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Following discussions between Scottish Government officials, academics and the Scottish Screening Committee, a pilot proposal for a feasibility study on lung cancer screening has been submitted for funding and a decision is expected in December 2019.

We are unaware of when the UK National Screening Committee will form a view on lung cancer screening but we understand that they will review the evidence on lung cancer screening again after the results of the NELSON randomised lung cancer screening trial are published.

I refer the member to my answer to question S5W-26377 on 27 November 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

The Scottish Government is advised on all aspects of screening by the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an independent expert group who assesses screening programmes against a robust set of criteria, before advising the NHS and Ministers in the UK. The UK NSC continues to monitor and consider all available evidence and recommendations and this will include the results of the cluster-randomised trial, currently underway in England, when these are published. The trial which is looking to extend the age range to 47-73 began in 2009 and is still recruiting women. The main results of this trial are expected in the 2020s.

Breast screening is a valuable public health service and plays an important role in detecting cancer at an early stage. We know that screening remains the best way to detect breast cancer early and help reduce health inequalities in cancer outcomes. The Scottish Breast Screening Programme needs to be as effective as possible and needs to adapt in order to keep pace with the increasing population and changes in technology and lifestyles, which is why we have approved a review of the Scottish Breast Screening Programme, to ensure it continues to support early diagnosis of breast cancer. The review, carried out by National Services Scotland, will look at everything from invitation processes, advances in technology, future requirements, and ways to increase participation and address health inequalities.

The total spend on the "Quit your way Scotland" campaign which ran in 2018, was £608,198. Spend from this campaign was frontloaded in Financial Year 2017-18:

2017-2018 - £552,975

2018-2019 - £55,223

The available information is provided in the following table, which has been produced from the Scottish Government’s criminal proceedings database .

This information is not routinely collected but individual Health Boards may have information on the position in each hospital in their area.

Running bi-level or multi-level course classes is one approach many schools have used for many years to increase the amount of choice available to their pupils.

There will be varying levels of prior attainment in any class and Education Scotland has yet to see any firm evidence from inspections of educational disadvantage due to multilevel teaching.

In line with the unanimous decision of the Parliament on 1 May 2019, we will be conducting an independent review of the senior phase of Curriculum for Excellence. The review will provide an opportunity to look at the impact of different approaches to learning and teaching, including bi-level and multi-level teaching.

Scotland continues to enjoy a world-class reputation as a place to work and train for doctors. The progressive approach we have taken to the Scottish Income Tax helps to provide a wider and better-funded set of free-to-access public services than in the rest of the UK.

Medical staff have received a 2.5% pay award, backdated to 1 April 2019. This means junior doctors working on typical rotas in Scotland can be up to £6,000 a year better off than their English equivalents.

Our Consultants and Specialty Doctors the remain the best-paid in the UK.

We are delivering a more sustainable medical workforce. The number of doctors in training has increased by more than 6% under this Government, and 92% of our specialty training posts are filled. In addition, by 2020-21, we will have increased medical schools places by 22%, equivalent to an extra 190 places. We are also investing more than £4 million in the next three years on recruitment campaigns, focusing on attracting and retaining GPs, nurses and midwives.

As at 31 December 2018, there were ten care homes stating in their annual returns to the Care Inspectorate that their main provision of care was for people with neurological conditions (other than dementia). The ten care homes are listed below along with their local authority area.

The Scottish Government is not in a position to publish information on how many attacks on NHS staff have been recorded in 2018-19, as this information is not held centrally. Information on assaults on staff is collated by Health Boards.

The Scottish Government publishes data on persons convicted under the Emergency Worker(s) Act (Scotland) 2005 on an annual basis. Data for 2018-19 will be available in January 2020 and published on:

https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/Datasets/DatasetsCrimProc/CP1718EWA

Staff in our NHS are our biggest asset and should not be assaulted, obstructed or hindered for doing their jobs. That is why we extended the provisions in the Act to cover doctors nurses and midwives working in the community, as well as those in hospital settings and paramedics.