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The Scottish Government advises anyone who has experienced domestic abuse to report crimes committed against them. Domestic abuse is a heinous crime and we remain absolutely committed to working with justice partners to ensure that they have the most effective tools at their disposal to ensure that perpetrators receive a robust response and are held to account for their actions.

The Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 (the ‘Act’) came into effect in April 2019 and provides the police with additional powers to take action against those who abuse their partner or ex-partner. As highlighted in the publication, in 2020-21, 1,581 charges were reported under the Act, with 95 percent resulting in court proceedings being raised.

Lastly, as part of the Programme for Government, we will invest £100 million over the next three years to support frontline services so that women and children can safely access the support they need and to focus on prevention of violence against women and girls from school onwards.

Ambulance services around the UK, as well as the wider NHS, are experiencing unprecedented demand – largely because of COVID but also due to a combination of increasingly complex cases, staffing challenges and exceptionally busy emergency departments.

That is why we have already taken significant action both prior to and since the pandemic to put in place measures to ensure all Health Boards including NHS Lothian and our Ambulance service have a full range of support.

In July, NHS Lothian received their share of the additional £12 million provided to Health Boards to support non-COVID emergency care. This funding will be utilised to boost staffing and capacity levels to reduce waiting times for urgent and emergency treatment.

To address the unacceptable ambulance waits, we announced an additional package of support for the Scottish Ambulance Service, backed by an additional £20 million, which will help increase capacity and improve response times and staff wellbeing - this includes assistance from over 100 military personnel.

We continue to be in daily contact with NHS Lothian to support improvement work within the Board and the Health & Social Care Partnerships to minimise delays for patients no matter where they are in the system.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03321 on
‎ 18 October 2021. 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 encourages essential workers, along with the wider adult population and secondary school-aged pupils, to participate in regular asymptomatic testing irrespective of their vaccination status.

The Scottish Government’s asymptomatic workplace testing programmes provide free test kits to a wide range of public, private and third-sector businesses and organisations. Different testing regimens are employed as appropriate to the setting. Most workplaces offering regular asymptomatic testing use twice-weekly testing with lateral flow devices. Weekly polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing is offered to specific cohorts of staff, including Scottish Prison Service staff and health and social care staff working with clinically vulnerable patients.

The Case Record Review is underway. Introductory interviews with the participants are close to completion. More than half of the participants have received an ‘information gathering’ form from the Administrator. Following return of this form, Clinco, a commissioned contractor involved in the retrieval of patient records, will request the appropriate case records from Health Boards. This process is already underway for a number of participants.

As is standard practice, data sharing agreements are required for the release of medical records. Agreements are in place already for a number of Health Boards and it is expected that agreements will be in place in relation to all relevant Boards shortly.

Health Board Accountable Officers have been kept abreast of developments with the Case Record Review through the Short Life Working Group on mesh complications.

We have worked closely with a range of delivery and partner organisations to prepare, plan and respond to a range of issues and risks which may impact on NHS services. Planners and officials are using a range of modelling and intelligence to minimise potential impact of COP26 and to help protect NHS services across our communities.

Our planning has also used the experience and learning from previous large-scale events in Scotland, the UK and internationally including previous UN COP summits .

The Scottish Government publishes a weekly Research Findings which models the COVID-19 epidemic in Scotland. The Research Findings includes a section which estimates infections, as well as hospital and ICU bed demand from COVID-19. This gives an assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on the NHS in the next few weeks. This will provide information in the run up to COP26 and after the event has taken place.

The publications can be found on the Scottish Government website at the following link:

https://www.gov.scot/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-modelling-the-epidemic/

Our Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme is aimed at increasing early diagnosis rates of Scotland’s most common cancers while reducing health inequalities. DCE launched a new overarching campaign – Survivors - in September 2018 to reduce fear of cancer and empower people to act early if they notice any possible signs of cancer.

An interactive symptom-checker tool has been developed on DCE’s website (getcheckedearly.org) to help raise awareness of key symptoms, including those associated with leukaemia (fatigue, weight loss, recurrent infections). The NHS Recovery Plan, published 25 August 2021, commits a further £20 million investment to the DCE Programme, which will include additional public awareness campaigns.

A clinical refresh of the Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer ( Scottish referral guidelines for suspected cancer - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) )has been completed, with revised guidelines published in January 2019. The Guidelines support primary care clinicians in ensuring those with symptoms suspicious of cancer are put on the right pathway at the right time. The Scottish Government continues to support Cancer Research UK’s Clinical Engagement Team to raise awareness of symptoms and best referral practice for all cancer types across NHS Scotland.

Scotland’s first three Early Cancer Diagnostic Centres (ECDC) are live, providing primary care with a new referral pathway for patients with non-specific symptoms i.e. fatigue, nausea, weight loss – this can often include patients with Haematological cancers.

The requested level of data on individuals who Do Not Attend (DNA) vaccination appointments is not currently held. While we can show the number of people who did not attend a scheduled appointment, or who have cancelled or rescheduled, we don’t know all the reasons why they may have done so.

The Public Health Scotland COVID-19 Statistical Report published on 16 June 2021 contains information on DNAs from 1 Feb to 6 June 20201.

We introduced the scheme on 1 October 2021, at which point all people aged 18 or over had had the opportunity to be fully vaccinated. In addition we gave a month’s notice of the intention to bring the scheme into place. We recognise there may be a small number of people who caught Covid during this period and whose second vaccination has therefore had to be delayed. Those people will be able to obtain a vaccine certificate once they have been fully vaccinated.

We recognise the extreme pressure facing the Scottish Ambulance Service due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and our thanks go out to the paramedics, technicians and wider ambulance staff for the continued work they are doing in exceptionally challenging circumstances.

Last month, the Scottish Government announced an additional package of support for the Scottish Ambulance Service, backed by an additional £20 million, which will help increase capacity and improve response times and staff wellbeing.

On 7 September 2021, the Scottish Government published the 2021/22 Programme for Government which confirmed that the Scottish Government will start work on a detailed prospectus for an independent Scotland. The Scottish Government is now determining how this work will proceed and the resourcing it requires, as we do for delivering all commitments in the Programme for Government. It is the role of the civil service to support delivery across the full range of Government commitments.