Seòmar agus comataidhean

Table 1 provides information on total number of inpatient, daycase and outpatient hospital episodes where a cataract surgery procedure was recorded, at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion by financial year from 2004-05. It is not possible to provide figures for 1999-2003, as prior to 2004 activity at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion was recorded under the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh along with activity from other facilities on the Lauriston Place site.

Table 1: Number of Cataract eye surgery procedures at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion, 2004-05 to 2022-23

Table 1 provides information on total number of inpatient, daycase and outpatient hospital episodes where an emergency eye surgery procedure was recorded, at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion by financial year from 2004-05. It is not possible to provide figures for 1999-2003, as prior to 2004 activity at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion was recorded under the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh along with activity from other facilities on the Lauriston Place site.

Table 1: Number of emergency Eye procedures at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion, 2004-05 to 2022-23

FSS officials meet with officials in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in Wales and Northern Ireland, lead departments for food labelling in the rest of the UK, on a bimonthly basis. FSS continues to highlight that braille labelling of food products is being considered by the Scottish Parliament Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee, and the importance being placed on this issue in Scotland. Development of any policy proposals would need to be considered on a four-nation basis under the UK Food Compositional Standards and Labelling Common Framework.

FSS intend to initiate stakeholder engagement during the 2024 – 25 business year, and will seek early opportunities to gather initial views on braille labelling from relevant business stakeholders where practical.

The Draft Scottish Budget 2024-25 was published on 19 Dec 2023.

The Bill is currently at ‘Stage 2 – Changes to Detail’ with any amendments to be considered at a meeting on 20 February 2024.

Once moved to ‘Stage 3 – Final amendments and vote’ a further vote will confirm that the Bill will become an Act before April 2024.

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (CCA) and the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (Contingency Planning) (Scotland) Regulations 2005 is the legislation which outlines the categorised responders, and their duty to prepare for civil emergencies within Scotland.

The CCA divides responders into two categories, category 1 and category 2, with local authorities included as a category 1 responder. The CCA imposes a set of duties on each category of responders, but it does not confer any powers upon the categorised responders.

The UK Government has a legal obligation to review the CCA every 5 years. The most recent review was published in 2022 and the report, including the findings and recommendations, can be viewed here - Civil Contingencies Act 2004: post implementation review report (2022) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) .

The Scottish Government does not currently have any plans to review the accompanying regulations to the CCA.

No impact assessments have been conducted as the Scottish Government’s position is and remains that the charitable status of any organisation is a matter for OSCR. Whether independent fee-charging schools meet the charity test is a matter for OSCR who operate independently of the Scottish Government.

Any changes to the way OSCR determine charitable status would need to be made by primary legislation, following thorough consultation, impact assessments and analysis.

Progress towards eliminating hepatitis C (HCV) as a public health concern is monitored by Public Health Scotland using a range of public health surveillance data including HCV tests and diagnoses, and clinical, morbidity and mortality data.

Progress towards eliminating hepatitis C (HCV) as a public health concern is monitored by Public Health Scotland (PHS) with the most recent surveillance report in December 2023 indicating that major progress continues to be made on a number of HCV elimination targets in Scotland. For example, 86% of those previously diagnosed have been treated for their infection (in excess of the World Health Organization target of 80%).

A key indicator of progress toward HCV elimination is prevalence of chronic HCV among people who inject drugs (PWID) which is monitored via the Needle Exchange Surveillance Initiative survey led by Glasgow Caledonian University in association with PHS. This found the prevalence of chronic HCV infection among PWID in Scotland had reduced by approximately 50%, from 37% in 2015-16 to 19% in 2019-2020. Results for the latest NESI survey conducted during 2022-23 are expected to be published in mid 2024-25.

Treatment targets are currently published at Scotland level only, however a new PHS-led blood borne virus and sexually transmitted infection dashboard is scheduled for launch in 2024-25 which will include data on HCV treatment (alongside other indicators) and will help to monitor progress on elimination at NHS board level.

In the past five years, no hospital buildings have been identified as having external wall cladding with high-risk polyethylene Aluminium Composite Material (ACM).

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are in the process of removing ACM from the internal atrium of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and replacing it with a non-combustible cladding material. This action was agreed after extensive and regular engagement with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, who were fully supportive of the mitigating actions implemented by the Board.