Chamber and committees

The closure of the A71 at West Calder Station was authorised by West Lothian Council to allow Network Rail to undertake essential preparatory electrification works. Traffic management arrangements are being monitored jointly by West Lothian Council and Network Rail. To date these have been operating satisfactorily.

Network Rail is also working closely with West Lothian Council's economic development unit and Business Gateway to provide support and advice to local businesses affected by the closure.

The road closure has also led to extended routes and timetable amendments for bus operators delivering subsidised and local schools contracts. Transport Scotland engaged with West Lothian Council officials to identify options to address this issue. The Minister for Transport and the Islands has agreed to provide a contribution of £67k towards the additional costs being incurred by the Council for essential bus service provision.

I can confirm that there is step free level access to both platforms at Uphall station. However I recognise that due to the absence of lifts the route between the platforms can be difficult for some passengers who have reduced mobility. There are no plans at this stage to install lifts at the station but Transport Scotland will keep the station under review along with other stations when considering potential future opportunities through the Access for All fund.

ScotRail provide a wide range of assistance for disabled and other passengers who may request help to access rail services. Passengers who need assistance can find out what help is available by looking at the ScotRail website where they will also find a free travel assistance advice and helpline that they can call to speak directly with ScotRail staff.

Increasing coverage in the Scottish Cervical Screening Programme is a key objective for the Scottish Government and work continues on helping address the fall in cervical screening uptake rates.

It is disappointing that uptake is dropping however on the 8th of February 2017 we will launch a new hard-hitting campaign on cervical screening to raise awareness of the benefits of having a smear test and to encourage women to attend when invited.

We are also responding with £5m of funding from the Cancer Strategy being invested in our screening programmes including cervical screening to reduce inequalities and improve uptake, particularly amongst those less likely to participate in screening.

Officials are currently working to establish a network, involving clinical and academic experts from across Scotland as well as organisations such as Cancer Research UK and Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust to identify new activities, learning from local practice and innovation, to help improve screening coverage.

Furthermore, Scottish Government officials meet cervical screening coordinators from all NHS Boards on a quarterly basis to discuss a range of issues relating to the national screening programme, including promoting screening services and initiatives to improve uptake. NHS Boards have responsibility for publicising screening within their local area and for working closely with their communities to increase screening uptake.

Cervical Screening is offered to women aged between 25 and 64 and we encourage all eligible women to take up their invitation. Cervical screening can reduce cases of cervical cancer and death. It saves around 5,000 lives in the UK every year and prevents eight out of 10 cervical cancers from developing.

We also now know that almost all cervical cancer is caused by HPV. Uptake rates for the HPV vaccination programme in Scotland remain high and exceed 80%. We will continue our efforts to ensure that Scottish girls benefit from this vaccine, which will save lives.

Whilst the HPV vaccine offers protection against the most common causes of cervical cancer it does not protect against all other types of HPV that cause cancer. Therefore, the combination of the vaccination and attending cervical screening from 25 years of age will offer the best possible protection against cervical cancer

Scottish Government officials work closely with Cervical Screening Coordinators from all NHS Boards to develop initiatives to improve uptake for all women and to promote cervical screening services by communicating effectively with a range of audiences. Recent local initiatives to increase cervical screening coverage include running cervical screening awareness workshops to tackle the cultural differences that can cause barriers to attending for cervical screening, drop in clinics for women from disadvantaged backgrounds and dedicated staff working with women with learning difficulties to facilitate cervical screening and assist during appointments.

We recently commissioned NHS Health Scotland to review the cervical screening public information. The results of this work included a new patient information leaflet "A smear test could save your life" which was launched last summer. This recently received one of the 2016 Plain English Awards and will help ensure we communicate the benefits of cervical screening effectively.

All communication materials are available in number of languages and other translations can be requested, ensuring that women from black and ethnic minority groups have equitable access to communication materials in order to make an informed decision on participating in the programme cervical screening.

Two easy-to-read leaflets in NHS Health Scotland’s ‘Keep Yourself Healthy’ series are available for cervical screening and support people with learning difficulties to make an informed choice. NHS Boards are encouraged to make use of the materials available to them when discussing cervical screening with women who have learning difficulties.

Furthermore, we are investing £5m of funding from the Cancer Strategy in our screening programmes to reduce inequalities in access to screening in Scotland. Officials are currently working to establish a network, involving clinical and academic experts from across Scotland as well as organisations such as Cancer Research UK and Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust to identify new activities, learning from local practice and innovation to improve uptake of screening programmes, particularly amongst those less likely to participate in screening.

We fully support the aims of Cervical Cancer Prevention Week 2017 and congratulate Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust in leading this initiative highlighting the importance of cervical screening and its role in preventing cervical cancer. We work closely with Jo's to help address the fall in cervical screening uptake rates in Scotland. This work includes the promotion of their #SmearForSmear campaign on our wee C social media page and encouraging all Health Boards to support the campaign and Cervical Cancer Prevention Week.

We have also been liaising closely with Jo’s Trust on developing a new cervical screening campaign. This will launch on 8 February 2017 to raise awareness of the benefits of having a smear test and to encourage women to attend when invited.

The National target for 2017-18 has not yet been finalised. NHS Boards will be advised of the target for 2017-18 before the start of the new financial year.

The hepatitis C treatment target is a national minimum target for the whole of Scotland and there are no local NHS Board targets. The incidence and prevalence of hepatitis C varies across Scotland, as does the distribution of genotypes of the disease. This means the scale and nature of hepatitis C infection in different Boards can necessitate a different response and targets for each NHS Boards are not appropriate.

Funding for the Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Framework is now included in the £161m Outcomes Framework budget. Boards have flexibility to allocate funding from that budget towards hepatitis C treatment appropriate to their local needs

The Scottish Government has provided the City of Edinburgh Council with extra funding in recognition of its position as capital city since the 2008-09 local government finance settlement. For each financial year between 2008-09 and 2010-11 the Council received £3.5 million each year. From 2011-12 to 2016-17 this was increased to £3.9 million each year. I can confirm that in 2017-18 they will, again, receive £3.9 million in recognition of the increased costs that are associated with Edinburgh being Scotland’s capital city.

Information on the number of Health Visitors employed by NHSScotland Health Board in each year since 1999 is published by ISD Scotland and can be found at the following links:-

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Historic-Data/WFE01_HB_REG.xls=

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2012-11-27/Nursing_and_Midwifery_SIP_S2012.xls?52391154

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2016-12-06/Non-Medical_Trend_S2016.xls

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2016-12-06/Health_Visitors_S2016.xls

The Scottish Government is committed to making best use of available road capacity as we deliver an efficient transport system which can support sustainable economic growth. Work is underway to explore how best Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) can be applied on key parts of the trunk road network, including the A720.

This is in addition to on-going route specific work to identify required improvements to the A720.

I refer the Member to the answer to question S5W-06030 on 19 January 2017 for further information. 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