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I appreciate how difficult postponement of treatment has been for people with chronic pain. We want to ensure people with chronic pain can access appropriate support, however we are aware of the challenges facing specialist pain services as they continue to remobilise during the pandemic.

We remain committed to ensuring that Health Boards resume a full range of specialist pain services as quickly as it is safe to do so and in September 2020 we published the COVID-19 Recovery Framework for NHS Pain Management Services to support Boards in this process. As set out in the Framework, we recognise that pain has a significant impact on people’s quality of life, and Health Boards are expected to triage cases locally based on clinical need and in line with advice from expert clinical organisations, including the Faculty of Pain Medicine and the British Pain Society. Furthermore, the Framework for Clinical Prioritisation published in November 2020 outlines that people awaiting treatment who are experiencing worsening or existing pain should be considered for prioritisation in line with the principles of active waiting list management.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00871 on 5 July 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 numbers of babies reported in the Scottish Birth Record (SBR) as having a diagnosis of ‘foetus and newborn affected by maternal use of drugs of addiction’ or ‘neonatal withdrawal symptoms from maternal use of drug addiction’ in Scotland during the period 2006-07 to 2016-17 are provided in the following table. The figures presented cover three year aggregates to avoid disclosing small numbers in each individual year. Further suppression of small numbers has been applied as per ISD’s Statistical Disclosure Control policy in order to protect patient confidentiality.

Number of babies affected by maternal use of drugs, financial three year aggregates, 2006-07-2008-09 to 2014-15-2016-17 1,2,3

Following the pause of the breast screening programme in March 2020, there was a staged restart. This was based on expert clinical advice and the recommendations of the Scottish Screening Committee, and was agreed with Health Board Chief Executives as part of the planned remobilisation of the NHS. The breast screening programme resumed on 3 August 2020, initially prioritising those whose appointments were cancelled or delayed due to the pause. The programme is now at the stage of offering routine appointments for eligible women aged between 50 and 70.

The recovery of the breast screening programme, including reviewing the pause to self-referrals for the over 70s is monitored by the Breast Screening Programme Board, the National Screening Oversight Board and the Scottish Screening Committee. It should be noted that the risks and benefits of breast screening for people over the age of 70 have not been clearly established. Covid-19 and the measures to control its spread, such as physical distancing and the use of PPE, also continue to pose challenges to capacity in the screening programme. The decision to maintain the pause on self-referrals for the over 70s, though difficult, was therefore taken to allow the service to prioritise those who require to be offered appointments and for whom screening has clear benefits.

Humza Yousaf: The Scottish Government is investigating potential options to ensure that consumers and the wider public can have confidence in the reliability of private PCR tests.

We have issued guidance for employers on setting up private testing programmes which includes information on seeking assurances around test quality: Coronavirus (COVID-19) - employee testing programmes: guidance for employers - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

UK Government legislation regulating the Coronavirus test devices can be found here: The Medical Devices (Coronavirus Test Device Approvals) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (legislation.gov.uk) .

Applications for the Legal Aid Traineeship Fund are sought from all legal firms/organisations across Scotland, including those in the Northern Isles. The Scottish Government and the Law Society agreed that all posts must be externally advertised including on the lawscots.jobs website. The criteria for the Fund explicitly states that all reasonable steps must be taken by legal firms/organisations to use an open, fair, and diverse recruitment process.

The Law Society are responsible for the administration of the Fund and further information on the eligibly criteria can be found here: https://www.lawscot.org.uk/qualifying-and-education/qualifying-as-a-scottish-solicitor/the-traineeship/funded-legal-aid-traineeship-scheme/ .

This information is not held centrally. However, you may wish to contact Scottish Local Authorities individually for information they may hold. The Scottish local government page of the Confederation of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) has contact information for these: https://www.cosla.gov.uk/councils.

Since 2015, the Save a Life for Scotland Partnership has equipped more than 640,000 people in Scotland with CPR skills. Over the same time period the rate of people surviving an out of hospital cardiac arrest has increased from one in 20 to one in 10.

In March this year, the partnership published an updated Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest strategy, which sets out a number of actions across the chain of survival, including actions to improve bystander CPR and defibrillation rates. There is a clear commitment to working closely with Local Authorities to ensure that all school aged children have the opportunity to learn CPR. The strategy can be found at:

Out of hospital cardiac arrest: strategy 2021 to 2026 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The Scottish Government has not received representation within the last 12 months from either Cancer Research UK, or any other cancer charities regarding breast screening for the over 70s. However, there is representation from cancer charities on decision-making committees, including Cancer Research UK on the Scottish Screening Committee and Breast Cancer Now on the Breast Screening Programme Board. This ensures they are regularly updated on the status of the breast screening programme, including the pause of self-referrals for people over 70.

Data reporting the overage self-referrals is not published with the Breast screening statistics by Public Health Scotland. However, data collated for the Breast screening review for the 3 year period from 2016-17 – 2018-19 reports a total of 32,492 self-referrals from women age 70+ over the period and equates to 5.7% of total screening activity.

The chief officers of health and social care partnerships were provided with a link to guidance on the Scottish Government website regarding the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020 and Coronavirus (Scotland) (No.2) Act 2020. This was provided on 7 April, the day all of the provisions in the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020 came into force, apart from those relating to the easements to s.13ZA of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968. Chief officers were advised of the relevant pages that contained guidance on adults with incapacity changes. That guidance made clear that the easements to s.13ZA would only come into force when and if Ministers approved its use by invoking regulations. This would be strictly only when evidenced as being absolutely necessary. These regulations did not come into force.