Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government published the National Strategy for Public Space CCTV in Scotland in March 2011. The Strategy was created to provide guidance and a common set of principles to operators of public space CCTV across Scotland. It did not impose requirements but sought to provide advice and clarity to support decisions on the development of CCTV systems.

A number of Police Scotland CCTV cameras within the estate will be Hikvision or will contain Hikvision components. We are aware that the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee last year recommended to the UK Government that equipment manufactured by Hikvision and other such companies should not be permitted to operate within the UK. The UK Government’s response, published in November 2021, outlined the steps that had been taken to address the situation and undertook to take further steps in the coming months. The Scottish Government will continue to keep in close touch with developments and act accordingly, including consulting with Police Scotland on what measures they might take in response to these next steps.

The Scottish Government is committed to resuming the pause to self-referrals for those aged 71 and over as soon as it is feasible. The Breast Screening Programme Board (BSPB) agreed that the option for women over 70 to self-refer into the breast screening programme should resume once all screening centres are able to offer those aged 53-70 their breast screening appointments within 39 months of their previous screening. However, in recognition of the anxiety the pause is causing, the screening programme is exploring whether there are other options that will accelerate the restart without unduly impacting appointment times for the eligible screening population. Any decision will be informed by clinical advice and the on-going pandemic.

In the meantime, the programme is working hard to increase capacity, including by deploying additional mobile units and offering appointments at evenings and weekends.

Regardless of their age, women should remain symptom aware and report any symptoms to their GP immediately for these to be investigated.

As of 31st January 2022, 54,726 women in Scotland have waited more than 36 months since their last breast screen. Data presented in relation to S6W-06127 on 28 February 2022 sets out the average length of time between screening appointments by screening centre. Historically, the Scottish Breast screening Programme has invited around 260,000 women per year. In 2019-20 just under 270,000 women were invited.

The programme continues to recover from the March 2020 Covid-19 related pause, and the National Screening Oversight, Scottish Screening Committee and Breast Screening Programme Board (BSPB) continue to work with health boards to increase the number of available appointments, including through deploying additional mobile breast screening units and providing additional appointments during evenings and at weekends.

It should be noted that the data provided is management information that has not been subject to quality checks applied on an official publication.

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

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people living with kidney diseases are able to access the best possible support and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care. We expect NHS Boards to adhere to current guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment options from authorative sources such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the UK Kidney Association (UKKA).

In Scotland we are at the forefront of using service and performance data to improve care and diagnosis of kidney disease. This includes the work of the Scottish Renal Registry which reports on patients receiving renal replacement therapy and promoting excellence in renal care in Scotland through best practice audits.

The National Cancer Quality Steering Group (NCQSG) has responsibility for the development and oversight of tumour specific national quality performance indicators (QPIs) to measure the quality of care for patients, this includes a set specifically for renal cancers.

We have also invested in research which is intended to inform new approaches for earlier diagnosis of kidney disease through the Scottish Chief Scientist Office: Kidney function and cancer risk: An analysis using creatinine and cystatin C in a cohort study (nih.gov) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8413238/ .

The safety of children, young people and education staff remains our overriding priority. All school pupils have already been impacted dramatically over the course of the pandemic so we remain committed to minimising any further disruption to learning.

New data and evidence is regularly emerging, informing our understanding of virus transmission in different settings, including schools and nurseries. This is considered very carefully by the Advisory Sub-group on Education and Children’s Issues alongside rates of vaccination and the specific level of risks associated with education environments and in wider society. This means that Scottish Government guidance for schools is developed in close consultation with clinical and public health experts, as well as taking into account the views of a number of education and other stakeholders who sit on the Covid-19 Education Recovery Group (CERG).

The guidance has recently been updated to reflect the advice of the Advisory Sub-group, including the removal of the requirement for staff and pupils to wear face coverings in the classroom and the easing of specific mitigations relating to assemblies and transition visits for learners who are to be starting Primary or Secondary school in August 2022. This represents the most up to date position in relation to protection measures in schools, which will commence from 28 February.

We will continue to be guided by the evidence in assessing any continued risk from COVID-19 and take into consideration any new evidence linking the development of other conditions, such as type 1 diabetes in children, to infection with COVID-19.

The Scottish Government sets out its expectation that commencement regulations will be laid in early May 2022 and come into force this summer.

As we set out in our 2021 Programme for Government we will: ‘modernise deer management, implementing the recommendations of the Deer Management Working Group.’

The Deer Working Group report includes recommendations relating to cull targets, including those for a cull approval system, and we are working with NatureScot, and other relevant agencies, to progress those recommendations under the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy Programme.

Scottish Water set out in its 2021 Delivery Plan its expectation that it would invest between £570m and £650m (excluding responsive repair activity) in 2021-22. Scottish Water forecasts that it will outturn in the upper half of this range.

As set out in the answer to S6W-06070 on 25 February 2022, work to implement the recommendations of the Deer Working Group is underway. Part of this work involves considering the most appropriate method of reporting on progress and further details on this will be provided in due course.

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

As set out in Scottish Water’s 2020-21 Annual Report, while thousands of projects were delivered in the 2015- 21 period there were 86 projects due by but not delivering benefits to customers at 31 March 2021. Scottish Water expects customers to be receiving the benefits of 57 of these projects by the end of the 2022-23 financial year, leaving 29 still to be completed.