Seòmar agus comataidhean

Information on the number of support staff employed by Police Scotland is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. The information requested may be available on Police Scotland’s website, within the ‘Police Scotland Officers & Staff Quarterly Fact Sheet’ (link attached). The latest publication (Quarter 1 2021) provides data on staff numbers nationally and by local division.

Police Scotland Officer Numbers - Police Scotland

The welfare and wellbeing of Police Officers is a matter for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland. Officers and staff can access a range of services to care for their physical and mental health through the “Your Wellbeing Matters” programme provided by Police Scotland. Officers can seek advice and support through ‘Wellbeing Champions’ and the ‘Wellbeing Hub’ and can access services such as, Trauma Risk Management (TRiM); the Employee Assistance Programme; and Occupational Health services.

The Scottish Government has made a commitment to protect Police Scotland’s resource budget in real terms throughout the lifetime of this Parliament and for 2021-22 we have increased the policing budget by £75.5m, to over £1.3bn.

Yes. Further to advice from the Chief Medical Officer, the use of transvaginal mesh was halted in NHS Scotland in September 2018 and I can envisage no circumstances whatsoever in which that would change.

The Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland (PHS) continue to work with health boards to support their planning and the safe delivery of immunisation services during the pandemic.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that pupils who were not offered the HPV vaccine (first or second dose), or who missed the immunisation sessions at their school, will be offered the vaccine during planned catch-up sessions arranged by their health board, as soon as is practicable, now that Scottish schools have re-opened fully.

Young people and their parents can therefore be reassured that if they have missed their HPV, Meningitis ACWY or Tetanus/Diphtheria/Polio booster vaccines, these will be rescheduled.

Information on the status of the 2020-21 routine and catch-up HPV programmes, by NHS Boards, will be gathered by Public Health Scotland by end of August.

As part of the wider recovery from the pandemic, the Scottish Government launched the Framework for Rehabilitation & Recovery from COVID-19 in August 2020. The Framework puts in place clear principles, priorities and objectives to support increasing demand and to provide high quality person-centred rehabilitation in different settings.

The Framework will closely align to existing rehabilitation pathways and strategies and a Once for Scotland Approach will be developed and provide a practical, accessible strategy to deliver quality rehabilitation to everyone who needs it.

Our overall vision is for everyone with rehabilitation needs to be able to access the care and support to live well on their own terms.

Remobilising and supporting our NHS remains a priority and we will shortly publish our NHS Recovery Plan that will clearly set out how we will continue to support all patients to receive the highest quality of care.

The chief officers of health and social care partnerships were provided with a link to guidance on the Scottish Government website regarding the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020 and Coronavirus (Scotland) (No.2) Act 2020. This was provided on 7 April, the day all of the provisions in the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020 came into force, apart from those relating to the easements to s.13ZA of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968. Chief officers were advised of the relevant pages that contained guidance on adults with incapacity changes. That guidance made clear that the easements to s.13ZA would only come into force when and if Ministers approved its use by invoking regulations. This would be strictly only when evidenced as being absolutely necessary. These regulations did not come into force.

This information is not held centrally. However, you may wish to contact Scottish Local Authorities individually for information they may hold. The Scottish local government page of the Confederation of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) has contact information for these: https://www.cosla.gov.uk/councils.

Since 2015, the Save a Life for Scotland Partnership has equipped more than 640,000 people in Scotland with CPR skills. Over the same time period the rate of people surviving an out of hospital cardiac arrest has increased from one in 20 to one in 10.

In March this year, the partnership published an updated Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest strategy, which sets out a number of actions across the chain of survival, including actions to improve bystander CPR and defibrillation rates. There is a clear commitment to working closely with Local Authorities to ensure that all school aged children have the opportunity to learn CPR. The strategy can be found at:

Out of hospital cardiac arrest: strategy 2021 to 2026 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Dental check-ups for all NHS patients in Scotland were made free from 1 April 2006. Throughout the pandemic dental teams have been advised to prioritise NHS patients, including new mothers, on the basis of their dental care needs.

At the start of 2021, the Scottish Government held several discussions with the UK Government and the other Devolved Administrations regarding a joint approach to encourage participation in Horizon Europe by UK organisations. As part of these, UK Government officials were made aware of the plans of the Scottish Government to dedicate funding to support European research collaboration before the launch of the Saltire Research Awards. Scottish and UK Ministers communicate on strategic research policy issues regularly.

Humza Yousaf: The Scottish Government is investigating potential options to ensure that consumers and the wider public can have confidence in the reliability of private PCR tests.

We have issued guidance for employers on setting up private testing programmes which includes information on seeking assurances around test quality: Coronavirus (COVID-19) - employee testing programmes: guidance for employers - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

UK Government legislation regulating the Coronavirus test devices can be found here: The Medical Devices (Coronavirus Test Device Approvals) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (legislation.gov.uk) .