Chamber and committees

The COPFS Victims Right to Review Annual Report 2019-20 was published on the COPFS website on 27 November 2020.

The Report can be accessed at the following link: https://www.copfs.gov.uk/images/Documents/Statistics/COPFS_Performance/Victims%20Right%20to%20Review%20Annual%20Report%202019%2020%20Nov%2020.pdf

The Lord Advocate and I met with victim support organisations on 28 th July
2020 to discuss a number of issues, including the Victim Notification Scheme.
A summary of this discussion is captured in a follow-up letter we issued to
victim support organisations on 1 st September 2020 and which has been
published on the Scottish Government's website https://www.gov.scot/binaries
/content/documents/govscot/publications/minutes/2020/11/victims-taskforce-
papers-september-2020/documents/paper-two-joint-letter-from-cabinet-
secretary-justice-and-lord-advocate-to-victim-support-organisations/paper-two
-joint-letter-from-cabinet-secretary-justice-and-lord-advocate-to-victim-support-organisations/govscot%3Adocument/Victims%2BTaskforce%2B-%2B
Secretariat%2B-%2B7th%2BMeeting%2B-%2B2020-09-09%2B-%2BPaper%
2B2%2B-%2BJoint%2Bletter%2Bto%2BVictim%2BSupport%2BOrganisations.
pdf .

I am committed to bringing all relevant partners together to discuss the Victim
Notification Scheme and determine where improvements could be made.

Scottish Government officials also hosted a session on 7 October 2020 to discuss
lessons learned from the early release of short-term prisoners under The Release
of Prisoners (Coronavirus) (Scotland) Regulations 2020. Topics discussed
included information sharing between partners and the Victim Notification Scheme.
The session included representatives from Victim Support Scotland, the Scottish
Prison Service and other third sector and statutory justice partners.

After the necessary secondary legislation was laid in Parliament, the Scottish Government issued a press release on 24 August 2020 stating Part 2 of the Management of Offenders (Scotland) Act 2019 will come into force on 30 November 2020. This news release publicised new guidance for the disclosure reforms which was published on the same day. Attached is a link to that press release for information. https://www.gov.scot/news/criminal-disclosure-reforms/

As I have explained previously in Parliament, commencement of Part 2 of the 2019 Act was always going to take some time due to, for example, significant changes being required to be made to Disclosure Scotland’s IT systems as well as relevant staff having to be trained. In addition, Covid-19 resulted in commencement plans having to be re-arranged due to Disclosure Scotland activating their business continuity plan and prioritising their safeguarding work.

Part 2 of the 2019 Act is being commenced 16 months after Royal Assent was received for the 2019 Act (30 July 2019 to 30 November 2020). Equivalent changes in legislation for England and Wales were commenced 22 months after Royal Assent was received for their legislation.

By commencing Part 2 of the 2019 Act on 30 November 2020, this helps ensure employers, insurance companies and other organisations have enough time to understand the recently published guidance and ask any questions they may have. This timescale also helps ensure affected individuals are also aware of what the changes mean for them.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS’ Annual Report and Accounts were signed on 2 October 2020. Audit Scotland will lay the accounts before Parliament when they have been cleared by the Auditor General and they will then be published on the SPS website.

The Scottish Government ran a multi-platform, multi-media “What did you do today” campaign which featured a Paramedic as well as other Allied Health Professionals, Nursing, Midwifery and Healthcare Scientists between November 2019 and January 2020. The campaign was run to target and encourage school leavers to take up careers in health. The campaign links to other information already available on the NHS Careers, student awards agency and UCAS websites.

Marketing of degree courses is undertaken by the University offering the course.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

We recognise the benefits that the Throughcare Support Service (TSS) brought to those in our care and we are committed to exploring what any future throughcare support will look like as part of our recovery from COVID.

The papers from the last meeting of the Victims Taskforce, on 9 September 2020, were published on the Scottish Government website on 4 November. These are available at http://www.gov.scot/groups/victims-taskforce/ .

As Nest do not have a heat alarm product in their range and the device uses replaceable batteries, the Nest Protect (Battery) device will not meet the updated statutory tolerable standard.

We will continue to work with retailers and other stakeholders to provide specific, additional advice to help people ensure their alarms will meet the new standard, which we are now seeking to introduce from February 2022. We understand that, due to the variety of alarms available to purchase, there may be confusion and we will make sure that accessible advice is available as part of our wider publicity campaign.

The Expert Reference Group on COVID-19 and Ethnicity (ERG) was set up at pace in June 2020, in response to emerging evidence that people from some Minority Ethnic backgrounds may be disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, both in terms of adverse health outcomes and in a wider context, including economically. The ERG was convened to consider and inform these issues, ensuring that the Scottish Government had an accurate understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on Minority Ethnic communities in Scotland, and that our policy responses reflected this.

The ERG’s membership consists of academics and other expert advisers alongside Scottish Government officials, working to contribute to the Scottish Government’s emerging approach, and advise on proposed actions to mitigate the harms felt by Minority Ethnic communities in relation to COVID-19.

Detailed Terms of Reference for the ERG have been in draft since shortly after its launch, based on the broad remit set out above. Cementing the Terms has been an iterative and collaborative piece of work, with the agreement of ERG members playing the central role; this is an ongoing process. However, this has not prevented the ERG from delivering a set of challenging and wide-ranging recommendations to the Scottish Government, which we intend to provide a cross-portfolio response to in the near future.

The Scottish Government is conscious that the members of the ERG have volunteered a significant amount of their time to contribute to this vital work, and we are very thankful for that contribution.

As part of phase 3 of the NHS dental remobilisation plan a dental circular was issued by the Chief Dental Officer (CDO) to NHS Boards and dentists on 7 August. This provided guidance on the requirements for ensuring the supply of enhanced PPE including face masks, with appropriate fit-testing for those practices opting to provide NHS treatments requiring aerosol generating procedures (AGPs). Practices and Boards were advised on a broad range of measures including staffing levels, dates for fit-testing, matching the supply of PPE with demand as well as ongoing free access to PPE.

Practices were also instructed that they must operate in compliance with sectoral guidance under the national dental framework (SDR Amendment No 147), scientific guidance from the clinical effective programme SDCEP and on physical distancing measures, whilst ensuring that appropriate PPE stocks were in place. Practices were also directed to ensure sign off from their respective NHS Boards.

The CDO signalled to the sector on 24 June that the Scottish Government were considering the evidence and guidance around AGPs and that following an expert review the Scottish Government would draw on a range of evidence to help determine appropriate PPE use with AGP treatments. This guidance was updated on 10 July and again on 30 July.

Additional guidance for NHS dentists detailing ongoing access to and use and supply of PPE is also provided in collaboration with SG by the Health & Safety Executive and from NHS Boards.