All health professionals are expected to demonstrate through both work based learning and self-directed learning, the knowledge and skills in end of life care to satisfy the core competencies of their profession.

The requirements and content of training curricula is a matter for the Royal Colleges and is approved by the General Medical Council as regulator of the medical profession.

All Healthcare professionals including mental health practitioners are expected to assess and address their learning needs to deliver the high quality services required by their local population; this includes end of life/palliative considerations.

Opt-out blood borne virus testing for Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV is available for all new prisoners at HMP Castle Huntly, Cornton Vale, Glenochil, Grampian, Kilmarnock, Perth, Polmont and Shotts, while Barlinne, Greenock and Low Moss have an opt-out approach for Hepatitis C and HIV. We are working with NHS boards to deliver the service in the remaining prisons.

The NDIP 2016 Report shows a reduction in oral health inequalities in primary 1 children across a range of inequality measures.

The Scottish Government is committed to continuing to tackle oral health inequalities in children. This is why in the recently published Fairer Scotland Action Plan, we have included a commitment to extend supervised toothbrushing and fluoride varnish application for nursery and primary 1 and 2 children in even more comparatively deprived communities. Currently this preventive treatment is available under our flagship Childsmile programme to the 20 per cent most deprived communities within each NHS Board area. This will now be extended to those communities who fall within the most 20 per cent deprived measured on a Scotland-wide basis.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-03333 on 27 October 2016. 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.

As previously advised in that answer, the service is expected to be up and running by Spring 2017. I can confirm that the recruitment process for the specialist clinical posts, including relevant neurosurgeons, is currently underway, as is equipment procurement.

I can also confirm that, pending the start of the new service, we continue to ensure that everyone in Scotland who is considered clinically suitable for Deep Brain Stimulation has access to it.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the services, support and care available to people with hearing loss through its long term strategy ‘See Hear’. Awareness raising and training were identified as one of the recommendations in the strategy. The strategy was jointly endorsed by COSLA and is being implemented through local partnerships. Local leads have been identified to drive progress across priority areas.

Health Protection Scotland collects data on Hepatitis C tests from the West of Scotland Specialist Virology Centre, East of Scotland Specialist Virology Centre, Department of Medical Microbiology at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and Ninewells Hospital and Medical School. These specialist laboratories receive positive samples from the 14 Hepatitis C testing laboratories in Scotland in order to carry out PCR testing for confirmation. Negative tests are generally not sent to these specialist laboratories. Therefore, for accuracy, the testing database only includes tests from Boards where there is complete data (negative and positive samples). This means that Hepatitis C test data is only available for prisons within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Grampian, Lothian and Tayside board areas. Between 2013-2015, 3,964 people were tested for hepatitis C antibody in the prison setting in these four board areas.

Through the Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus networks, the Scottish Government has regular discussions with Health Protection Scotland, NHS boards and Hepatitis Scotland to help promote best practice and information sharing in relation to identifying people who remain undiagnosed.

Local Authority Strategic Housing Investment Plans (SHIPs) are produced every two years by local authorities. These are the key documents which identify the strategic housing projects to assist the achievement of the 50,000 target. SHIPs will be directly informed by the councils Local Housing Strategy and developed in consultation with key stakeholders.

Funding decisions are therefore based on the priorities of local authorities as identified in their Housing Need and Demand Assessments, Local Housing Strategies and Strategic Housing Investment Plans.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. The Scottish Government does not currently collect data on people in supported accommodation, however Scottish Government are currently in the process of implementing a data collection which will provide some data on this.

The supported accommodation sector is complex and encompasses a range of different forms of accommodation, with different providers and meeting different needs. The UK Government has undertaken a substantial body of research on the provision of supported accommodation across Great Britain which we understand will shortly be published along with a consultation paper. When it is published we will consider this research carefully, and consider whether the Scottish Government needs to undertake further research or analysis.

We expect the UK Government to publish research on the provision of supported accommodation and a consultation paper with more detail on their proposed approach shortly, it would be premature to make any plans without this information.

The Scottish Government intends to use devolved funding to ensure that the supported accommodation sector is put onto a secure and sustainable footing and we will work with a broad range of stakeholders to achieve this.