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Due to the rapidly changing situation with Coronavirus (COVID-19) the Scottish Government is to temporarily pause a number of screening programmes. These are:

• Breast Screening (mammograms)

• Cervical Screening (smear tests)

• Bowel Screening (home test kits)

• Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) Screening (ultrasound of abdomen)

• Diabetic Retinopathy (Eye) Screening (images taken of the eye).

Pregnancy and Newborn Screening Programmes, including tests offered during pregnancy and just after birth, will continue where logistically practical.

This means no additional patients will be invited for screening until further notice. Results for those who have recently been screened or who have completed and returned home test kits will continue to be processed.

The suspension is temporary and will be formally reviewed after 12 weeks, or earlier if indicated by the evidence.

Pausing these screening programmes allows staff to be re-allocated to support other essential services, including COVID-19 laboratory testing and covering for colleagues who are unwell or self-isolating.

Vaccination Transformation Programme

The timescale for completion of the Vaccination Transformation Programme, which commenced in 2018 and was due to complete in April 2021, will be extended by one year to April 2022. This will enable the NHS staff whose involvement is vital to the success of the programme, to fully engage with the COVID-19 response over the coming months.

Implementation of the Human Tissue (Authorisation) (Scotland) Act 2019

Implementation of the Human Tissue (Authorisation) (Scotland) Act 2019 has been rescheduled to March 2021.

The health and wellbeing of teachers is a key concern of the Scottish Government. It is recognised that supporting the health and wellbeing of teachers is of paramount importance in enabling them to deliver high quality learning and teaching for children and young people.

We welcome the Barnardo's report and efforts to promote health and wellbeing for those working in our schools. I chaired a roundtable with Barnardo's and Place2Be on supervision last November. The outcomes of this roundtable, along with the findings in the Barnardo's report, will contribute to the work we are currently undertaking in partnership with local government and the teacher unions on the development of new professional learning opportunities for teachers focussed on their health and wellbeing. Opportunities to further explore the place of supervision structures for education staff are being discussed as part of this work.

The majority of Lyme disease cases can be diagnosed and treated in primary care without the need for specialist input, however where specialist input is needed such cases would be cared for in Scotland by Infectious Disease Consultants.

Increasing awareness amongst health care professionals of ticks and Lyme disease is an on-going priority for the Tick Borne Infections group which is part of the Scottish Health Protection Network. The group has produced a number of educational resources for health care professionals to support them in the early detection and management of Lyme disease cases, which can be accessed through the NHS Education for Scotland website.

The Scottish Government promotes the use of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which aims to help land managers in all sectors reduce their reliance on pesticides, including those containing glyphosate.

IPM is a site specific approach that integrates a full range of measures – including cultural, biological, chemical and design strategies – to manage pests, weeds and diseases, while minimising risks to people and the environment.

IPM is already promoted through strategies such as the Pesticides National Action Plan and we continue to work with land managers to further reduce reliance on pesticides as outlined in our recent programme for government.

In December 2018, the company responsible for waste collection in NHS Scotland (Healthcare Environmental Services Limited) ceased trading and removed access to all healthcare waste treatment capacity in Scotland. Contingency plans were implemented for NHS Scotland on 7 December 2018 to ensure the continued storage, collection and disposal of waste in line with industry regulations until such time as services could be transferred to a new operator.

Following a national tendering exercise, on 1 February 2019 Tradebe Healthcare Limited (“Tradebe”) was announced as the preferred operator for health waste management services. Commencement of the new contract was originally scheduled for 1 April 2019, however this has been subject to a number of unavoidable delays arising from the process to obtain planning permission from North Lanarkshire Council for Tradebe’s processing site at Bellshill.

Planning permission was granted by North Lanarkshire Council in August 2019 and a further permitting process with SEPA was concluded in early October. Following this, waste was sent to the Bellshill site to allow testing of the facilities and this successfully concluded in November 2019. Elements of the new contract which did not require use of the Bellshill plan were transitioned to Tradebe from 2 August.

The implementation of the new contract with Tradebe is being managed by NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) on behalf of NHS Scotland. NSS is working closely with all partners, including Tradebe and Board waste managers to finalise the detailed transition plan to support the transfer of services into fully contracted services as quickly and smoothly as possible. This will allow for waste management services to move to Tradebe on a phased basis by Spring 2020, and will follow all permit requirements being satisfied.

It is a condition of Tradebe’s permit to operate the Bellshill site that it must record details of waste accepted, and this requires NHS Boards to complete ‘Pre-Acceptance Audits’ of waste from hospital wards, GP surgeries, dental practices and all other healthcare waste producers. The completion of Pre-Acceptance Audits is a new regulatory requirement and we are working closely with all partners to develop plans and ensure that there is sufficient time for Boards to meet the new obligations. This work will be progressed in line with the overall project plan for transitioning of services to Tradebe.

The Scottish Government is very conscious of the pressures facing Scotland’s prisons, in particular the high prison population.

I have established a Prisons Resilience Leadership Group of senior officials from a range of justice agencies to ensure a cross-agency understanding of the challenges of a rising prison population and to seek co-ordinated approaches in response.

The Group are looking at a range of actions including:

• Increasing awareness of, access to and support for community sentences and alternatives to custody
• Looking more widely at how bail law operates and at access to support and mentoring schemes in the community to make sure that it is only used when it is needed to protect the public.
• Revisiting guidance for Home Detention Curfew (HDC) when we commence the parts of the Management of Offenders (Scotland) Act 2019 that provide for an expansion of electronic monitoring and make important improvements to temporary release and to HDC.

In addition, £24m on top of existing budget has already been made available this year to help the SPS meet a range of cost pressures and we will keep the budget position under review throughout the remainder of this year.

Earlier this year, we extended the presumption against short sentences which should ease pressure on Scotland’s prisons by reducing ‘churn’ and over time helping to reduce numbers in prison. We know from evidence that community interventions are more effective than short custodial sentences.

We are investing £9.5 million a year more on community justice services such as community sentences and electronic monitoring compared to 2015-16. This includes £4 million which was allocated to support community sentences and £1.5 million specifically to support preparations for the extended presumption. This additional support is being continued in 2019-20 and the impact of the extended presumption will be monitored closely.