authorities have been given statutory responsibility for meeting this need. Integration Authorities regularly report on their progress using the 23 indicators ( https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Health/Policy/Adult-Health-SocialCare-Integration/Outcomes/Indicators/Indicators ) that support the statutory outcomes set out in the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that health and social care professionals have the knowledge, skills and confidence to provide high quality palliative and end of life care, relevant to their role.

In April 2018, we published a palliative and end of life care Educational Framework that can be used in all health and social care settings to support staff, including care home staff, who care for those with palliative and end of life care needs in their professional development. This is available at: https://learn.nes.nhs.scot/2450/palliative-and-end-of-life-care-enriching-and-improving-experience .

The National Digital Platform is not a single system but a range of products and tools that are becoming available over time, with development led by NHS Education for Scotland (NES). Its main purpose is to provide the underpinning technologies that make available appropriate health and care information whenever and wherever it is needed. Core components such as a secure cloud environment, user authentication and access controls, data repositories and integration capabilities are now largely in place. The platform is currently being used to support our Covid 19 response, for example by holding the national Vaccination Record and hosting the Protect Scotland App. A number of products are in development that will use and enhance platform capability, including the OpenEyes Electronic Patient Record (EPR) for eyecare services in Scotland, the ReSPECT emergency anticipatory care planning tool and the development of Cancer Treatment Summaries.

NES also lead on overall workforce development for digital health & care, and are ensuring that all staff will be suitably digitally skilled, with training and support in place for the introduction of any new tools and services.

We do not have a single measure that captures performance against this aim, as the provision of palliative care depends on the interaction of a range of services - formal palliative care, care at home and care home services, and access to hospice and hospice-at-home services - that vary considerably in definition between local systems. Good care at end of life requires collaborative, multi-disciplinary support, which is why Integration Authorities have been given statutory responsibility for meeting this need. Integration Authorities regularly report on their progress using the 23 indicators ( https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Health/Policy/Adult-Health-SocialCare-Integration/Outcomes/Indicators/Indicators ) that support the statutory outcomes set out in the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014.

The indicator currently used nationally to measure progress on improving palliative and end of life care provision is the percentage of last six months of life spent in the community. We recognise its limitations of measuring only the place of care, rather than quality or experience of care, and that it is not sufficient on its own. We will be reflecting on the lessons learned during the pandemic and intend to work with partners and stakeholders to develop better systems to support this aim.

Scottish Ministers issued an appeal to businesses on 22 March 2020 for support in accessing critical health supplies, including personal protective equipment (PPE), hand sanitiser, test kits, ventilators and related oxygen equipment. Offers were initially collected through a dedicated Scottish Government mailbox and then via an online portal managed by National Services Scotland (NSS). The NSS portal was closed to new offers on 19 June 2020 due to the stabilisation of health supply chains. At this date, normal procurement processes were resumed.

The total number of offers processed via the Scottish Government mailbox was 2,846 and the total processed via the NHS portal was 2,048. It should be noted that these figures contain duplicate offers which were made via both the mailbox and NHS portal.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested. The data we receive from Police Scotland for production of the Recorded Crime in Scotland National Statistics is a simple count of the numbers of crimes and offences, for each local authority, which the police have recorded and cleared up. We do not receive further details on the characteristics and circumstances of individual crimes, therefore we are unable to identify how many crimes of vandalism were in relation to graffiti using spray paint. Time series information on the total number of crimes of vandalism recorded by the police is available from the Recorded Crime in Scotland National Statistics (a link to the latest publication is found here: Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2019-2020 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ).

The Scottish Government has awarded 578 contracts to external suppliers during the period of the pandemic. This figure is taken from the Scottish Government's contract register for the dates 15 March 2020 to the present‎ (9 February 2021). Of these awards, 55 are thought to relate to the pandemic.

The Scottish Government follows the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) Guidance in the planning of vaccine delivery. This evidence based guidance advises that the single greatest risk of mortality from COVID-19 is increasing age, and that the risk increases exponentially with age. Additionally the committee considers frontline health and social care workers who provide direct care to vulnerable people a high priority for vaccination.

The JCVI priority lists represents 90 of the preventable mortality from COVID-19 and throughout the delivery of the vaccination programme we will be guided by the clinical expertise of the JCVI, the MHRA, and our own senior clinical advisers.

In line with the UK-wide JCVI clinical advice, staff working with children and young people with the most complex healthcare needs, particularly those with severe neuro- disabilities, are included in those who will be prioritised for the vaccine.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-34860 on 11 February 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .