Chamber and committees

Scottish Government's analysis of the current position is that while crime is reducing and the number of criminal court actions is reducing, the number of practitioners on the criminal legal assistance register is still high in comparison to the work available. Since 2013 the number of criminal case reports to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has reduced from 293,671 in that year to 177,801 this year, a reduction of nearly 39%. In that same period the number of criminal legal aid practitioners has reduced by less than 16% to 1173.

Of the 177,801 cases reported to COPFS, 53,288 cases were marked for non-court disposal. Leaving 124,513 cases processed for some form of court action and therefore possibly eligible for some form of legal aid payment. That is 106 cases on average per practitioner or fewer than 9 a month. The current figures would suggest that there are sufficient numbers to undertake the available caseload.

As identified in “Rethinking Legal Aid” there is an oversupply of providers in some areas and undersupply in others. The Scottish Government has been analysing the recommendations made in that report and will provide a response in the Autumn.

Any changes made to the legal aid system via primary or secondary legislation are subject to a Business Regulatory Impact Assessment. There is no requirement to assess impact of regulations on the number of new entrants to the criminal legal aid sector as part of this assessment.

Crime has been reducing over several years and since 2013 the number of criminal case reports to Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has reduced from 293,671 to 177,801, a reduction of nearly 39%. In that same period the number of criminal legal aid providers has reduced by less than 16%.

The Scottish Legal Aid Board has been able to confirm that in 2017-2018 the number of criminal legal aid trainees was 86 in firms that do criminal legal aid work regularly worth in excess of £100k per annum. This is a minimum number that can be clearly identified, and there are more trainees in mixed practice firms with smaller income from criminal legal aid work. Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has been training around 21 criminal lawyers per year in the last 5 years. A number of them will go on to work in criminal defence firms.

The Scottish Legal Aid Board will analyse data from the Law Society of Scotland on trainee numbers over the last five years, however against the backdrop of a sustained decrease in criminal cases proceeding at court the figures suggest new entrants who seek to progress a career providing criminal legal services can do so. The only current limitation is the amount of work available to practitioners.

The £2.3 million Future Projects Fund at the Institute of Coding is for the enhancement of higher-level digital skills provision in England. The Fund is understood not to be for research projects and the Scottish Government will therefore not be providing additional funding for researchers in Scotland in relation to the Institute of Coding.

The £2.3 million Future Projects Fund at the Institute of Coding is for the enhancement of higher-level digital skills provision in England, so it is expected to generate Barnett consequentials. As you will be aware, any Barnett consequentials accrued to the Scottish Government are added to the Scottish block as a whole and it is then for Scottish Ministers to decide how best to allocate resources on the basis of competing pressures and priorities.

It should be noted that in 2015, the Scottish Government set up the UK’s first industry-led digital skills academy: CodeClan. CodeClan offers students (graduates, career changers, women returners) SQA accredited qualification in software development. To date, SG has invested over £3m in CodeClan with almost 500 students having graduated, and has attracted 213 industry partners.

Since 2015-16 the Scottish Government has also funded an internationally recognised MSc programme in data science, including artificial intelligence and data engineering, through The Data Lab. Since its inception the course has supported 260 MSc places.

The expert advisory committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs ( SaBTO ) recommended that the deferral period for blood donors (and tissue donors) could safely be reduced for a number of groups from twelve months to three months.

The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) implemented these changes and have advised us that there has been no evidence of increased risk of transmission of viral infection via blood as a result of these changes.

The Scottish Government has discussed, and will continue to regularly discuss, this with SNBTS and with a range of interested campaigners, including LGBTI+ campaigners.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. These are operational matters for Police Scotland.

Until the 23 November 2016, in Scotland 999 calls were triaged into three categories:-

• Categories A, potentially immediately life threatening

• Category B, serious but not life threatening

• Category C, not serious but may require an ambulance

The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) launched its New Clinical Response Model (NCRM) in November 2016, based on a detailed clinical analysis of around half a million 999 calls. Since then, following triage, 999 calls are coded to one of five categories based on the likelihood of serious outcomes or the requirement for specific interventions.

For this reason I have not provided the data exactly as requested, but broken down initially in the triaged categories up until the NCRM was introduced, and thereafter into colour-coded categories.

Category A

The Scottish Ambulance Service launched its New Clinical Response Model (NCRM) in November 2016, based on a detailed clinical analysis of around half a million 999 calls. Since then, following triage, 999 calls are coded to one of five categories based on the likelihood of serious outcomes or the requirement for specific interventions:

Purple: where a patient is identified as having a 10% or more chance of cardiac arrest. Purple codes represent approximately 2.5% of total 999 call volume and the actual cardiac arrest rate across this category is 53%.

Red: where a patient is identified as having a likelihood of cardiac arrest between 1% and 9.9%, or having a need for resuscitation interventions such as airway management above 2%. Currently the cardiac arrest rate in this category is approx. 1.5%

Amber: where a patient is likely to need diagnosis and conveyance to definitive care; for example, patients diagnosed with heart attacks who need to go to specialist centres for expert cardiology interventions or patients affected by stroke who need to be taken to specialist stroke units. The cardiac arrest rates for all of these codes are less than 0.5%

Yellow: a patient who has a need for emergency care but has a very low likelihood of requiring life-saving interventions. For example, patients who have tripped or fallen but not sustained any serious injury.

Green: a patient does not fit the above categories and there is potential for an alternative care pathway.

The rationale behind these changes were to maintain fast responses to those patients who needed active resuscitation, principally the purple and red categories, and for all other 999 calls, to match the best clinical response to patient need, even if that may take a little longer because this would enable the patient to more effectively access definitive care either in hospital or in a community setting.

I refer the member to the answer to questions S5W-10593 on 29 August 2017 and S5W-11037 on 19 September 2017. 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 position remains unchanged. We recognise that some Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM), including homeopathy, may offer relief to some people suffering from a wide variety of conditions. It is for individual NHS Boards to decide which medicines and treatments they make available based on national and local priorities and the needs of their resident populations, in line with national guidance: http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/dl/DL(2016)06.pdf

The prescribing of any medicines/treatments, including homeopathy, is a clinical decision taken in consultation with patients based on clinicians’ competencies and awareness of the medicines/treatments concerned. This includes evidence based advice and guidance. The Scottish Government expects any treatment to be appropriate, person-centred, safe and effective and that clinical and care professionals review the effectiveness of any treatment with their patients.