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Scottish Government do not hold information on the amount of waste that has been set to a landfill going back to 2007. Since 2016, a national contract has been available for domestic waste across NHSScotland and this is used currently by 11 NHS Boards. The total amount of waste collected via this contract was 20,753 tonnes in 2017, and 20,848 tonnes in 2018. Of these totals, 20.5% (2017) and 23.7% (2018) was either recycled, reclaimed or reused. The majority of the remaining residual waste is sent to landfill. These totals do not include clinical waste or construction and demolition waste which are subject to separate contracts and collection regimes

NHSScotland are working towards the reduction of all waste types and aspire to the Scotland-wide challenge to recycling of 70% of all waste types with a maximum of 5% permitted in landfill by 2025, as part of “Scotland’s zero waste plan”.

Additionally, NHS National Services Scotland is in the process of procuring a new waste data tool that will improve the provision of waste data going forward.

Since 2016, through the Bank, Agency and Rostering Group (and its predecessor the MASNET group) the Scottish Government has engaged with NHS Boards on Staff Bank developments. Through this, Staff Banks have expanded to include nursing, medical, AHP and administration staff, and to work on a regional basis, allowing staff the opportunity to work across NHS Board boundaries. Representation on this groups includes Scottish Government, NHS Employers and Staff Side representation.

The case for a national Staff Bank has been fully considered. Evidence shows that in most cases such a service would provide limited benefit due to the fact the majority of staff prefer to work within their local radius. There are however areas where technological advances mean a national bank would be of benefit. Such a case is the Radiology Reporting Service, which will launch in late summer 2019, allowing Radiology staff the opportunity to provide additional reporting capacity across NHSScotland through the use of a national IT connectivity platform that enables images taken anywhere in Scotland to be reported on from anywhere in Scotland.

The Scottish Government, in its Ten Year Mental Health Strategy (2017 – 27), recognised the unique challenges students face. The findings and comments in the Survey reflect these challenges. The Scottish Government is already investing in student mental health and wellbeing through its support for NUS Scotland’s Think Positive initiative. All universities and colleges are also being asked to develop a strategy for mental health and work with NUS Scotland and their local student association to develop a Student Mental Health Agreement. In addition, colleges have access to a ring-fenced £50.5m Access and Inclusion Fund which they can use to ensure that every student has an equal chance of completing their studies, including students requiring mental health support.

A Student Mental Health and Well-Being Working Group has been established to collaboratively support the implementation of the 2018-19 Programme for Government commitment to provide more than 80 additional counsellors in Further and Higher Education over the next four years, with an investment of around £20 million. Representatives from the university and college sector, including Colleges Scotland and Universities Scotland, NHS Scotland and Health and Social Care Partnerships are included in this Group, alongside other key stakeholders. I am sure the Group will want to consider contact permissions.

This data is not held centrally.

A Student Mental Health and Well-Being Working Group has been established to collaboratively support the implementation of the 2018-19 Programme for Government commitment to provide more than 80 additional counsellors in Further and Higher Education over the next four years, with an investment of around £20 million. Representatives from the university and college sector, including Colleges Scotland and Universities Scotland, NHS Scotland and Health and Social Care Partnerships are included in this Group, alongside other key stakeholders. Part of the remit of the Group is to also support improved local partnerships between colleges and universities and NHS Scotland, Health and Social Care Partnerships, local authorities and the third sector.

We also provided funding to Universities Scotland for the preparation and distribution of 50,000 stickers, which will provide information for students on where to get help in respect of Gender Based Violence and mental health issues and will be for use in student accommodation, student’s unions, sports areas and teaching and learning areas. These were launched on the 9 May 2019.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that sexual health services in Scotland are all-inclusive and accessible to all individuals and groups. It is the responsibility of NHS Boards and Local Authorities to ensure that young people have access to appropriate sexual health services in their local area. The Scottish Government has funded the Sexual Health Scotland website, which provides a source of information and advice and signposting to local services to young people in all parts of Scotland.

This data is not held centrally.

This information is not held centrally. It may be available on request from health boards.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-20315 on 13 December 2018. 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

There have been a further 18,556 voluntary sector short breaks provided to carers during the period 2018-19. Please see the breakdown in the following table. These figures are for the number of breaks funded and there may be more than one carer benefiting from each break. It should be noted that Shared Care Scotland figures for 2018-19 are estimated and figures from April 2019 are not yet available.

Number of short breaks provided through the voluntary sector Short Breaks Fund in 2018-19, and total since 2010

This information is not held centrally.

However, Information Services Division Scotland publish quarterly statistics on treatment waiting times and types of treatment undertaken which shows how many residential detoxification and rehabilitation treatments were started in that period. This information is available here - https://www.isdscotland.org/index.asp .

It should be noted, however, that it isn’t possible to say that the number of treatments started equals the number of individuals undertaking them as the same individual may drop-out and re-start a treatment.