Chamber and committees

This information is not held centrally.

The most recently published statistics for the Scottish Cervical Screening Programme reported that, of all eligible women, 70.7% took up the invitation to be screened in the previous 3.5 years up to 31 March 2014.

We expect clinicians to be aware of new treatment options for people with melanoma and tailor the advice provided.

Our National Health Information Service, NHS Inform, contains a 'cancer zone' which has up to date information on all aspects of the melanoma pathway including treatment options. Since its launch in 2010 this service has developed and improved to ensure that the treatment information is as up to date and helpful as possible.

We are also working to build on the information already available through the cancer zone to develop a tool that offers information to people with cancer that can be tailored to an individual's specific needs. Earlier this year, Macmillan Cancer Support and NHS 24 started to develop a new 'Info for Me' tool. This tool will help people with cancer by providing customisable; person centred high quality information for each stage of the cancer journey which can be accessed directly by people via the internet.

Our National Health Information Service, NHS Inform, contains a 'cancer zone' which provides a co-ordinated and a single source of quality assured health information for people with cancer, including melanoma. The cancer zone also acts as a signposting tool providing links to relevant clinical guidelines, third sector organisations and support services.

We have also supported Melanoma UK in the development of their Melanoma Dashboard. The dashboard contains a wealth of information about melanoma statistics, risk factors and local support services to ensure that people with melanoma and their families have access to the information and support they need.

Earlier this year we provided funding to MASScot, our partners in delivering sun safety messages at the Commonwealth Games, to develop a programme of work designed to help change attitudes to sun safety in schools and school age children. This programme will be delivered in schools or other youth group settings through an interactive lesson which is designed to be fun and educational for all involved. We are also working with other cancer charities including the Teenage Cancer Trust to identify other opportunities for embedding sun safe messages in schools and youth settings.

However, it is also important to send a clear message to young people that unsafe tanning, particularly through sunbed use, is a major risk factor associated with melanoma. That is why we have introduced legislation for sun bed use to help reduce the risk of melanoma. The Public Health etc. (Scotland) Act 2008 (Sunbed) Regulations 2009 bans operators from allowing the use of sunbeds by under 18s and requires operators to provide customers with health information on the health risks associated with sunbed use.

The Scottish Government has worked with a number of partners and charities to prevent melanoma by raising public awareness and educating people about the risk and harms of sun exposure and sunbed use.

Earlier in 2015 we provided funding to MASScot, one of our stakeholders in delivering sun safety messages at the Commonwealth Games, to develop a programme of work designed to help change attitudes to sun safety in schools and school age children. This programme will be delivered in schools or other youth group settings through an interactive lesson which is designed to be fun and educational for all involved. We are also working with other cancer charities including the Teenage Cancer Trust to identify other opportunities for embedding sun safe messages in schools and youth settings.

In addition, in 2015 we have published a series of articles on NHS Inform which contain advice for people on how to have a safe summer. These articles focussed not only on how to stay healthy during the summer months but also made people aware of the dangers of overexposure to the sun and provided facts and statistics on melanoma.

The Scottish Government believes that having the right numbers of teachers, with the right skills, in all of Scotland's schools is crucial to meeting our priority of raising attainment for all and closing the equity gap. That is why we have provided £51 million and secured a commitment from every local authority that they will maintain teacher numbers.

Scotland has led the UK in developing ground-breaking evidence based workload and workforce planning tools – covering 98% service areas. These tools help determine the right number of nurses depending on clinical needs of the patients and the particular specialty areas. Application of these tools has been mandatory for all boards since April 2013. The tools were developed in partnership with staff representatives, and are endorsed by Royal College of Nursing Scotland. Evidence demonstrates that NHS Tayside is applying all workload tools as per mandating guidance.

However, although the Scottish Government provides the policies, frameworks and resources to support the delivery of health care in Scotland, it is for NHS Tayside to ensure the delivery of high quality person-centred services in a safe and effective way and they are responsible for determining the shape of the workforce within their own areas. This includes ensuring that they have appropriately skilled people, irrespective of gender, available within their workforce to provide person centred, safe and effective care for patients.

In NHS Tayside, the number of nursing and midwifery staff has increased by 1.5% from 5,297.5 wte as at March 2014 to 5,376.2 wte at March 2015.

Patient safety continues to be the highest priority for the Scottish Government and NHS boards. We expect boards to ensure that their staffing levels provide patients with high quality and safe care at all times.

Under this government, staffing levels in NHS Tayside have increased by 915.6 whole time equivalent (wte), or 8.3% since September 2006 (from 11,064.6 to 11,980.1). In the same period the total number of nurses and midwives have increased by 464.0 wte or 9.4% from 4,912.2 wte to 5,376.2 wte.

Patient safety continues to be the highest priority for the Scottish Government and NHS boards. We expect boards to ensure that their staffing levels provide patients with high quality and safe care at all times.

Before a death in custody can be formally recorded as suicide a Fatal Accident Inquiry must be held, in accordance with the Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths Inquiry (Scotland) Act 1976 to legally determine the cause of death.

The information requested regarding how many people in custody have completed suicide in each year since 2006 is provided in the following table:

*Fatal Accident Inquiries outstanding

Information relating to death in custody is published on the SPS website.