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Legislation already exists with regard to fire safety in common areas.

Regulation 23, as applied by Regulation 24, of the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006 states that duty-holders have an obligation to maintain the common areas and the facilities in the common areas for use by (or protection of) firefighters. This duty is enforced by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS).

In addition to this, occupiers require to keep common areas clear of combustibles and obstructions. This is covered under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982, section 93.

Work is ongoing under the auspices of the ‘Building and Fire Safety: Ministerial Working Group’, to ensure that there is a clear process in place regarding the storage, removal and enforcement of combustible materials in common areas, as it relates to the above noted legislation.

This information is not held centrally. The deployment of staff outwith their usual place of work is principally a matter for NHS Scotland health boards; boards have fully delegated powers in relation to employment issues.

We are aware that boards within the North of Scotland service planning region (NHS Grampian, NHS Highland, NHS Tayside, NHS Shetland & NHS Orkney) are considering proposals to include contractual provision for regional working to enhance resilience and remove bureaucracy where staff routinely work across board boundaries. We are working with the boards concerned to ensure that any changes are developed and implemented in partnership.

Scottish Government officials are making arrangements to discuss the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme with the Mental Health Delivery Team in the Department of Health and Social Care. This team has oversight of IAPT policy. Follow up discussions with NHS England, which leads on implementation of IAPT, will also be scheduled.

The aim of these discussions will be to explore the key principles that underpin prompt access to IAPT services, bearing in mind that there are important differences which make direct comparisons between waiting times for IAPT and Scottish Psychological Therapies Waiting Times unreliable. In particular, IAPT services provide support for adults with depression and anxiety disorders that can be managed effectively in a uni-professional context. Scottish waiting times figures cover a broader range of services in primary, secondary and tertiary care, which can result in greater complexity and duration of treatment.

Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) has no plans to update its guideline on cataracts following the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence's (NICE) publication of its guideline. SIGN does not routinely do this unless it had already planned to update its own guideline on the same topic.

Where there is no SIGN guideline on a particular topic, healthcare professionals would be expected to look for another high quality, evidence-based guideline such as, in this case, NICE guideline NG77 - Cataracts in adults; management.

Under the current regime, decisions as to the use of electronic monitoring on liberation from detention or imprisonment are made by either the Parole Board for Scotland in relation to release on licence or by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) in relation to Home Detention Curfew (HDC).

In June 2018, my predecessor asked both the Chief Inspector of Prisons and the Chief Inspector of Constabulary to review arrangements for HDC. The Terms of Reference for these reviews were published on 28 June and we expect to see review findings in September 2018.

It is important we do not pre-empt the findings of these reviews to allow both Inspectorate’s to independently conclude their enquiries and make recommendations for improvement. We will carefully consider all of the recommendations including any potential shortcomings identified.

The Scottish Government continues to seek clarity from the UK Government about its plans to avoid medicine stock shortages in the event of a no deal Brexit.

I wrote to the UK Health Secretary, Matt Hancock on 10 July, to ask the UK Government to share with us the full report that they commissioned from Ernst & Young on the consequences of Brexit on medicines supply but have not yet had a reply.

The Scottish Government has also sought further details about how the UK Government’s plans to invite pharmaceutical companies to stockpile medicines will work in practice.

Any costs arising from the UK Government’s requests of pharmaceutical companies are a matter for the UK Government.

Weekly figures are not available, but NHS Information Services Division publishes monthly figures on dispensed prescription items in their community open data files. These files show number of paid items, paid quantity and gross ingredient cost broken down to GP practice level for all prescription items. The open data files are available at the following link - https://www.opendata.nhs.scot/dataset/prescriptions-in-the-community .

The Essential Medicines Buffer Stock is the mechanism for stockpiling medicines (including insulin) for emergency purposes, such as a disruption to the supply line or a pandemic. In addition, there will be some stockholding on shelves in the supply chain e.g. community pharmacies, hospital pharmacies and wholesalers. Some manufacturers may have stock held that has not been released into the UK supply chain e.g. held at a pre-wholesaler. However, there is no way to quantify exactly how much insulin is being held.

The Scottish Government has no plans to remove the requirement for managers of early learning and childcare (ELC) centres to hold or be working towards a degree level qualification. We are committed to expanding funded ELC provision by 2020, and quality is at the heart of this expansion. The single most important driver of the quality of a child’s ELC experience is a high quality workforce. The requirement that managers of funded ELC settings hold or are working towards the relevant degree level qualification will ensure that they are able to provide strong pedagogical leadership to staff within the setting and ensure that the ELC offer gives children the best start in life. To support the delivery of the expansion we are increasing the offer of early years courses in colleges and universities in 2018-19 to 1,813 additional places for HNC courses and 490 additional places at managerial level.

NHS Boards have a legislative duty to give children and adults, across all care groups, who have lost their voice or who have difficulty speaking, a right to the provision of communication equipment and support in using that equipment.

It is for NHS Boards to determine the system(s) of communication equipment they provide based on clinical need.

PrEP is readily available on the NHS to those in Scotland who are most at risk of acquiring HIV infection. Boards are working hard to meet the demand for PrEP. Anyone wishing to discuss PrEP should contact their local sexual health clinic. Information on the eligibility criteria for PrEP is available at https://prep.scot/.