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Increasing coverage in the Scottish Cervical Screening Programme is a key objective for the Scottish Government and that is why up to £5m of funding from the Cancer Strategy 'Beating Cancer: Ambition and Action' 2016 is being invested in our screening programmes, to reduce inequalities in access to screening and to improve uptake, particularly amongst those least likely to participate.

As part of this work, we are establishing a network, involving clinical and academic experts from across Scotland as well as third sector organisations to identify new activities and learn from local practice and innovation, to improve participation in screening programmes.

We also support the work of charities like Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust to increase awareness and address some of the barriers to screening. We are funding their innovative 'Be Cervix Savvy Roadshow' which will be visiting high streets and retail parks across Scotland to raise awareness of cervical cancer and increase uptake of cervical screening.

Scottish Ministers received the proposed Terms of Reference of the UK Infected Blood Inquiry for consultation on 15 June. We will respond with our views as soon as possible.

Under section 27 of the Inquiries Act 2005, Scottish Ministers must be consulted in relation to the Terms of Reference of any statutory inquiry if they are to include anything that will require the inquiry to determine any fact, or to make recommendations, wholly or primarily concerned with Scottish matters.

The rise in ‘poisonings’ in 2016 as highlighted in the Unintentional Injuries in Scotland report can be predominantly attributed to the rise in drug related deaths that were reported in 2016.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to tackle the many challenges associated with problem drug use. In recognition of the continued rise in drug deaths, and the changed drugs landscape, later this year we will publish a refreshed drug and alcohol strategy that will challenge services to better meet the wide range of complex health and social needs of those who are most at risk as a result of their drug and alcohol use. This work will be supported by additional investment of
‎ £20 million a year for the remainder of this parliament.

More generally, we recognise that unintentional harm and injury is a sizeable burden on the population and public services in Scotland. We are focused on developing a co-ordinated and strategic approach to reducing unintentional harm and injury through a prevention based approach that aligns to the needs and aspirations of the individuals and communities we serve.

The Scottish Government is committed to building safer communities across Scotland. Key to this is our work with partners including: Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA), Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT), the Scottish Community Safety Network, as well as CoSLA and the local partnership networks.

Following publication of the Strategic Assessment of Unintentional Harm in Scotland in April 2017, an Executive Working Group, chaired by Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, has been focussed on developing a co-ordinated and strategic approach to taking this work forward. A key element of this approach is to understand and support the wide range of initiatives and actions that are already taking place locally across Scotland and to share good practice. In April, we held a successful event with over 100 delegates from across the community safety sector. A copy of the report of this event can be accessed here .

As the Strategic Assessment recognises that more deprived areas are over-represented in unintentional injury data, focusing efforts on people living within these areas has been selected as a priority for Building Safer Communities partners and the Scottish Government is continuing to work closely with and support key safety organisations. Over the last five years, the Scottish Government has provided RoSPA with almost £600,000 in funding to undertake work around home and community safety as well as supporting projects that help improve child safety. For example, distributing Brighter Beginning packs, which contain helpful tips and tools to help give little ones a safer start, to disadvantaged parents/parents-to-be and carers of babies or children under five. There have also been specific initiatives in Glasgow's Possilpark and Gorbals neighbourhoods on the safe use of hair straighteners and the distribution of child height charts which feature key safety messages associated with stages of growth.

For the last 11 years, the Scottish Government has also supported the Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT) to delivery community education campaigns raising awareness of serious childhood accidents and how to prevent them. CAPT places an emphasis on reaching deprived families and developing practical and inclusive safety messages. For example, through the HomeStart programme in South West Edinburgh, CAPT recently ran a number of outreach events during Child Safety Week (June 4-10). In addition to visiting families within their homes, the team also worked in partnership with other organisations to deliver sessions for various toddler and parent groups, as well as local faith and community groups. Families were given the opportunity to book home visits and were offered free home safety equipment, including blind cleats. Many of the discussions centred around simple changes that could be made within the home to reduce the risk of accidents.

The rate of emergency admissions due to falls has slowly been increasing over the last ten years as our population ages and more people are living longer with frailty and multiple long term health conditions. However, unintentional injuries data from the last two years is suggesting we are beginning to slow the trend. For a number of years the Scottish Government's National Falls Programme has been working with a wide range of partners to improve our approach to preventing falls and provide the right care and support if a person does experience a fall. Evidence based approaches to falls and fracture prevention will be taken into consideration as we develop our National Falls Strategy which will set out ways to support, encourage and sustain a whole system approach to falls prevention and management and fracture prevention in Scotland.

Suicide statistics are produced by National Records of Scotland (NRS). Towards the end of 2017 NRS published a user consultation on the timing of Vital Events statistics. The consultation was published on the NRS website consultation page https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/user-consultations-groups-and-seminars/consultations

Users who had registered an interest in population or health statistics on the ScotStat register http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/scotstat received an email alerting them to the consultation. Various user groups were also told about the consultation and encouraged to respond, such as the Population and Migration Statistics user group and the Scottish Public Health Observatory Steering Group. Key users within the Scottish Government and the NHS were also alerted.

The consultation ended on 7 December 2017 and an analysis of responses (which included the new publication timetable) was subsequently published on the NRS website – https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statistics/consultations/user-consultation-on-timing-vital-events-stats.pdf The new publication date has also been listed on the Future Publications page of the NRS website - https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/future-publications

Ministers were informed of this change but are not required to agree such changes. These are National Statistics and the UK Statistics Authority Code of Practice for Statistics ( https://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/code-of-practice/the-code/ ) states that the Chief Statistician/Head of Profession for Statistics should have sole authority for deciding on the timing of the release of regular statistics.

Since mid-2017 the NHS in Scotland and other parts of the United Kingdom has experienced a shortage of hepatitis B vaccine due to global manufacturing issues. The vaccine supply position was very constrained in 2017. In August 2017 Scotland adopted temporary recommendations which provided advice on assessment of individual risk prioritisation of vaccine for those at highest immediate need.

NHS National Procurement continues to liaise closely with vaccine manufacturers to provide Health Protection Scotland and the NHS across Scotland updates with respect to the supply position and specifically available allocations of vaccine.

Vaccine supplies have improved in 2018 as manufacturing issues in the major supplier of hepatitis B vaccine have resolved. Supplies have remained constrained due to backlog demand from 2017 and reduced UK supply from another manufacturer. With the improving supply position there has been a move toward a phased introduction of hepatitis B vaccine in lower priority groups, including for use in occupational health services.

The Scottish Government is keen to encourage owners of empty properties to bring them back into use to increase the supply of housing in Scotland. We are tackling the problem through legislative changes, provision of funding, and practical advice and assistance.

The Scottish Government recently doubled the funding for the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership. The Partnership approach has resulted in more than 2,800 homes being brought back into use since 2010. Feedback demonstrates that having a dedicated resource to drive forward work on empty homes is having a real impact across Scotland. 97% of homes brought back into use last year can be attributed to the work of empty homes officers. We are therefore keen to see all 32 local authorities recognise the benefits of this approach.

Local authorities also have access to a number of tools which can be used to bring empty homes and vacant land back into positive use. Since 2013 they have had the power to introduce a council tax levy on long term empty homes in private ownership and have wide ranging compulsory purchase powers. We have also committed to introduce legislation, within this Parliamentary term, to provide local authorities with a new power to promote compulsory sale orders to tackle the blight of abandoned buildings and small plots of land in town centres and communities.

We have also provided dedicated funds to tackle empty homes through the £4.5 million Empty Homes Loan Fund and the £4 million Town Centre Empty Homes Fund. Further funding is also available from the £30 million Rural and Islands Housing Fund.

The Scottish Government does not issue guidance to non-departmental bodies requesting that they record staff absences that are due to mental ill health. Non Departmental Public Bodies have responsibility for the recruitment, retention and motivation of its staff. The broad responsibilities toward its staff are to ensure that HR policies comply with employment and equalities legislation.

We want time in temporary accommodation to be as short as possible and we are increasing housing supply to help with this.

Temporary accommodation is an important part of Scotland’s strong homelessness legislation and we are committed to ensuring that temporary accommodation is of good quality and serves the needs of its residents in helping to ensure positive outcomes for those experiencing homelessness.

Last month the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group released its recommendations for transforming temporary accommodation, most of which we have accepted in principle. Together with the Group’s previous recommendations around eradicating rough sleeping that were issued in March, there is a focus on preventing the need for temporary accommodation in the first place, by reducing demand through effective prevention measures, and improving outflow or move-on by increasing appropriate options for accommodation.

Proposed measures include the development of a national system of rapid rehousing, including moving to a ‘Housing First’ model for those with most complex needs – where people, for whom it is appropriate, move straight into a permanent, settled home rather than temporary accommodation.

It is intended that the Action Group will submit its final set of recommendations on ending homelessness at the end of June and following this, together with our partners, we will bring forward a programme of work to take forward the recommendations.

In October we reduced the period from 14 to 7 days that families with children and pregnant women are in unsuitable temporary accommodation, except in exceptional circumstances.