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The delivery of Keep Well health checks are no longer centrally overseen by the Scottish Government. It is up to local NHS Health Boards with their area practices to decide on administering these checks. The Community Links Worker programme has now been rolled out to practices particularly in deprived areas and offers support to individuals experiencing for example financial, housing and social isolation concerns. The Links Workers can refer back to GPs for a clinical assessment including for liver disease should any concerns arise.

The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) scheme allows EU citizens visiting Scotland, including volunteers, to access immediately necessary NHS healthcare at no charge, other than for certain dental and ophthalmic treatments in common with the general population. The EHIC scheme also makes provision for the treatment of long term conditions, such as kidney dialysis or oxygen therapy, which can be arranged with NHS Boards in advance of travelling to Scotland.

The current guidance for General Practice is Appendix 22 - Community Infection Prevention and Control COVID-19 Pandemic which was first published on 29th June.

The pandemic has been the biggest shock our NHS has ever faced. It has necessitated the imposition of Infection Prevention Control measures in order to contain its spread, particularly prior to the vaccination programme being fully rolled out. These measures, which have recently been deescalated, changed the way GPs see their patients. As Covid has not gone away yet some precautions remain in place.

The Scottish Government wants to see greater availability of face-to-face appointments and is working with the BMA and RCGP to ensure this happens as quickly as possible. We are clear that where clinically necessary face-to-face consultations will always be available to those who need them.

We must continue to move toward a position where choice is being offered routinely, and the Scottish Government welcomes the GMC’s proposed changes to the Good Medical Practice guidance placing a greater emphasis on shared decision-making between GPs and their patients.

Many GP practices did offer patients video or phone consultations as well as in-person face-to-face consultations before the pandemic changed the balance and we expect a number of patients will wish to continue afterwards with video or phone consultations rather than travel to their GP practice. Ultimately, what is most important is that appointments are agreed through shared decision making, balancing patient choice and clinical judgement.

Public Health Scotland produce an Annual Statistical Report on Acute Hospital Activity and NHS Beds Information , including data on hospital stays with a diagnosis of sepsis by NHS Board and local authority area at tables 5 and 6.

PHS also monitor sepsis prevalence by maintaining a sepsis clinical data profile within their performance management and benchmarking database, based on patients receiving care in general acute specialties. This data is for use by NHS Boards, local authorities, health and social care partnerships and the Scottish Government. It is updated quarterly – the most recent profile update was made in May 2022 and includes data up to December 2021.

The Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP), led by Healthcare Improvement Scotland, has been supporting clinical teams to improve their recognition of sepsis and to deliver six simple interventions (the “sepsis six”) which, when delivered within an hour of recognition, will improve survival for these patients. This response is kept under constant review and updated in line with new guidance as it emerges, such as the recent Academy of Medical Royal Colleges guidance on Sepsis management.

Building on this successful work, SPSP launched a revised deteriorating patient driver diagram and change package in September 2021. Sepsis forms a core part of this change package. The SIGN Deteriorating Patient Guideline, currently under review, will also include an updated section on sepsis.

Amongst other matters, the bail provisions in the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Bill provide for a new bail test to be used by the court when assessing whether to grant bail to an accused person or remand them in custody. As the decision in any given case will continue to remain with the court and in light of the various uncertain factors that influence the court's decision-making e.g. levels of crime, types of crime committed, previous history of those accused of offences etc, it is not possible to provide an analysis of how the proportion of people charged with a crime who are granted bail might change as a result of the Bill's provisions.

The financial memorandum for the Bill outlines the estimated impact of all the provisions contained in the Bill. In particular, pages 2 to 14 provides details of the Scottish Government's estimates as to the financial impact of the bail provisions in the Bill.

Although responsibility for forensic testing falls within the remit of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), the Scottish Government continues to work closely with SPA and other partners in the criminal justice system to ensure that testing capacity is resilient and able to meet demand in the longer term. To assist with the development of a longer term solution, Craig Naylor, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS), has agreed to undertake an urgent review, which will concentrate on the end to end processes for obtaining, analysing and reporting drug driving blood sample results - and identify solutions to capacity in the longer term. We would expect its findings to also consider any investment that will be needed to meet future demand. HMICS plan to complete the review by the end of the year.

The Scottish Government fully supports the enforcement efforts of Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) in tackling the scourge of drug driving to help make Scotland’s roads safer. However, it is for the Procurator Fiscal’s office to confirm the position on any other crimes which are being impacted by capacity issues in forensic testing.

With regard to testing for drug driving, while this falls within the remit of the SPA, it should be noted that more than 5,600 drug driving tests have been conducted in Scotland since new legislation was introduced in 2019. We have sought and received assurance that urgent action is underway to address the capacity issues in relation to drug driving in both the immediate and longer-term.

The 2019 Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) estimates that 56% of social housing is in EPC band C or better. This is the most recent data available from the SHCS.

Following the suspension of face-to-face interviewing in March 2020 to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, there was no SHCS data collection in 2020. The 2021 SHCS was carried out by an external-only inspection, supplemented with alternative sources of data (e.g. from the Energy Performance Certificate) and the householder providing information to surveyors via telephone.

This approach was designed to provide as reliable as possible estimates of key statistics, including on fuel poverty, energy efficiency and external repairs, while maintaining no contact with the household. No data was collected on internal aspects such as room repairs and aspects of housing standards.

It is expected that the key findings from the 2021 SHCS will be published in February 2023.

The 2022 SHCS returned to full in-home surveying in April 2022.

Scottish Ministers and officials from the Scottish Government and Transport Scotland have been engaging closely with stakeholders in the hospitality, cultural and events sectors on the impact of the reduced Scotrail timetable. This has included discussions through the Events Industry Advisory Group. Officials have continued this engagement on the impact of the industrial action.

I recognise that the industrial action by the RMT and ASLEF unions is having an impact on the culture sector at a time when it has been seeking to recover from the Covid19 pandemic.

The Scottish Government has provided financial support to the culture sector to support their recovery from the pandemic. This includes £3.2m for a recovery fund for independent cinema and £20.8m for a recovery fund for cultural organisations.

Officials are continuing to monitor the situation closely, including through engagement with organisations representing hospitality, cultural and events stakeholders.