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Scotland is the only country in the UK to provide additional funding to optometrists to enable them to spend longer during an eye examination with patients with complex needs, including children who may attend a special school. Officials are preparing advice to Scottish Ministers on the commitment to commission an in-school visual assessment for all children in special schools in England.

For the construction of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, which was a capital funded project, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde had a contract with Multiplex who were the main contractor. It was the responsibility of Multiplex to manage their sub-contractors, therefore NHS GG&C did not monitor the number of sub-contractors used on that project as they would have dealt exclusively with Multiplex.

Under the NPD agreement for the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, the Health Board has a single contract relationship with the Project Company. Project Company is responsible for managing the sub-contractors as per the agreed contract, therefore the supply chain is engaged at a level below the Project Agreement and is managed separately; consequently NHS Lothian do not collect information on sub-contractors.

This information is not held centrally. Under the Staff Governance Standard, health boards, as employers, must demonstrate that their staff are appropriately trained and developed.

This includes ensuring that resources, including time and funding, are appropriately allocated to meet local training and development needs, taking into account the needs of both the service and service users.

The Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 also contains provision to ensure staff receive appropriate training for the work they perform.

Of the £98.7 million EU Exit consequentials received between 2017-18 to 2019-20, we have already spent or committed £98.25 million. A full breakdown of money allocated to EU Exit preparation is contained within the Scottish Government’s overview of no deal preparations published on 8 October, with the below table taken from paragraph 46 of the plan:

Ensuring patients receive their medication on time when in hospital is a fundamental aspect of good quality care. This is set out in professional guidance, published in January 2019 by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, on 'the Administration of Medicines in Healthcare Settings'.

In addition, the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer published a strategy 'Achieving Excellence in Pharmaceutical Care' that makes reference to the use of people’s own medicines when they are inpatients, a strategy to facilitate medicine compliance in hospitals. This practice supports the medicines reconciliation process and ensures medicine changes are shared with care providers.

The Scottish Government and NHS Scotland are also investing £257 million each year to maintain, upgrade and implement core health IT systems, including the roll out of hospital electronic prescribing and medicines administration systems (HEPMA). Electronic prescribing has already been successfully implemented in four health boards across Scotland and all remaining NHS Boards are on track to roll it out within the next three to five years.

HEPMA supports both accurate prescribing and the administration of medicines to be recorded and therefore missed doses can be identified and rectified more quickly.

HEPMA’s functionality supports and enables more accurate, legible prescriptions through reduced transcription errors, reducing the risk of missing records and missed or late doses, resulting ultimately in a reduction in adverse drug events and allergic reactions.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone living in Scotland with neurological conditions, including Parkinson’s disease, is able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put the patient at the centre of their care. We have worked with the neurological community to develop Scotland’s first ever National Action Plan on Neurological Conditions, which we will publish before the end of the year.

The Scottish Government looks forward to working with Parkinson’s UK and other key stakeholders to support and improve care through the development of this plan taking account of the recommendations of this report as we do so.

NHS Education for Scotland`s Thriving in Medicine is a collection of online resources to support doctors, including ways to address and combat fatigue: https://www.scotlanddeanery.nhs.scot/trainee-information/thriving-in-medicine/ .

The GMC’s Promoting Excellence: standards for medical education and training sets out requirements for the management and delivery of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education and training. University medical schools encompass GMC requirements which includes a requirement for medicals schools to minimise the adverse effects of fatigue and workload.

We continue to improve working practices for junior doctors to limit the impact of fatigue. This includes ensuring no more than seven days or shifts are worked in a row, banning working seven consecutive night shifts, and requiring all junior doctor rotas to contain a minimum 46-hour rest period following a run of full shift night working.

This information is not held centrally. Under the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, it is the responsibility of all local authorities to maintain the school estate.

However, the Scottish Government's school building programmes - the current £1.8 billion Scotland’s Schools for the Future and the new £1 billion Learning Estate Investment Programme – are helping to replace the worst condition schools across Scotland.

The following table sets out the number of (a) short; (b) full and; (c) other school inspections undertaken in the last five academic years.

Each NHS Board is responsible under the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) and its subsequent regulations, to provide appropriate staff rest facilities. They are best placed locally to determine the particular requirements for safe staff working, including quantity and mix of rest facilities.

To assist NHS Boards in determining their needs in all healthcare facilities, Health Facilities Scotland (HFS) provide over 150 guidance documents on their website www.hfs.scot.nhs.uk/publications-/guidance-publications which covers a wide range of issues including rest facilities. For example, 'Facilities for surgical procedures (HBN 26) (2004)' states: '5.59 Anaesthetist on-call facilities are required within the department. Facilities should include a bed, en-suite shower/WC, clothes storage, a hand-wash basin, a desk and chair, and a computer with connection to IT services. Additionally, 'Accident and emergency facilities for adults and children (SPHN22) (2007)' states: '4.11 For senior on-call staff, a minimum of one single en-suite bed/sitting room that provides overnight accommodation is required within the department. The planning team should decide on the number, size and location of rooms following local consultation'.

The Scottish Government believes that this guidance provides sufficient clarity as to what rest facilities need to be provided for medical staff and this would be provided and managed locally by NHS Boards.