Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to the question S5W-26424 on 27 November 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

The Scottish Government is advised on all aspects of screening by the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an independent expert group who assesses screening programmes against a robust set of criteria, before advising the NHS and Ministers in the UK. The UK NSC continues to monitor and consider all available evidence and recommendations and this will include the results of the cluster-randomised trial, currently underway in England, when these are published. The trial which is looking to extend the age range to 47-73 began in 2009 and is still recruiting women. The main results of this trial are expected in the 2020s.

Breast screening is a valuable public health service and plays an important role in detecting cancer at an early stage. We know that screening remains the best way to detect breast cancer early and help reduce health inequalities in cancer outcomes. The Scottish Breast Screening Programme needs to be as effective as possible and needs to adapt in order to keep pace with the increasing population and changes in technology and lifestyles, which is why we have approved a review of the Scottish Breast Screening Programme, to ensure it continues to support early diagnosis of breast cancer. The review, carried out by National Services Scotland, will look at everything from invitation processes, advances in technology, future requirements, and ways to increase participation and address health inequalities.

The available information is provided in the following table, which has been produced from the Scottish Government’s criminal proceedings database .

Running bi-level or multi-level course classes is one approach many schools have used for many years to increase the amount of choice available to their pupils.

There will be varying levels of prior attainment in any class and Education Scotland has yet to see any firm evidence from inspections of educational disadvantage due to multilevel teaching.

In line with the unanimous decision of the Parliament on 1 May 2019, we will be conducting an independent review of the senior phase of Curriculum for Excellence. The review will provide an opportunity to look at the impact of different approaches to learning and teaching, including bi-level and multi-level teaching.

This information is not routinely collected but individual Health Boards may have information on the position in each hospital in their area.

The support team will be engaging directly with ward and clinical staff to address process and cultural issues within the hospital, and includes representatives from the community sector. It does not currently include anyone from the voluntary sector However, we will also be convening an advisory group which would provide wider advice around improving performance and support any further guidance that may be developed. This group will include representatives from the voluntary sector.

The Scottish Government is not in a position to publish information on how many attacks on NHS staff have been recorded in 2018-19, as this information is not held centrally. Information on assaults on staff is collated by Health Boards.

The Scottish Government publishes data on persons convicted under the Emergency Worker(s) Act (Scotland) 2005 on an annual basis. Data for 2018-19 will be available in January 2020 and published on:

https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/Datasets/DatasetsCrimProc/CP1718EWA

Staff in our NHS are our biggest asset and should not be assaulted, obstructed or hindered for doing their jobs. That is why we extended the provisions in the Act to cover doctors nurses and midwives working in the community, as well as those in hospital settings and paramedics.

As at 31 December 2018, there were ten care homes stating in their annual returns to the Care Inspectorate that their main provision of care was for people with neurological conditions (other than dementia). The ten care homes are listed below along with their local authority area.

Scotland continues to enjoy a world-class reputation as a place to work and train for doctors. The progressive approach we have taken to the Scottish Income Tax helps to provide a wider and better-funded set of free-to-access public services than in the rest of the UK.

Medical staff have received a 2.5% pay award, backdated to 1 April 2019. This means junior doctors working on typical rotas in Scotland can be up to £6,000 a year better off than their English equivalents.

Our Consultants and Specialty Doctors the remain the best-paid in the UK.

We are delivering a more sustainable medical workforce. The number of doctors in training has increased by more than 6% under this Government, and 92% of our specialty training posts are filled. In addition, by 2020-21, we will have increased medical schools places by 22%, equivalent to an extra 190 places. We are also investing more than £4 million in the next three years on recruitment campaigns, focusing on attracting and retaining GPs, nurses and midwives.

Since 2015 the Scottish Government has worked towards the removal of single use plastic cups in the work place by promoting the use of reusable and ceramic cups in staff restaurants. In June 2018 all single use plastic cups for hot drinks were removed from staff restaurants.

In 2016 the Scottish Government removed the option of ordering bottled water through its hospitality service. Water is now provided from reusable drinking containers. This has also contributed significantly to a fall of 2,500 unit sales of bottled water in staff restaurants.

All staff have access to drinking quality tap water, which we encourage them to drink from in reusable drinking containers.

The Scottish Government is currently reviewing a number of options to completely remove single use plastic cups from water drinking fountains which should be fully implemented by February 2020.

As a result of this initiative, the Scottish Government has seen a reduction in the use of single-use plastic cups as shown below.