Chamber and committees

Internal legal costs are not available because in line with usual practice, details of individual tasks carried out by civil servants, including the number of hours spent on them, are not routinely recorded because there is no business need to do this.

The legal costs in defending and settling the Judicial Review brought by Mr Salmond in 2018 are published on the Scottish Government website.

The costs of legal services regarding the former First Minister’s judicial review are published at: Costs of legal services regarding former First Minister's judicial review: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The costs of the settlement in respect of the former First Minister’s legal fees in the Judicial Review are published at: Former First Minister Legal fees: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

As the action brought by Mr Salmond against the Scottish Government is live litigation, we are not able to publish the Scottish Government’s legal costs at this stage. We will publish this information in due course.

Scottish Government Committee witnesses to the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints were not coached.

The Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme team works closely with stroke services in all NHS boards to use learning from the Scottish Stroke Care Audit to support improvement across the whole stroke pathway, including timely access to thrombolysis.

We have established a National Stroke Engagement Forum, with representation from every NHS Board, with the aim of tackling common challenges in the delivery of stroke care and sharing best practice and novel approaches to care delivery. Improving thrombolysis times will be a focus of the National Stroke Engagement Forum.

The Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme Board review process allows for an evaluation of stroke service performance, identification of areas for improvement and agreement of steps to implement local action plans to improve the delivery of stroke care in every Board.

Many of the areas on the RAG chart, especially those around rehabilitation pathways, were new requirements in the last reporting year to reflect the commitments in the Stroke Improvement Plan. The expectation is that boards will progress and improve in their status as they implement the guidance.

Where areas of stroke care have been identified as not fully meeting criteria, Boards are asked to agree action plans to drive service improvement.

A funded stroke bed is a bed which has established funding for the provision of stroke nurse and therapist staffing. There are currently 531 stroke beds available in Scotland, including hyperacute, acute and integrated stroke beds. However, stroke services may adjust the number of beds available to meet service demands.

The management of the NHS clinical waste contract is the responsibility for Health Boards. NHS National Services Scotland’s National Procurement and Logistics Service manages the NHS’s relationship with the clinical waste contractor, however there is no target date for when all NHS clinical waste produced in Scotland is processed in Scotland.

This is a matter for NHS National Services Scotland. The information requested is not held centrally.

This is a matter for NHS National Services Scotland. The information requested is not held centrally.

This is a matter for NHS National Services Scotland. The information requested is not held centrally.

This is a matter for NHS National Services Scotland. The information requested is not held centrally.