Chamber and committees

Table 1 shows the number of attendances and those waiting 12 hours or more aged 65-74, 75-84, 85-94, and 95+ at A&E in Scotland in March 2024.

Table 1: Attendances and over 12 hours waits, March 2024

An update on the work of the multidisciplinary team of senior clinicians within the office of the Chief Medical Officer considering the specific clinical recommendations of the Cass review will be provided to the National Gender Identity Healthcare Reference Group at a future meeting.

Re-instating the Regulatory Review Group (RRG) was a priority for business when developing the New Deal for Business recommendations and is pivotal in supporting Ministers understand and mitigate challenges associated with implementing regulations. Within its first six months, the RRG scrutinised regulation implementation on high-profile proposals, including Alcohol Minimum Unit Pricing, Vaping, Heat in Buildings and Circular Economy Bill.

To ensure transparency, all meeting minutes and advice sent to Scottish Ministers are published on its webpage found on the Scottish Government website. The minutes from the RRG meeting on February 17 have now been published on Regulatory Review Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The Cass Review is a valid scientific document. The review was chaired by a past president of the UK’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, a senior, and well-respected clinician.

Established in 2022, the National Gender Identity Healthcare Reference Group advises on the ongoing implementation of actions outlined in our 2021 Framework. The Reference Group includes NHS Board representation, LGBTIQ organisations, clinicians, academics and people with lived experience of using gender identity healthcare.

This reference group is not a clinical oversight forum. It brings together a wide range of stakeholders for the collective aim of improving provision of gender identity healthcare in Scotland.

The specific clinical recommendations of the Cass Review are being considered by a multidisciplinary team of senior clinicians within the office of the Chief Medical Officer.

Artificial grass pitches play an important role in the delivery of sport and physical activity across Scotland, helping the nation to lead more active, healthy lives. Well maintained artificial pitches allow for year-round, intensive use and can provide significantly more playing hours than traditional grass pitches.

There are already alternatives on the market such as cork, corn husks and olive pits amongst others. sport scotland are part of the UK Artificial Grass Pitch forum monitoring work on the long-term viability of these products. St Andrews University has already installed a full-size 3G pitch with cork infill, and there is research and development continuing across the industry with more products in the market.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry published a wide-ranging report in April on rubber crumb infill. It is the largest study ever conducted in the US on the topic and was launched to characterise the chemicals associated with tire crumb rubber and to identify how people may be potentially exposed to those chemicals based on their activities on synthetic turf fields. In its conclusion, the report highlighted that:

‎ “As expected, a range of metals, semivolatile organic compounds, volatile organic compounds and bacteria were detected in recycled tire crumb rubber infill.
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‎ "Although chemicals are present in the tire crumb rubber and exposures can occur, they are likely limited. For example, only small amounts of most organic chemicals are released from tire crumb into the air through emissions and no differences in PAH metabolites in urine were observed between study participants using synthetic turf fields compared to those using grass fields.”

The full report can be read here: https://www.epa.gov/chemical-research/federal-research-recycled-tire-crumb-used-playing-fields-and-playgrounds?utm_source=brevo&utm_campaign=Friday%20News%20Roundup%2019%20April&utm_medium=email

Table 1 shows the number of attendances and those waiting eight hours or more aged 65-74, 75-84, 85-94, and 95+ at A&E in Scotland in March 2024.

Table 1: Attendances and over 8 hours waits, March 2024

As set out in the Scottish Government’s consultation on the reform of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), we are now undertaking a full review of the operational arrangements for how the production of EPCs is overseen, and how the legislation is enforced in the property market. We are engaging with a wide-range of impacted stakeholders as part of this review process, and the findings of this review will inform our final decision on our approach to EPC reform.

STPR2 Recommendation 6 considered a significant body of evidence from projects across Scotland and the UK. This demonstrated that with the provision of specific and targeted information there is potential to change people’s travel behaviour. This includes encouraging more people to walk, wheel and cycle for shorter journeys and to use public transport for trips that they previously used a private car for. The impact of these types of programmes can be more effective when supporting new related infrastructure projects.

The transport appraisal that supported Recommendation 6 considered the evaluation of projects in Scotland undertaken as part of the Smarter Choices Smarter Places programme. This noted that, of the schemes that promoted walking and cycling, around 40% of those people that were reached were more active as a result.

As part of Scotland’s National Performance Framework there is a ‘journeys by active travel’ National Indicator, which monitors the proportion of short journeys that are made only by the active modes of walking and cycling. This shows that whilst there has indeed been a small decline in the percentage of journeys under 2 miles by walking as the main mode, positively the percentage of journeys under 5 miles by cycling as the main mode, has increased since 2012. Transport Scotland will continue to monitor the impacts of all the STPR2 Recommendations, as part of its normal cycle of monitoring and review of the impacts of its investment in Scotland’s transport network.

We routinely engage with a range of stakeholders in our work across Scottish Government, including work to implement the recommendations and observations of the Committee.

The UK's State Report covers the measures that have been adopted, by Government, relating to the rights described in the Convention, and on the progress made in upholding them. Scottish Government did not engage with these groups for the specific purpose of providing our updates to the UK Government for inclusion in their State Report, due to the nature of the reporting process.

Scotland is determined to play our part in eradicating racism, inequality and injustice – and in building a better, fairer world. Specifically, the Race Equality Framework demonstrates our commitment to eliminating racism – our Vision for a fairer Scotland is that by 2030 Scotland is a place where people are healthier, happier and treated with respect, and where opportunities, wealth and power are spread more equally.