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The Scottish Government has not received representation within the last 12 months from either Cancer Research UK, or any other cancer charities regarding breast screening for the over 70s. However, there is representation from cancer charities on decision-making committees, including Cancer Research UK on the Scottish Screening Committee and Breast Cancer Now on the Breast Screening Programme Board. This ensures they are regularly updated on the status of the breast screening programme, including the pause of self-referrals for people over 70.

Following the pause of the breast screening programme in March 2020, there was a staged restart. This was based on expert clinical advice and the recommendations of the Scottish Screening Committee, and was agreed with Health Board Chief Executives as part of the planned remobilisation of the NHS. The breast screening programme resumed on 3 August 2020, initially prioritising those whose appointments were cancelled or delayed due to the pause. The programme is now at the stage of offering routine appointments for eligible women aged between 50 and 70.

The recovery of the breast screening programme, including reviewing the pause to self-referrals for the over 70s is monitored by the Breast Screening Programme Board, the National Screening Oversight Board and the Scottish Screening Committee. It should be noted that the risks and benefits of breast screening for people over the age of 70 have not been clearly established. Covid-19 and the measures to control its spread, such as physical distancing and the use of PPE, also continue to pose challenges to capacity in the screening programme. The decision to maintain the pause on self-referrals for the over 70s, though difficult, was therefore taken to allow the service to prioritise those who require to be offered appointments and for whom screening has clear benefits.

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

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.

In Scotland, there is no 18 month target for second dose as the JCVI recommends a schedule of 0, 6-24 months for all HPV vaccines. Further information can be found in The Green Book Chapter for HPV. Additionally, the data for HPV immunisation programmes is collected by NHS Board reflecting that NHS Boards deliver the HPV immunisation programme to pupils.

The latest HPV immunisation statistics published by Public Health Scotland (PHS) for academic year 2019/20 show that uptake for the HPV vaccine remains high. Further information is available online on the PHS website: HPV Immunisation Statistics Scotland 22 December 2020 - Data & intelligence from PHS (isdscotland.org)

Public Health Scotland collate data on the HPV vaccination programme for the previous school year every autumn. Data for school year 2020/21 will be collated in autumn 2021 and published in November 2021. Therefore, we cannot provide information on the most recent school year.

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 Scottish Government does not hold the information as the rostering of vaccinator shifts is a matter for individual NHS Health Boards.

Applications for the Legal Aid Traineeship Fund are sought from all legal firms/organisations across Scotland, including those in the Northern Isles. The Scottish Government and the Law Society agreed that all posts must be externally advertised including on the lawscots.jobs website. The criteria for the Fund explicitly states that all reasonable steps must be taken by legal firms/organisations to use an open, fair, and diverse recruitment process.

The Law Society are responsible for the administration of the Fund and further information on the eligibly criteria can be found here: https://www.lawscot.org.uk/qualifying-and-education/qualifying-as-a-scottish-solicitor/the-traineeship/funded-legal-aid-traineeship-scheme/ .

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).

Data reporting the overage self-referrals is not published with the Breast screening statistics by Public Health Scotland. However, data collated for the Breast screening review for the 3 year period from 2016-17 – 2018-19 reports a total of 32,492 self-referrals from women age 70+ over the period and equates to 5.7% of total screening activity.