Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government welcomes the recommendations made in Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland’s (HMICS) Assurance Review of Police Scotland Strategic Workforce Planning. I look forward to discussing the recommendations with both Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority.

The recruitment and deployment of police officers and staff in Scotland is a matter for the Chief Constable, who along with the Scottish Police Authority, will continue to ensure the capability and capacity of Police Scotland to improve and maintain the safety and wellbeing of people, places and communities in Scotland.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans to ban disposable barbeques.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service are clear to encourage anyone using one to act responsibly both when using and disposing of the barbeques in line with their #safersummer campaign.

The information requested is not held centrally. Pupil Equity Funding of over £520 million over the next four years is providing additional support to 97% of schools across Scotland, empowering our head teachers and teachers who know their children best. As outlined in the answer to parliamentary question S6T-00784, the majority of the £634 million in PEF distributed to schools is invested in approaches to improving literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing through the recruitment of additional teaching and support staff, family link workers and partnerships with third sector organisations.

Where there are projects involving Police Scotland in place, schools find those to be of great benefit. They are highly engaged in proactive and preventative work in communities with families, working alongside social work and third sector organisations. They are not policing in schools.

To be clear, the £2 million described is a very small proportion—just 0.3 per cent—of the pupil equity funding that has been distributed to schools across the 32 councils since 2017-18.

Each Health Department in the UK and across Devolved Nations is made aware of all JCVI advice though their designated observers. The Scottish Government’s Senior Medical Officer (SMO) is a member, and attends JCVI and Sub-Committee meetings and receives all Committee papers and recommendations. Through the SMO and policy officials, Ministers are kept abreast of all JCVI recommendations. As Cabinet Secretary I have had regular discussions with my senior clinicians in relation to our response to Monkeypox, as well as raising it with Health Ministers across the UK.

The Scottish Government has no plans to publish the six-month progress reports for the nine projects funded through the Chief Scientist Office long-term effects of COVID-19 research call.

Interim progress reports are not published as their purpose is to enable monitoring of the progress of the projects, as a check that the researchers have gained all the necessary research regulatory and governance approvals, to monitor grant spend, and to determine whether adjustments to projects are required to deal with unforeseen challenges that may have arisen. Interim reports are not a vehicle to publish research results as the projects have not completed and any results are likely to be incomplete. Publication could therefore potentially lead to misleading conclusions being drawn. It is important that conclusions are drawn from research studies once all the data are fully analysed and also preferably published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature following independent scrutiny.

The Scottish Government is actively working with local authorities, Education Scotland and other partners to understand and support the needs of Ukrainian children and ensure they can access appropriate education. This work is being co-ordinated through a joint Scottish Government and COSLA working group. In addition, Councillor Buchanan and I have recently written to all local authorities on this issue to ensure a joined-up approach and consistency of understanding.

Local authorities are responsible for the delivery of education and are best placed to consider the educational needs of children arriving into Scotland from Ukraine. These needs are potentially complex and dependent on the age and stage of the child, including any additional support needs such as learning English as an additional language (EAL). I have asked Education Scotland to contact all local authorities to discuss current plans, and to understand where ongoing support can best be provided.

The Scottish Government is pressing the UK Government for more clarity on the method and timing of education tariff payments to local authorities for those arriving from Ukraine. This tariff, which is to be available for 2022-23, pro rata to the time the child or young person is receiving education, can help meet specific needs that arise in relation to accessing education, including having English as an Additional Language. This is in addition to the funding the Scottish Government provides to local authorities for additional support for learning as part of their block grant.

The Scottish Government has issued guidance to Health Boards setting out our expectation that Ukrainian refugees in Scotland will have access to all primary health care services along with vaccinations including those for COVID-19.

While pharmacy closures can occur, this on the whole represents a small proportion of the network and is often limited to a small proportion of the required model hours. The Scottish Government continue to work with all Health Boards and community pharmacies representatives who are responsible for the provision of local pharmaceutical care services to ensure that any challenges faced by community pharmacies in providing the safe and effective dispensing of treatments are discussed with the local Health Board to minimise impact and risk to patients. Health boards can take a range of actions in response to any breach of terms by a pharmacy contractor.

The Scottish Government has issued guidance to Health Boards setting out our expectation that Health Boards will ensure Ukrainian refugees have access to local dental treatment and GP practices.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10233 on‎ 29 August 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers