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The Scottish Ambulance Service launched its New Clinical Response Model (NCRM) in November 2016, based on a detailed clinical analysis of around half a million 999 calls. Since then, following triage, 999 calls are coded to one of five categories based on the likelihood of serious outcomes or the requirement for specific interventions:

Purple: where a patient is identified as having a 10% or more chance of cardiac arrest. Purple codes represent approximately 2.5% of total 999 call volume and the actual cardiac arrest rate across this category is 53%.

Red: where a patient is identified as having a likelihood of cardiac arrest between 1% and 9.9%, or having a need for resuscitation interventions such as airway management above 2%. Currently the cardiac arrest rate in this category is approx. 1.5%

Amber: where a patient is likely to need diagnosis and conveyance to definitive care; for example, patients diagnosed with heart attacks who need to go to specialist centres for expert cardiology interventions or patients affected by stroke who need to be taken to specialist stroke units. The cardiac arrest rates for all of these codes are less than 0.5%

Yellow: a patient who has a need for emergency care but has a very low likelihood of requiring life-saving interventions. For example, patients who have tripped or fallen but not sustained any serious injury.

Green: a patient does not fit the above categories and there is potential for an alternative care pathway.

The rationale behind these changes were to maintain fast responses to those patients who needed active resuscitation, principally the purple and red categories, and for all other 999 calls, to match the best clinical response to patient need, even if that may take a little longer because this would enable the patient to more effectively access definitive care either in hospital or in a community setting.

The Scottish Government position remains unchanged. We recognise that some Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM), including homeopathy, may offer relief to some people suffering from a wide variety of conditions. It is for individual NHS Boards to decide which medicines and treatments they make available based on national and local priorities and the needs of their resident populations, in line with national guidance: http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/dl/DL(2016)06.pdf

The prescribing of any medicines/treatments, including homeopathy, is a clinical decision taken in consultation with patients based on clinicians’ competencies and awareness of the medicines/treatments concerned. This includes evidence based advice and guidance. The Scottish Government expects any treatment to be appropriate, person-centred, safe and effective and that clinical and care professionals review the effectiveness of any treatment with their patients.

Figures in the requested format are not held centrally.

NHS Information Services Division publishes monthly figures on dispensed prescription items in their community open data files. These files show number of paid items, paid quantity and gross ingredient cost (GIC) broken down to GP practice level for all prescription items. The open data files are available from November 2015 and are available at the following link - https://www.opendata.nhs.scot/dataset/prescriptions-in-the-community

In addition to the published monthly figures, there is a Dispenser Payments and Prescription Cost Analysis report, published annually, which details the total number of dispensed items and GIC costs for Scotland, with a breakdown of the figures by health board. British National Formulary (BNF) subsection 190203 includes prescribable homeopathic preparations, however, it should be noted that this does not capture bespoke prescribed items prepared for individual patients based on their clinical needs. The most recent annual report is available at - http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Prescribing-and-Medicines/Community-Dispensing/Dispenser-Remuneration

The Scottish Government position remains unchanged. We recognise that some Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM), including homeopathy, may offer relief to some people suffering from a wide variety of conditions. It is for individual NHS Boards to decide which medicines and treatments they make available based on national and local priorities and the needs of their resident populations, in line with national guidance: http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/dl/DL(2016)06.pdf

The prescribing of any medicines/treatments, including homeopathy, is a clinical decision taken in consultation with patients based on clinicians’ competencies and awareness of the medicines/treatments concerned. This includes evidence based advice and guidance. The Scottish Government expects any treatment to be appropriate, person-centred, safe and effective and that clinical and care professionals review the effectiveness of any treatment with their patients.

I refer the member to the answer to questions S5W-10593 on 29 August 2017 and S5W-11037 on 19 September 2017. 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

The Historic Environment Scotland Act 2014 created a new public body, Historic Environment Scotland (HES) to carry out the regulatory and other functions which were formerly delivered by or on behalf of Scottish Ministers.

HES acts as the lead public body on matters relating to Scotland’s historic environment and as guardian of Scotland’s historic environment, including responsibility for delivering Scottish Ministers’ functions relating to the properties in their care, of which Holyrood Park is one.

Since your query relates to an operational issue, this is a matter for HES, the answer to which is not held centrally. I have therefore referred your question to the HES Chief Executive who will reply to you directly.

This is a matter for individual Health Boards. The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

None of the GMC approved medical training programmes require placements in homeopathy, and there are currently no training rotations in any medical placements which include homeopathy attachments.

There are no homeopathy nurses or allied health professions (AHP’s). Homeopathy is an entirely different training and not directly related to any AHP or Nursing; it is not a skill which would be registered or annotated on the Health and Care Professions Council/Nursing and Midwifery Council (HCPC/ NWC) register.

The UK Government Block Grant Transparency Document confirms that the Scottish Government received Barnett consequentials of £4.3 million this financial year and £7.3 million in 2019-20 as a result of Autumn Budget announcements made by the UK Government for expenditure on a ‘National Retraining Scheme initial investment and investment in computing science teachers and maths’. The relevant HM Treasury documents may be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/block-grant-transparency-december-2017-publication .

Given the broad nature of this funding allocation, it is not possible to relate these allocated Barnett consequentials specifically to computing science teachers. Such consequentials are not automatically received by the corresponding Scottish Government portfolio but form part of the wider Scottish Government budget for the financial year concerned.

As part of the Government’s STEM Education and Training Strategy, we are continuing to develop and invest in teacher professional development in computing science, for both the primary and secondary sectors. This includes the Barefoot Computing programme which provides teaching resources for the primary sector, an online learning course to develop teachers’ knowledge and skills for delivery of National 5 Computing Science, and the Digital Schools Award for Scotland which helps schools embed digital technology within their learning and teaching.

Education Scotland is also establishing a Computing Science Lead Teacher network that will offer national level training that can be cascaded to local practitioners. This network builds on the support arrangements provided by Computing at School Scotland (CASS) and the ‘PLAN C’ project, and will link to the STEM Hub network being developed through the college network as part of our STEM Strategy.