Seòmar agus comataidhean

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.

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/

Our shared priorities with the BMA were set out in the joint letter of 02 December 2021.

https://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/publications/DC20201203GMS_Contract.pdf

This letter sets out the actions we are taking across all the work streams supporting the 2018 GP Contact offer. This includes musculo-skeletal, urgent care practitioners and primary care mental health nurses.

We are taking additional steps on mental health as set out in our PFG. By 2026, every GP Practice will have access to a mental health and wellbeing service. This will fund 1,000 additional dedicated staff who can help grow community mental health resilience and direct social prescribing.

We have further increased our Primary Care Fund from £195m to £250m in 21-22 in direct support of general practice. As part of this investment support for the Primary Care multi-disciplinary team has increased for £110 to £155 million.

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.

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) .

As at 1 July 2021 there were 922 general practices in Scotland.

Further to the work of the Public Audit and Post-Legislative Scrutiny Committee in the previous session of Parliament, the Scottish Government has begun the process of reviewing the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 (“the 1991 Act”). Earlier this year we published a consultation on dog control measures, with a specific focus on the criminal offence of a dog being allowed to be dangerously out of control contained in the 1991 Act. The views offered in response to the consultation have been analysed and will help to inform and formulate policy as to what specific legislative changes and non-legislative action should be progressed by the Scottish Government through further consultation. This work will include consideration of how banned breeds legislation operates.

The Scottish Government unequivocally condemns any form of hatred or prejudice, including towards our Muslim communities. Scotland is a diverse, multi-cultural society and this diversity strengthens us as a nation. That is why we are determined to tackle all forms of prejudice and discrimination.

In June 2017, we published our Tackling Prejudice and Building Connected Communities Action Plan in response to recommendations made by the Independent Advisory Group on Hate Crime, Prejudice and Community Cohesion. We established a ministerial-led group to take this ambitious action plan forward. A report on implementation of these actions will be published and we will begin development of a new hate crime strategy in conjunction with key partners and stakeholders later this year. The new strategy will support implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021.

It is in all of our interests to eliminate prejudice in Scotland, regardless of race or religion, and we would like to reiterate our commitment to working collaboratively with you and the Cross Party Group on Islamophobia to do so, including offering engagement on the range of issues highlighted within the report of the public enquiry into Islamophobia in Scotland.

The £463 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme delivered over 951,500 fibre connections across Scotland with over 841,600 of those capable of delivering superfast speeds of 30 Megabits per second (Mbps), the vast majority of which were in rural areas. The Reaching 100% (R100) programme will build upon this by delivering universal access to superfast broadband, regardless of remoteness or rurality. However, the contracts we have signed with BT for all three lots (North, Central and South) – alongside greater than anticipated commercial build – will also go significantly beyond our superfast commitment by delivering a substantial amount of full-fibre connections, meaning many premises will be capable of accessing download speeds of up to 1 Gigabit (1,000 Megabits) per second.

The Sectoral Marine Plan – Offshore Wind for Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (“INTOG”) is at an early stage and the Scottish Government is currently consulting on the Areas of Search, areas where projects under this planning process may be located, and on the details of the Plan Specification. This includes the 100 MW cap for Innovation and Test and Demonstration projects. The consultation will close on 20 October and all views will be considered before the next stage of the planning process commences.

It is important to clarify that the INTOG plan allows for any scale of project to proceed, provided it meets the purpose of the plan – to decarbonise oil and gas infrastructure, through electrification of platforms. The 100 MW threshold applies only to smaller projects seeking to test and demonstrate new technology or innovative solutions in the real environment. The planning process allows for both categories of projects to proceed in a sustainable manner with minimal impact to the environment or other sea users.