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Figures published by Public Health Scotland about average numbers of close contacts are based on completed Test and Protect interviews and completed online tracing form data, where index cases identify their close contacts.

As of 19 September Test and Protect has been successful in reaching over 1 million unique contacts.

We have introduced a range of measures, including increased use of digital and SMS communications and shortened call scripts for index case interviews, to ensure the contact tracing system continues to trace the contacts of people with Coronavirus and ensure they are given the right public health advice as quickly as possible, even when case numbers rise substantially. All decisions in relation to operational delivery of the contact tracing system have made in line with public health advice, including the continued prioritisation of higher risk cases. A combination of these changes is likely to have affected the average number of close contacts reported per case.

Test and Protect relies on members of the public to report all of their close contacts, to enable public health advice to be issued to those that may have been exposed to the virus. The Scottish Government strongly encourages everyone to engage with Test and Protect when contacted and fully disclose all contacts whether contacted by phone or digitally.

Over nine consecutive years, qualified nursing numbers have grown and we have also steadily increased places on undergraduate nursing courses. Ahead of each academic year, the Scottish Government undertakes a robust student intake planning process which seeks to estimate the levels of student intake necessary to service Scotland’s nursing workforce requirements in future years. At the conclusion of each year’s process, recommended target intake figures are agreed across four fields of nursing: adult, mental health, learning disability, and children’s nursing. This allows us to ensure there are sufficient nurses entering the healthcare system who specialise in each field of nursing each year.

The Scottish Government is also committed to the growth of advanced nursing practice, which is why in 2017 we committed £3m investment over 5 years to train an additional 500 advanced nurse practitioners. In April 2021, the Scottish Government published a paper setting out key areas for further expansion of advanced nursing practice. The paper can be found at the link below:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/transforming-nursing-roles-advanced-nursing-practice-phase-ii/

We are currently working in consultation with partners and stakeholders to agree the scope and content of the National Workforce Strategy. The Strategy will be designed around objectives which support remobilisation, recovery and renewal of Health and Social Care Services. It will articulate a holistic, long-term health and social care workforce vision, alongside our strategic priorities for workforce growth, recruitment, retention, training and development.

The National Cancer Recovery Group (NCRG) are currently carrying out an exercise to identify workforce requirements, looking specifically at roles related to cancer. We will pay close attention to this work, in the development of the National Workforce Strategy.

The Scottish Government and National Services Scotland are working to ensure that COVID-19 records, in terms of vaccinations show complete accuracy.

This will be assisted by the digital application to record the COVID-19 vaccine, which will be available from 1 October.

Any suspected errors in a person’s COVID-19 vaccination record should be reported to the vaccinations status helpline on 0808 196 8565. The helpline can only resolve issues in relation to vaccinations administered in Scotland.

Evidence from overseas suggests there may be an uptake in vaccination after an announcement to introduce certification.

In Scotland, in the two weeks since the announcement on 1 September, there has been a 10% increase in uptake for 18-29s first doses in comparison to the two week’s prior to the announcement (18 – 31 August).

In addition to the individual level of protection against severe disease or hospitalisation afforded by vaccination, a further benefit of the vaccination programme is to assist in developing widespread community immunity, reducing the force of transmission and viral reproduction rate, in order to help control the prevalence of COVID-19.

Studies have demonstrated that being vaccinated against COVID-19 significantly reduces your risk of being infected. Research by Public Health England (PHE), which monitors vaccine effectiveness within the UK, shows that those who become infected 3 weeks after receiving one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech (Cominarty) or AstraZeneca (Vaxzevria) vaccine were between 38% and 49% less likely to pass COVID-19 on to their household contacts than those who were unvaccinated.

Further research into the COVID-19 vaccines’ impacts on transmission is underway. Weekly COVID-19 vaccine surveillance reports monitoring vaccine effectiveness, including evidence on effectiveness against transmission, are published here: COVID-19 vaccine surveillance reports - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) .

The Scottish Government contract with the whistleblowing charity Protect, who provided the Whistleblowing Alert and Advice Line, ended on 31 October 2020. The final report is available to view on: https://www.gov.scot/collections/nhs-confidential-advice-and-information-line/

The Whistleblowing Standards and Independent National Whistleblowing Officer (INWO) for NHS Scotland launched on 1 April 2021. The INWO offers a mechanism for external review of how a Health Board, primary care or independent provider handles a whistleblowing case. Included in this service is a confidential advice and information line which has been in operation since 1 November 2020. This provides support and advice to staff and managers on the application of the Whistleblowing Standards and mechanisms in place to support whistleblowing and whistleblowers. As the INWO operates independently, the Scottish Government do not hold information on the number of cases reported through this service.

The NHS Recovery Plan sets out how we will take forward our aim of increasing NHS capacity by at least 10% in order to address the backlog of care and meet the ongoing healthcare needs of the country. The plan, backed by more than £1 billion of investment, focuses on providing alternative pathways of care that allow people to be treated more quickly and closer to home.

As part of this the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) is working with all Health Boards to support better use of the Active Clinical Referral Triage and Discharge Patient Initiated Review to ensure patients who need to be seen get access to the care they require in a timely manner. There is work ongoing with a number of Health Boards to implement the Digital Dermatology app, which allows patients to interact with a clinician at a time convenient to the patient and without needing to attend a hospital site.

There is also considerable work underway to educate the nursing workforce with regards to skin conditions, in order to maximise the capability of this group of staff to support patients. This will, in turn, help to maximise capacity for dermatology services.

Finally, the Dermatology Pathways app provides clinically validated pathway information to GPs and other health professionals for many of the most common skin conditions, with the aim of supporting access for patients who most need treatment in the most appropriate care setting. As part of this CfSD, is working with the British Association of Dermatologists to increase the number of pathways covered by this approach.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) do not hold sub specialty data for Dermatology, this information would be held by Health Boards.

The Scottish Government Code of Practice for the Welfare of Cats recommends that all cat owners should consider neutering and microchipping their pets as the best way of being reunited with them should they be separated.

The findings of the Cats Protection’s survey suggest that the owners of around 71% of cats have accepted that recommendation and voluntarily microchipped their pets.

The Scottish Government does not currently consider that microchipping should be made compulsory for cats but is aware of the Defra call for evidence and recent public consultation on the microchipping of cats. We will give full consideration to the results of this consultation when they are available.

Regarding payments made under the NHS Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme (CNORIS), I refer the member to the answers to questions S5W-01770 on 24 August 2016 and S5W-32423 on 30 October 2020 . All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Regarding compensation payments made outwith the CNORIS scheme, the information requested is not collected or held centrally by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained from Health Boards.

The numbers of vacancies for GP posts are not held centrally, as this is a matter for individual independent GP contractors as employers.

We have a record number of GPs working in Scotland with more per 100,000 population than the rest of UK . We are committed to increasing the number of GPs by a further 800, supported by our wider commitment to increase Primary Care funding by 25% over the course of this parliament.

The trainee recruitment this year has so far been the most successful year of any of the last five, with 97% of GP training posts having been filled so far, with one recruitment round remaining.

We have also announced a commitment in the latest NHS Recovery Plan for £11m over 2021-2026, for new national and international recruitment campaigns and establishing a national Centre for Workforce Supply. The Centre will support our commitments to increase GP numbers and ensure workforce sustainability.