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Information on the value of Chinese inward investments into Scotland can be found in the publicly available report Businesses in Scotland, which shows that there are currently 20 Chinese owned businesses in Scotland, with an estimated employment of 3,910 and a turnover of £1.33 billion. The Scottish Government does not hold data on the overall value of investment in Scotland specific to Chinese state-owned firms as this data is commercial in nature.

Scottish Government works with its enterprise agencies to ensure robust due diligence and proper consideration of human rights is undertaken on inward investments from China as well as from any other country. Additional safeguards are provided by the National Security and Investment Act 2021, which protects against acquisitions within sensitive areas of the economy that could cause harm to the UK’s national security.

The ongoing costs of the COVID Status App are publicly available via Public Contracts Scotland . The costs of developing and maintaining the App are broken down between Netcompany and Jumio who provide the core App and Identity Verification systems respectively.

The most recent update from Public Contracts Scotland as of 4 March 2022 places the total value of development of the core App from Netcompany at £2,400,000.00 and the Identity Verification systems from Jumio at £4,373,360.00.

The ongoing and future costs of the COVID Status App will be published as and when these figures are available.

The Scottish Government has been discussing the need for better data on metastatic breast cancer over several months including seeking advice from Public Health Scotland and breast cancer specialists. Additionally, officials have met with the Third Sector to discuss evidence of need. Dialogue continues as we seek to improve data collection methods.

In March 2018, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) issued new measures to limit exposure to sodium valproate in utero, including the adoption of a Pregnancy Prevention Programme.

Following this, new and strengthened information materials for healthcare professionals and patients have been issued, including an updated Summary of Product Characteristics and Patient Information Leaflet, new education materials for professionals, as well as updated packaging stamped with a new pictogram. Furthermore, updated guidance on the use of sodium valproate has been issued by both the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN).

Prescribers in Scotland are expected to follow current drug safety information and the new measures in relation to sodium valproate to ensure women being prescribed this medicine are fully apprised of the risks and are able to make informed decisions.

The impact of addressing the COVID-19 pandemic has meant that many health and social care services, including some cardiology services, had to be suspended or reduced in scope and scale. In some instances, novel modes of delivery were adopted to maintain important services (for example, some local services implemented drive up clinics for pacemaker checks).

Evidence based caution has been, and continues to be, at the forefront of our decision making around the provision of services throughout the pandemic. To support this, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport published a national Clinical Prioritisation Framework for Supporting Elective Care across NHS Scotland on 16 November 2020, updated on 8 December 2021. The expectation is that NHS Boards will follow the principles of this Framework to ensure that the patients with the greatest need are treated quickest.

Furthermore, addressing the backlog of care while continuing to meet the ongoing urgent health and care needs of the country is a priority. We published an NHS Recovery Plan in August 2021 which sets out our plans for health and social care over the next 5 years and is backed by over £1 billion of funding,

Regular pacemaker checks typically take place in outpatient clinics and so it is relevant to note that the Recovery plan includes a focus on increasing outpatient activity through supporting sustainable improvements and new models of care.

We are also taking specific action to minimise preventable heart disease and ensure that everyone with suspected heart disease in Scotland has timely and equitable access to diagnosis, treatment and care, through the implementation of our Heart Disease Action Plan (2021).

In order to raise awareness of the early signs and symptoms of cancer, including ovarian cancer, a symptom-checker tool is included on our public facing website, getcheckedearly.org. An ovarian cancer survivor’s story and a link to the ovarian cancer page on Detect Cancer Early’s (DCE) website will be shared on our wee c social media pages, as part of Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.

The NHS Recovery Plan – published August 2021 – commits an additional £20m for the DCE Programme, to provide greater public awareness of possible signs and symptoms of cancer and supporting the development of optimal cancer pathways to improve earlier diagnosis rates. Research is currently being undertaken to better understand the possible barriers and levers to early diagnosis that any new DCE campaigns should focus on.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. We would advise contacting health boards to obtain this data.

From November 2020 to October 2021 a total of 551 delegate places of clinical skills training for pharmacists were delivered. 126 delegate places of clinical skills training for pharmacists were delivered from November 2021 to end of December 2021 and a further 316 delegate places of clinical skills training for pharmacists were delivered between January and March 2022.

These clinical skills training days are delivered by NHS National Education for Scotland (NES) as part of the Pharmacist Clinical Skills training contract. NES organise and run courses to support pharmacist prescribers and those in training to develop appropriate clinical skills, at both core and advanced levels.

In 2021-2022 NES have also to date commissioned a total of 244 Independent Prescriber training places (116 for Community/78 for Primary Care/50 for Hospital).

Questions S6W-07586 and S6W-07587 have been combined for response.

The Programme for Government (2021) outlined the Scottish Government’s proposal to bring forward a Wellbeing and Sustainable Development Bill during this Parliamentary session. This will consider the best way to ensure the interests of future generations are taken into account in decisions made today. The proposed Bill will therefore put duties on public bodies and local government to take account of the impact of their decisions on sustainable development, in Scotland and internationally. We intend to set out more detailed proposals later this year.

Questions S6W-07586 and S6W-07587 have been combined for response.

The Programme for Government (2021) outlined the Scottish Government’s proposal to bring forward a Wellbeing and Sustainable Development Bill during this Parliamentary session. This will consider the best way to ensure the interests of future generations are taken into account in decisions made today. The proposed Bill will therefore put duties on public bodies and local government to take account of the impact of their decisions on sustainable development, in Scotland and internationally. We intend to set out more detailed proposals later this year.