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The Scottish Expert Advisory Panel on the Collaborative Economy met for the last time on 30 November 2017 to discuss its draft report and to approve agreed recommendations for inclusion. The Advisory Panel’s final report published on 29 January 2018, and can be viewed at:  https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-expert-advisory-panel-collaborative-economy-report/

The Scottish Government’s response to the report was published on 10 July 2018 and can be viewed at:  https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-government-response-scottish-expert-advisory-panel-collaborative-economy-report/

All associated papers and minutes of the Advisory Panel’s meetings are available through the Scottish Government’s website at: 
https://www.gov.scot/groups/scottish-expert-advisory-panel-collaborative-economy/

The following tables provide the average waiting times for Neurology in days across all NHS territorial NHS Boards from 2007 to 2017.

In March 2010, the national standard for new outpatients changed from 15 weeks for General Practitioner/General Dental Practitioner referrals only, to a standard of 12 weeks for all sources of referrals. This has therefore been illustrated in the two tables.

For 2017 the data for two NHS Boards (NHS Ayrshire and Arran and NHS Tayside) is limited due to technical issues with providing data to the ISD Waiting Times warehouse and are not included in the NHSScotland total for that year.

Table 1

The purpose and remit of the Short Term Lets Delivery Group is set out in the Scottish Government's response to the recommendations made by the Scottish Expert Advisory Panel on the Collaborative Economy. Full details can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-government-response-scottish-expert-advisory-panel-collaborative-economy-report/ .

The Group is working to deliver on the Programme for Government commitment to ensure that local authorities have the appropriate regulatory powers to allow them to take the decisions to balance the needs and concerns of their communities with wider economic and tourism interests. These powers will allow local authorities to ensure a safe, quality experience for visitors, whilst protecting the interests of local communities.

The Group comprises Scottish Government officials from across relevant areas of government including: better regulation, community empowerment, economy, housing, licensing, planning, taxation and tourism. There are no external members. The group has met five times: 26 June 2018; 15 August 2018; 7 September 2018; 26 October 2018; and 27 November. It is envisaged that the group will continue to meet on an approximately monthly basis. Members of the group have met with Airbnb, the Association of Scotland’s Self Caterers, the City of Edinburgh Council, COSLA and the Short Term Accommodation Association specifically to discuss short term lets. Members of the Group have also discussed short terms lets with other stakeholders in the context of taking forward other government business. In 2019, the Group will engage widely with local government, communities and business interests across Scotland. It is intended that the Group will report its findings in the course of 2019.

Scottish Government is maintaining its investment in the extensive programme of surveillance, monitoring, research, and rapid action to help slow down the spread and reduce the impact of Phytophthora ramorum on larch. Our surveillance programme has ensured early detection of new outbreaks, and rapid action via statutory measures.

Rapid action was taken by the Scottish Government through Forestry Commission Scotland to issue the required Statutory Plant Health Notices, focussing on those areas confirmed as having the disease furthest away from the focus of infection in the south of Scotland. Close liaison with Confor and the wider forestry sector, through the Scottish Tree Health Advisory Group and the P. ramorum Working Group, has been maintained to ensure that appropriate and proportionate management action continues to be implemented.

Continued research into this pathogen remains a priority for the Scottish Government, and will be continued as part of the future cross-border arrangements agreed as part of the programme of work to complete the devolution of forestry.

Police Scotland treats any incident involving the use of acid to attack another person with the utmost seriousness, and will keep each case under review as their investigations proceed.

The production of the National Statistics on police recorded crime is a matter for independent statisticians. At present, no existing legislation specifically criminalises the carrying of acid or other corrosives. As such, should acid or a corrosive be used to attack another person, this would be recorded as an assault but no data would be recorded that identified the specific use of an acid or other corrosive in the carrying out of the assault.

This situation is different from, for example, when a knife is used in an assault as there is a statutory offence of carrying a bladed article in a public place and so this can be recorded as an assault involving a knife linked back to the statutory offence of carrying a bladed article in a public place.

New offences relating to corrosives are contained in the Offensive Weapons Bill. This is a UK Government Bill and will, if approved in its current form, mean a new offence banning possession of a corrosive substance in a public place and a new offence banning the sale of certain corrosives to under 18s will both be introduced into Scots criminal law. The effect of the creation of these new offences will be to trigger new recording of corrosives offending, including where a corrosive is used in public to assault another person.

The Scottish Government has lodged a Legislative Consent Motion for this Bill which the Justice Committee has recently approved. This Bill is currently delayed at Westminster after being removed from scrutiny at Third Reading on two separate occasions in October. No new date for scrutiny has been set.

Beyond this new legislation, the Minister for Community Safety also updated Parliament on 20 September 2018 on work to further enhance our understanding of the non-sexual violence that takes place in Scotland. This will include a new report into the nature of serious assaults recorded by the police in 2017-18. It is planned that this report will be published in the spring of 2019 and will include an estimate of the proportion of these crimes that involve an acid or other corrosive substance.

There are mobile device applications designed to facilitate bystander CPR and public access defibrillator use during cardiac arrests. An evaluation of these Apps to compare functionality, feasibility and potential benefit for cardiac arrest victims in Scotland is planned as part of Scotland's Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy.

As part of the Strategy, the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) Public Access Defibrillators (PADs) Register is the arrangement in operation for PADs already in place, in a variety of locations, to be mapped, maintained and accessible to the public. This enables SAS call handlers to direct a caller at the location of a cardiac arrest to a PAD when one is nearby.

The Scottish Government appreciates the contribution voluntary organisations, businesses and members of the public make by funding public access defibrillators in their local communities. Scottish Government is supporting improving the effectiveness of the use of public access defibrillators (PADs) under Scotland's Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy, but does not routinely provide funding for them.

The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) Public Access Defibrillators (PADs) Register is the arrangement in operation for PADs already in place, in a variety of locations, to be mapped, maintained and accessible to the public. This enables SAS call handlers to direct a caller at the location of a cardiac arrest to a PAD when one is nearby. Support and advice is available from the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) to any council, community, organisation or business interested in all aspects of PADs.

The Scottish Government has funded The University of Edinburgh Resuscitation Research Group to carry out the PADs Modelling Analysis project, to inform advice on where PADs should be located, designed to facilitate bystander CPR and PAD use.

The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) Public Access Defibrillators (PADs) Register is the arrangement in operation for PADs already in place, in a variety of locations, to be mapped, maintained and accessible to the public. This enables SAS call handlers to direct a caller at the location of a cardiac arrest to a PAD when one is nearby. This meets a commitment in Scotland's Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy for Scotland.

In addition Scottish Ambulance Service is an early adopter site in the British Heart Foundation National Defibrillator Network project. This aims to map and locate every PAD in the UK on all ambulance service systems.