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It is important that NHS Boards can call on additional staffing when required, in order to deal with the exigencies of the service. It is for NHS Boards to decide when the additional support represented by agency staffing is required but the Scottish Government is clear that Boards should always make use of NHS bank staff as a first choice and the majority of additional staffing needs are met through NHS Scotland’s well established bank system. These act as, de facto, in house agencies. We have over 35,000 nurses registered on NHS Scotland Staff Banks. It would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government to establish a commercial agency. Combined spending on all agency staff (medical and nursing) remains less than 1% of the overall NHS Scotland budget.

NHS Boards are expected to provide those who have a survived a stroke with the appropriate multi-disciplinary assessment, and are required to demonstrate their provision of access to acute therapy assessment during Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme (SSIP) annual reviews. Exploring ways to drive improvements in early access to assessment and rehabilitation is a key aspect of the work underway to develop the refreshed Stroke Improvement Plan.

As you will know our hospitals, particularly across the central belt, are under significant pressure due to the direct and indirect consequences of the pandemic which is impacting on A&E performance.

We recognise the good work underway in each of our Health Boards to implement performance improvement measures. Although NHS Tayside is of a comparable size to some of the other central belt Health Boards, there are substantial differences between the Boards, particularly in terms of geography and population demographics.

NHS Tayside is regularly one of the higher performing mainland Health Boards, with well-established processes and models of care. Through our new National Urgent and Unscheduled Care Collaborative we are actively encouraging the sharing of learning and good practice between Health Boards. To help facilitate this, we are hosting a learning event on 19 October where representatives from all of Scotland’s Health Boards will participate.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10578 on 27 September 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Pulmonary rehabilitation services are made up of multidisciplinary teams which can include the following professions: physiotherapists, nurses, occupational therapists, pharmacists and doctors.

All healthcare students require practice placements in a number of settings, which can include pulmonary rehabilitation services, but the Scottish Government does not hold data on the distribution of students across these placements as they are managed by individual universities.

However, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) collects and analyses data relating to the provision of further and higher education in Scotland and a breakdown of the number of overall graduates from each profession over the past 5 years is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (BIB number 63608). This is broken down by domicile : Scottish, rUK, EU, international.

Pulmonary rehabilitation services are made up of multidisciplinary teams which can include the following professions: physiotherapists, nurses, occupational therapists, pharmacists and doctors.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of graduates from each profession who work in pulmonary rehabilitation services. However, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) collects and analyses data relating to the provision of further and higher education in Scotland and a breakdown of the number of overall graduates from each profession over the past five years is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (BIB number 63608). This is broken down by domicile: Scottish, rUK, EU, international.

Social Security Scotland does not hold contingency funding. The budget for Benefit Expenditure is set against the Scottish Fiscal Commission’s forecasts. Any volatility arising from demand-led benefit expenditure is managed at a consolidated level, utilising the Scottish Government’s limited borrowing powers, as set out in the Fiscal Framework, where required.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government would expect the Scottish Stroke Care Audit (SSCA) to aim to raise the Scottish Stroke Care Standards to drive improvements when a standard is being met or exceeded by most services. In line with this, the SSCA standard for CT brain scanning was raised in 2020. Changes in standards are highlighted in the annual Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme (SSIP) reports.

Further information on the Scottish Stroke Care Audit can be found at: https://www.strokeaudit.scot.nhs.uk/index.html

We recognise the importance of the Scottish Events Campus as one of the world’s top conference and events venues, as recently exemplified in the successful hosting of COP26. It is clear that the SEC makes a vital contribution not just to Glasgow’s economy, but to Scotland’s economy as a whole.

As Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, I engaged with Peter Duthie, the CEO of the SEC, with regards to the SEC expansion plans and broader matters affecting the events sector. These discussions have necessarily been paused due to emerging budgetary pressures and reassessment of budget priorities as set out in the Resource Spending Review. We are therefore unable to commit to the provision of funding support via a capital finance package for the expansion of the conferencing centre at the current time.

However, we are keen to continue to engage with the SEC and the wider business conference and events sector on how the review of the National Event Strategy Scotland: The Perfect Stage, can enable us to build on its success, and to deliver on the priorities of our National Strategy for Economic Transformation.