The Scottish Government actively promotes cyber security to reduce the risk of cyber-attacks and protect against the unauthorised exploitation of systems, networks, and technologies. This has included the creation of NHS Scotland’s Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE), which opened in December 2022 in Abertay Universities cyberQuarter.

Working with the CCoE, we continue to prioritise the use security capabilities of existing technologies and deployment of new security tools. This approach allows real time discovery of vulnerabilities and potential issues across a national view.

The Cyber Centre of Excellence is complimented by the Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre (SC3) which will be a key partner, enhancing our national incident response capacity and capabilities.

This is in addition to the annual NIS audit of NHS boards to ensure their current practices are up to date and that their responses reflect current best practice.

We have implemented the ability to share the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) electronic patient record (ePR) with General Practice. All Health Boards (with the exception of NHS Shetland) now have this in place.

Ongoing monitoring of implementation and engagement with NHS Shetland is underway to identify actions required to progress. This work is now being incorporated into the Urgent and Unscheduled Care collaborative programme.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18810 on 20 June 2023. 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

COSLA and The Scottish Government published our Data Strategy for Health and Social Care which has committed to setting out the preferred information standards for use across Scotland’s health and social care sector. Scottish Government will seek to align with international and UK defined standards to facilitate interoperability and bring consistency to the ways in which clinical information is recorded. Work is progressing to implement SNOMED CT in health settings (with a new Ontology server now operational), alongside the recent implementation of ICD 11 codes in mental health. Furthermore, work is now underway to stand up a Data Standards board for Scotland’s health and care data in summer 2023.

Scottish Government has established the £2,75m Digital Lifelines programme which aims to reduce drug-related harm and death. Significant cross-sector programme of work is well underway and will focus on inclusion, services and innovation. The next phase of the programme has begun and will be led by the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre (DHI). More information is available here –

https://tec.scot/programme-areas/digital-lifelines-scotland

The National Information Governance (IG) Competency Framework for health and care is currently under review as part of the Data Strategy for Health & Social Care. NHS Education for Scotland has been commissioned to review and update this framework. This will identify roles, responsibilities, knowledge and skills, as well as learning resources and career pathways in various Information Governance areas, including privacy, information security and data science. The IG Competency Framework is being co-produced through close engagement with the many stakeholders across health and care, academia, supervisory authorities and professional bodies.

Initial work to capture the position of learning and development in digital skills has been undertaken. This will help inform our review of governance and the associated programme for digital capabilities across health and care.

Work on the National Care Service Bill continues as it progresses through the parliamentary process. The Bill allows Ministers to set out, in secondary legislation, the details of a scheme to support information sharing so services can be provided effectively and efficiently by, and on behalf of, NCS and NHS. Second, the Bill will also allow Ministers to set out information standards so there is a consistent approach to how information is defined, stored and reported.

However, prior to conclusion of the bill, and in support of the introduction of data standards, COSLA and the Scottish Government are currently in the process of convening a Data Standards Board for health and social care. This will allow us to create clear governance regarding the preferred data standards for use across the sector.

The Inventory Management System (IMS) was successfully rolled out to all Health Boards at the end of March 2023. Further work is underway with the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service and Scottish Ambulance Service to identify potential areas of benefit for local IMS stores. In addition to this, Data and Analytics workshops have been held with 8 Boards to demonstrate further improvements at a local level as a result of the IMS implementation.

The Scottish Government has developed, in partnership with the NHS, the Accelerated National Innovation Adoption (ANIA) pathway and Innovation Design Authority (IDA). They provide a once for Scotland approach to the identification, assessment, and accelerated adoption of innovative technologies within the NHS. The IDA brings together key Scottish Government and NHS in Scotland decision makers to collectively agree priorities and approve high impact innovations for accelerated national adoption. ANIA harnesses the expertise and capabilities of our national Health Boards to support decision making and overcome barriers to adoption. Innovations are assessed against impact on health outcomes, patient experience, workforce, financial sustainability, and carbon reduction.

ANIA is fed by the end-to-end innovation pathway supported from the Office of the Chief Scientist (Health), and delivered in partnership with the NHS, academia, and industry. This includes translational research, our three regional NHS Innovation Hubs, Open Innovation Competitions, and innovation fellowships.