Chamber and committees

The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) Public Access Defibrillators (PADs) Register is the arrangement in operation for PADs already in place, in a variety of locations, to be mapped, maintained and accessible to the public. This enables SAS call handlers to direct a caller at the location of a cardiac arrest to a PAD when one is nearby. This meets a commitment in Scotland's Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy for Scotland.

In addition Scottish Ambulance Service is an early adopter site in the British Heart Foundation National Defibrillator Network project. This aims to map and locate every PAD in the UK on all ambulance service systems.

FreeStyle Libre is already available on prescription in 13 of the NHS Boards. NHS Highland is committed to introducing FreeStyle Libre to patients that meet the agreed criteria, and is working closely with the local Diabetes Service to identify and make the prescribing efficiencies necessary to release sufficient resource to meet the cost of FreeStyle Libre.

As with all Medicines and Devices on the Scottish Drugs Tariff, it is for NHS Boards to consider inclusion on their local formulary. The decision to prescribe a medicine or device is for the prescribing clinician in line with prescribing guidance and in consultation with the patient to ensure suitability for their treatment.

The number of medical staff employed by each NHS Board, by specialty, from 2007 to the most recent published data as at 30 June 2018, is available on the ISD website:

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2018-09-04/Medical_Trend_J2018.xls (Consultant SIP tab)

This data shows four neurology related specialties: neurology, neurosurgery, clinical neurophysiology and diagnostic neuropathology (introduced December 2016).

Curriculum for Excellence is the national approach to learning and teaching for young people aged 3 to 18 in Scotland. It provides significant flexibility, within broad national guidelines, for teachers to develop lessons which best meet the needs of individual learners, such as lessons about acid attacks. Teachers, head teachers and other professional educational practitioners are best placed to decide what is taught in Scotland’s schools.

Through Curriculum for Excellence, education practitioners have an important role in equipping all children and young people with the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to keep themselves and others safe.

As indicated by the First Minister, the Scottish Government will hold an open, inclusive and transparent national discussion around the issues related to Tourism Tax. This is not an official public consultation consulting on specific proposals from the Scottish Government or anyone else on introducing a Tourism Tax. It is a national discussion to aid wider understanding of this Contentions issue.

Through a series of roundtable discussions, and related engagement, we will allow all views to be heard and we will make the evidence that is gathered through that available in due course.

Police Scotland collect data on road traffic accidents that were a) reported to the police and b) involved someone being injured or killed.

The following tables show the number of injury road accidents and the number of casualties recorded by the police as occurring on the A1, A68 and A7.

The Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) are committed to ensuring that all students will have their funding (tuition fee and living-cost support) in place by the start of their course. To make this possible, students need to apply by 30 June each year with a fully completed application, supported by all the necessary documentation.

Students applying for Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA) have to complete an additional application, supported by a needs assessment report, usually from the college or university’s Disability Adviser. SAAS aim to process a DSA application within 21 days of receipt.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all students with a disability, long term medical condition or additional support needs are fully supported throughout their studies.

This academic year, the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) has made a number of improvements to the application process for all students applying for Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA).

These include a new application form and evidence template aimed at making the DSA application process quicker and easier for students to complete.

SAAS are working with a range of representative groups, including the Heads of Disability Services within universities and colleges to explore what further improvements they can make to the services they provide for disabled students.

Decisions on the level of local authority funding settlement for 2019-20 are subject to negotiation with COSLA and the results will be confirmed as part of the Budget next month.

The Scottish Government is already providing £1 million over three years through the School Library Improvement Fund. The fund supports implementation of the national strategy for school libraries and opened again for applications on 5 November. More information can be found on the Scottish Library and Information Council's website at https://scottishlibraries.org/funding/school-library-improvement-fund/ .

The Scottish Government will be considering any further funding requirements for implementation of the strategy in the coming months, informed by the work of the School Library Strategy Implementation Group.

As at 5 November 98.9% of all Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments for 2017 had been completed, with only 37 BPS payments still to make.

We have also completed 99.57% of all 2017 payments under the Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme and Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme with only 34 payments still to make.

We have also completed 89.7% of Pillar Two CAP payments for 2017 and we are aiming to complete the vast majority of the remaining 2017 Pillar Two payments by the end of the year.

Under European Commission regulations the window for making 2018 BPS and other Pillar One CAP payments doesn’t open until 1 December 2018, but as at 2 November 13,056 farm businesses had received payments worth £303.9 million under our 2018 national BPS loan scheme.