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The identification, assessment and management of people with long-term effects of COVID-19 in Scotland is guided by the UK-wide clinical guideline developed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) and the Royal College of GPs.

This guideline is clear that there is no requirement to prove previous COVID infection via a positive test in order to access an assessment or be considered for referral for further investigations or specialist input.

The Scottish Government is actively supporting the implementation of the clinical guideline in Scotland, including through our long COVID ‘Implementation Support Note’ and our collaboration with SIGN on its online ‘Decision Support Tool’ on managing the long term effects of COVID-19.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07562 on 19 April 2022. 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 .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07563 on 22 April 2022. 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 .

The Scottish Government is not a reporting agency for cyber attacks in Scotland. When notified of a cyber incident under the Scottish Public Sector Notifiable Cyber Incident Procedure and Policy, the Scottish Government together with other relevant partners supports organisations with immediate cyber incident management and response, rather than their long-term recovery.

Public sector bodies generally manage their recovery processes themselves, dependant on their own circumstances. The Scottish Government does not collate information on the costs to the Scottish public bodies incurred as a result of cyber attacks.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07564 on 22 April 2022. 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 .

The Scottish Government has made a commitment to reduce the disability employment gap – the difference between the employment rates of disabled people and non-disabled people - by at least half, by 2038. We set out this ambition as part of our wider disability employment strategy, “ A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People: Employment Action Plan ”. To halve the disability employment gap by 2038 will require around a 1 percentage point reduction in the gap every year.

Table 1 shows the disability employment gap for January 2016 – December 2016 to January 2021 – December 2021, sourced from the Annual Population Survey.

In 2016, our baseline year, the disability employment gap was estimated to be 37.4 percentage points. It is estimated to have reduced by 6.3 percentage points over the five years between 2016 and 2021, to 31.0 percentage points in 2021 – which is, on average, more than a 1 percentage point reduction each year. Based on performance and the labour market context to date, this suggests that we are on track to achieve our ambition to halve the gap by 2038. The reduction in the disability employment gap over this period was due to a larger rise in the employment rate of disabled people relative to the increase in the employment rate of non-disabled people.

Table 1: Disability Employment Gap, 2016 – 2021, Scotland

We introduced temporary Special Leave measures at the beginning of the pandemic to support our NHS colleagues and help the service manage infection levels.

Since March 2020, NHS Staff who have been absent due to COVID have been paid in full as if they had been at work.

Prior to any changes made in the future as we move towards living with Covid, we will engage with both NHS Scotland Employers and Staff Side representatives to ensure an effective and smooth transition back to standard Sickness Absence terms and conditions .

The number of CT scans split by NHS board for financial years 1999-00 to 2019-20 is available in SPICe – Bib number 63296. Data for financial year 2020-21 is unavailable due to a limited data collection for the Cost Book publication for 2020-21. For CT scan figures for 2020-21 please contact the individual NHS boards directly.

Notes

1. The number of CT scans is only collected by Public Health Scotland for the 'Costs Book' publication as part of the SFR 5.11 Radiology Services data collection process. This data is submitted to PHS by NHS boards from their local systems for radiology. This information is not quality assured by PHS data management teams and there is no other national collection of CT scan examinations by PHS.

2. The data collection for radiology services changed in financial year 2008-09 from collecting attendances to examinations. This may have a small impact on comparing activity up to 2007-08 with activity from 2008-09 onwards. This should be considered when making year on year comparisons.

3. CT scan examinations for NHS Western Isles for the years 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2019-20 have been provided directly by NHS Western Isles due to an issue with the cost book SFR 5.11 submission for NHS Western Isles in those years. The figures for the NHS board and NHSScotland for those years will differ to the published information where all radiology service examinations in NHS Western Isles were submitted under 'other'.

4. For more information on the Costs Book publication please see the following web pages:

? 2019/20 Costs Book page

? 2009/10 to 2018/19 Costs Book archive

? 1999/00 to 2008/09 Costs Book archive

In delivering the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care, we worked in consultation with a wide range of stakeholders across Health and Social Care including the CoSLA as co-producers to agree the scope and content.

This included on-going engagement with representatives of the allied health professions via relevant senior professional advisers seconded to the Scottish Government, and through our staff and trades union partnership working.

On 8 February 2022 a draft of the Strategy was presented to the Professional Advisory Group, Chaired by the Deputy Chief Medical Officer with members representing Optometry and Audiology. Feedback from professionals at that meeting was subsequently incorporated into the draft Strategy, in anticipation of its subsequent publication.

Further stakeholder engagement will take place as we plan to publish yearly updates to the National Workforce Strategy. These will take into account progress and new developments, in support of its long-term ambition to deliver recovery, growth and service transformation.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

Public Health Scotland is not currently able to report accurately on waiting times to this level of detail. More detailed information on the procedure(s) that are planned or undertaken for a patient will be held locally by NHS Boards. We would therefore advise contacting NHS Boards to obtain this data.

PHS continues to work in collaboration with the Scottish Government, NHS Boards and key stakeholders to improve waiting times information. Statistics relating to the waits patients experience for Inpatient or Day Case treatment at specialty level are published up to 31 December 2021 in the following link.

https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/11657/ipdc_feb22.xlsx