Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government has not had any discussions with the UK Government regarding town boards in Scotland. The Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy have written a joint letter to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, asking for a discussion on how UK Government plan to provide appropriate governance for the Long Term Plan for Towns in Scotland.

Transport Scotland officials have discussed a number of different propositions for new ferry services to Europe with prospective promoters and port operators. These discussions are conducted with due cognisance of promoters’ commercial considerations. We will continue to work closely with our ports and potential operators in exploring propositions for establishing new services.

The Scottish Government recognises the disruption and harm to businesses from theft and antisocial behaviour, and Police Scotland and partners are taking action to tackle and reduce it.

As the First Minister made clear in the chamber on 5 October 2023, while the latest recorded crime data for shoplifting shows an increase, the level remains below pre-pandemic levels.

The Scottish Government fully supports the innovative Scottish Partnership Against Acquisitive Crime, which is led by Police Scotland and includes a number of other organisations including retailers.

The Partnership is taking a collaborative approach to preventing and deterring crimes such as shoplifting through the sharing of best practice and intelligence, alongside enforcement activity.

Anyone affected by this kind of incident should report it to Police Scotland who remain focused on keeping our communities safe from harm.

Work to develop the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill is drawing on a range of officials across the organisation who will contribute to varying extents as part of their wider responsibilities in supporting the Scottish Government. The exact number of officials contributing as part of their wider responsibilities cannot be set out as the Scottish Government has no need to record this information.

I am delighted that the Bill has now been introduced to Parliament. This marks the culmination of a wealth of work undertaken in the past 18 months by Ms Mackay and her team, supported by the Scottish Government. Whilst introduction is a significant milestone for the Bill, I am mindful that it is one step in the Parliamentary journey and there will be considerable work ahead. The Scottish Government will continue to offer Ms Mackay every support as that work progresses.

Letters were issued to individuals at higher risk from COVID-19 in December 2021 and April 2022, notifying them of their potential eligibility for COVID-19 treatments. Registered care home providers also received letters advising them on access arrangements in January 2022 and July 2022. In addition, general information on the arrangements for direct access to COVID-19 treatments in Scotland can be found on NHS Inform .

The Scottish Government also encourages individuals to speak to their GP or specialist clinician about managing their COVID-19 risk, as they are best placed to provide advice on an individuals’ condition and potential eligibility for treatments. The final decision on whether to prescribe a COVID-19 treatment, and which treatment to prescribe, is entirely for a clinician to make.

In line with normal processes, transfers of budget, including those to the Scottish Police Authority, will be communicated to Parliament through the Autumn and Spring Budget Revisions.

Work is already underway to create a new payment structure, and as with the current one, which has seen 2023 Basic payments begin at the earliest point ever in September year in a row, our intention is for the future structure and system to make payments in a timely manner.

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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21589 on 5 October 2023, which contains data from Public Health Scotland on the number of inpatient and day case admissions to hospital where a diagnosis of dog attack (bite or strike) was recorded, from 2010 to 2022, in Scotland. Public Health Scotland do not collect that data broken down by dog breed type.

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

This information is not held centrally by Scottish Government.

We have worked to develop and implement a quality assurance programme for the General Standards for Neurological Care and Support. A Self-evaluation tool was published by Healthcare Improvement Scotland in April 2023, to help enable services to measure their own implementation of the standards.

Undertaking this work will identify areas of good practice and improvement across NHS Scotland and help to drive forward better standards of care for people with neurological conditions, including migraine.

Our National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care supports the remobilisation and recovery of health and social care services and sets out priorities for recruitment, training and retention.