Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is working with key business sectors, Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), Scottish Water, local authorities, and other stakeholders to make sure water is used efficiently; the first line of defence against the risks of drought.

SEPA has just consulted on a Water Resources Management Plan, which highlights the risk of climate change and the need to work in collaboration to develop a series of practical actions to deliver a more sustainable and resilient use of water. This builds on the approach taken under the National Water Scarcity Plan, which focuses on making early information available to allow water users to manage supplies during prolonged dry periods without harming the environment. Following the consultation SEPA will develop a more proactive approach that aims to increase the resilience of businesses and reduce the pressure on the water environment during droughts.

Scottish Water carefully considers the actions required to mitigate against any drought risk through its water resource plan to ensure it has resilience in its networks to cope with an increase in demand during extended periods of dry weather.

The following table shows office-cancelled breast screening appointments, broken down by month from January 2020 until July 2021. It is important to note, however, that all of these office-cancelled appointments are reappointed as a matter of course and an invitation to screening sent to the participant. Where appointments are rescheduled in this way before a letter of invitation has been sent, the screening participant may be unaware their appointment has been cancelled and reappointed .

The data provided below was provided as management information and has not been subject to quality checks that would be applied in an official publication. Quality assured breast screening programme statistics are published annually by Public Health Scotland.

Since May 2021 we have a system in place through NHS Inform to provide people with a record of their vaccination status if they need this for international travel. Scottish residents who want to demonstrate their vaccination status can request a certificate through NHS Inform before they travel. This can take up to 14 days, but current turnaround is typically 2-3 days.

It remains the case that if people are returning from an amber list country and are not fully vaccinated in accordance with the exemption, they must self-isolate for 10 days at their accommodation in Scotland and must book a day 2 and day 8 testing package , prior to departure. Details of this can be found at the link below.

It also remains the case that if people they are returning from a red list country they should follow the managed isolation guidance as set out on:

Coronavirus (COVID-19): international travel and managed isolation (quarantine) - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

People need to be aware that countries may move between the red, amber or green list country at short notice. They are advised that they should not assume that a country on the green, amber or red list now will remain on the same list over the weeks and months ahead.

The Scottish Government does not provide direct support to land managers to manage beavers through either lethal control or translocation.

However, NatureScot, through the Scottish Beaver Mitigation Scheme, offers free advice and support to land managers and can provide and install equipment to help them mitigate the impact of beavers on their land. More information about the support available from NatureScot under this scheme is available on their website - Beaver Mitigation Scheme | NatureScot

The OECD had responsibility for stakeholder engagement.

The OECD’s Independent Review of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) was conducted using their Implementing Policies: Supporting Change in Education Framework.

Details of how the OECD conducted their independent review can be accessed at Independent+Review+of+Curriculum+for+Excellence+-+Remit.pdf (www.gov.scot)

You may also wish to note that the name of stakeholders who participated in engagement interviews are credited in the OECD’s final report.

The following table shows the number of people who attended a breast screening appointment from January 2019 to July 2021. 2018-2019 data is provided as a baseline; as the programme operates on a 3 year basis, and as in some years the locations are further away from base sites, these figures are provided as an average. It is important to note that the 2020 and 2021 data provided was collected and used for management purposes for monitoring the recovery of the program and has not been subject to quality checks for official publication. Public Health Scotland publish breast screening programme statistics every year; the last publication was in May 2021 and the next publication is due in 2022.

Ensuring high quality palliative and end of life care for people towards the end of life is an important priority for the Scottish Government.

Since 2016, it has been the responsibility of Integration Authorities to commission and plan palliative and end of life care services and supports to meet the needs of their local population. The assessment of palliative and end of life care services is also their responsibility.

For this reason, the Scottish Government does not collect this data centrally.

However, Integration Authorities report on their progress using a range of indicators within their Annual Performance Reports, which provides some data on palliative and end of life care services. Information on the Core Suite of Integration Indicators can be found at https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/8411/2021-07-13-coresuiteindicators-background-and-glossary.pdf. It is, however, important to note that due to the pandemic, full data is not currently available for all indicators at present.

Public Health Scotland also publish official statistics on the percentage of time spent at home or in a community setting in the last six months of life. ( Percentage of end of life spent at home or in a community setting - Financial years ending 31 March 2011 to 2020 - Percentage of end of life spent at home or in a community setting - Publications - Public Health Scotland ).

The Scottish Government is not able to provide the information requested due to this level of data not being publically available. In particular, individual patients may be identifiable should such hospital level information be published.

Quarterly reports on Clostridioides difficile infection, Escherichia coli bacteraemia and Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia are published, with the data broken down by Health Board, and are available her

Additionally, validated data on Covid-19 hospital acquired infection is published weekly, with information broken down by NHS Health Board to protect patient identity. This information can be accessed here.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the 2021 grade results broken down by state and independent school.

The SQA plan to publish information on 2021 results broken down by centre type on their website ( Statistics 2021 - SQA ) on 21 September 2021. This will provide information on the percentage of entries which resulted in a grade A, B, C etc.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the 2021 grade results broken down by state and independent school.

The SQA plan to publish information on results be centre type - Attainment Statistics for every National Qualification in 2021, tabulated by Centre Type (Education Authority Schools, Independent Schools, Colleges) - on their website ( Statistics 2021 - SQA ) on 21 September 2021.