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The Scottish Government has taken a proactive approach to understand the prevalence, raise awareness and address concerns about the incidence of reported spiking in Scotland.

Several roundtable meetings have taken place to help steer the joint Scottish Government and public sector response to the act of spiking. These meetings have been designed to discuss the range of initiatives and information available on spiking. Significant work was undertaken to raise awareness and heighten vigilance in the run up to the return to college and university campuses. Information has also been made available on the safer.scot website, to inform and support the public around the subject of spiking. This has been promoted through the roundtable membership and by the representative organisations and sectors.

Furthermore, Police Scotland has prioritised its response to incidents of spiking. A comprehensive Investigative Strategy has been developed and circulated to provide guidance and direction to staff responding to and investigating incidents of spiking. A Detective Superintendent has national investigative oversight and Senior Investigating Officers have been appointed within each policing division to lead on all spiking related investigations locally.

Scottish Government is involved in the Accelerated National Implementation Adoption pathway. Set up to greater facilitate a company’s idea through to implementation.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. This is a matter for NHS Education for Scotland (NES).

Digital Health and Care provides funding to DHI which in turn supports enterprises of assorted sizes to develop ideas and solutions that can be applied in health and care settings. We support DHI with their industry leadership group which meets with medium sized organisations for input and feedback.

The act of spiking is utterly abhorrent and we remain absolutely committed to working with partners to tackle all forms of violence against women.

The Scottish Government has taken a proactive approach to understand the prevalence and address concerns about the incidence of reported spiking in Scotland.

Since November 2021, several roundtable meetings have taken place to bring together partners from across the justice system including policing, victims organisations and prosecution in addition to representatives from colleges and universities, community safety and night-time economy sector. These meetings have been designed to discuss the range of initiatives and information available on spiking. Information is available on the safer.scot website, to inform and support the public around the subject of spiking. This is being updated on a quarterly basis.

Analysis of spiking incidents by Police Scotland is undertaken on a weekly basis to ensure national oversight is maintained and understanding evolves. The Scottish Government is kept informed about any changes in the prevalence of spiking. The number of reported incidents related to spiking are published annually within the National Statistics bulletin on crimes and offences recorded by the police in Scotland.

Spiking can be prosecuted under the common law offence of drugging, which is a broad offence covering all types of drink spiking. Another common law offence which may be relevant depending on the individual facts and circumstances of each case is assault. There is also a more specific statutory offence contained in section 11 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 called administering a substance for sexual purposes. This provides it is an offence for a person to intentionally administer a substance, or cause a substance to be taken by another person, without the other person knowing, and without any reasonable belief that the other person knows, for a sexual purpose. A sexual purpose is for the purpose of stupefying or overpowering someone, so as to enable any person to engage in a sexual activity which involves the person who administered the substance.

We have no plans at this time to create a specific criminal offence of spiking however we keep all laws under review.

The impact of digital technology on the health and care workforce has been considered in several reports, such as the Topol Review commissioned by NHS England The Topol Review — NHS Health Education England (hee.nhs.uk) .

In general terms, digital technology can support the workforce in the delivery of care, free up capacity reducing the administrative burden and open up opportunities for new models of care and new ways of working. The workforce already works in the digital age, and digital technology will continue to augment and enhance the person-centred nature of health and social care services.

The number of people who have purchased a property via the Open Market Shared Equity (OMSE) scheme each year since its launch is set out in the following below:

I have asked Jim Kerr, Interim Deputy Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

From a learning and education perspective, all individuals admitted to custody are invited to participate in a screening process conducted by SPS education provider (Fife College), who deliver contracted learning services across all SPS sites. If during this process the assessor identifies any behaviours, presentation or capacities that are indicative of a neurodivergent condition, a further referral can be made to utilise a profiling tool called Do-IT with the consent of the individual concerned. In these circumstances specifically trained Fife colleagues apply the profiling tool. The referral process is open to all staff, not just SPS uniformed staff, if they believe an offender in SPS care needs additional support.

In addition SPS may also fulfil its role in the identification and treatment of offenders in its care by referral of individuals who present with potential learning difficulties to the NHS. NHS are then responsible for assessment, diagnosis and the development, in partnership (with SPS), of a support plan. Formal clinical assessment and diagnosis falls within the remit of NHS colleagues who would refer to specialist services where indicated. A shared support plan would be developed and implemented as required. Where an offender is admitted into custody with an existing diagnosis, NHS colleagues would support transition from those community services with which individuals have been engaged.

We have recently agreed the arrangement for a new post-graduate course in Scotland. The 'Leading Digital Transformation in Health and Care' (MSc) will provide up to 60 funded places aimed at senior and aspiring leaders across the health and social care sector. Year one commences in April 2023.

Whilst recruitment is the responsibility of the employing health and social care organisation, the Scottish Government, COSLA and the Local Government Digital Office are currently considering how to best apply the DDaT Professional Framework to the health and social care sector.