From 6 September 2021, the Scottish Government funded support schemes Warmer Homes Scotland, Area Based Schemes or Home Energy Scotland Loans have no longer been accepting new applications for oil and LPG boilers. All committed offers for these schemes signed prior to 6 September 2021 will be honoured and receive their installations/loans. Households eligible for assistance under Warmer Homes Scotland will be offered low-carbon alternatives, where these are technically appropriate for the property. These include High Heat Retention Heating Systems, Air Source Heat Pumps, Ground Source Heat Pumps, Micro-hydro and Micro-wind systems. Since April 2021 our Area Based Schemes have included additional funding to provide low carbon and micro-generation measures as part of a whole house approach.

The Scottish Government is committed to phasing out the need to install new or replacement fossil fuel boilers, in off gas areas from 2025 and in on gas areas from 2030, subject to technological developments and decisions by the UK Government in reserved areas. We will introduce primary legislation, subject to consultation and to limits on devolved competence, that will provide the regulatory framework for the zero emissions heating systems which will replace fossil fuel boilers, with all buildings needing to meet this standard no later than 2045. That proposed legislation will be accompanied by required impact assessments and allow for proper parliamentary scrutiny of these impacts.

The Heat in Buildings Strategy was accompanied by a series of impact assessments. As we take forward the actions within the Heat in Buildings Strategy, we will ensure the issues highlighted through impact assessments are considered in the design of delivery programmes and development of further policy and regulation.

In line with Scottish Government guidance, any legislation or further policy development required to fulfil the actions within the Strategy will be subject to a range of further impact assessments. We will consult on our proposals to regulate for zero emissions heat later in 2022.

Bus service providers and passenger representatives regularly inform us about the additional pressures placed on the bus industry by the COVID-19 pandemic which are compounded by the ongoing consequences of EU EXIT.

We also receive data on driver shortages in Scotland from ongoing Department for Transport bus operator surveys and Transport Scotland is conducting its own monitoring exercise to gather information specifically on COVID-related absences.

Family-centred care is at the heart of our maternity and neonatal strategy, the Best Start: A Five Year Forward Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Care in Scotland . We expect all maternity units to take a flexible approach to the presence of partners, to provide a relaxed and supportive environment for care that promotes natural, person-centred childbirth, and to ensure that suitable accommodation and facilities are provided to enable families to stay together.

There are no official statistics of green job creation in Scotland. However, the Scottish Government has undertaken work to estimate the number of people employed in green jobs in Scotland. A report will be published on the Scottish Government website within the next month presenting the first set of these experimental estimates.

Evidence-based psychological interventions, based on psychological concepts and theory, are designed to help people understand and make changes to their thinking, behaviour and relationships. These are delivered across a wide range of services in both physical and mental health settings, from brief interventions in primary care to specialist psychological therapies aimed at service users with highly complex and/or enduring mental illness and disorder. Choices over which evidence-based intervention to deliver for specific patient groups are made locally by Health Boards.

Health Boards are also delivering on behavioural change psychology methods to support changes in lifestyle behaviours as part of their implementation of the Framework for the Prevention, Early Detection and Early Intervention for type 2 diabetes , and via delivery of Public Health Scotland’s Standards for delivery of tier 2 and tier 3 weight management services for adults and children and young people .

Silver Cloud, SilverCloud | NHS Lanarkshire (scot.nhs.uk) , is now also available in all Health Boards through referral and for some treatments self-referral options. Silver Cloud provides private and secure access anywhere, anytime to evidence-based, online programs that will help to teach you techniques that helps you reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety, low mood or depression associated with Chronic Pain or Diabetes Type 1 & 2. It is also suitable for co-morbid long term health conditions. The treatments are evidence based delivering computerised CBT (cCBT) treatment in people’s homes through smartphone, tablet and home computers and progress of the patient treatment is monitored by local cCBT Teams based in Adult Psychology.

Additionally, in order to ensure consistency in the quality of service delivery across Scotland, the Scottish Government has worked with NHS Education for Scotland (NES) to produce the Psychological Therapies Matrix - a stepped guide to planning and delivering evidence-based psychological therapies within NHS Boards in Scotland. The Matrix provides a summary of the information on the current evidence base for various therapeutic approaches, guidance on well-functioning psychological therapies services, and advice on important governance issues.

The Breast Screening Programme Board (BSPB), which oversees breast screening in Scotland, has agreed that the option for women aged 71 and over to self-refer into the breast screening programme will resume once all screening centres are able to offer those aged 53-70 their breast screening appointments within 39 months of their previous screening. Progress towards this is being closely monitored, and the timing for restarting the option for women aged 71 and over to self-refer into the programme is regularly reviewed.

The breast screening programme offers routine screening to women aged between 50 and 70 years old. It remains important for women of all ages to be symptom aware, and to report any concerns about the signs and symptoms of breast cancer to their GP straight away, so that they can be promptly investigated. Their GP will be able to refer women of any age for further investigation and treatment if required. Further information regarding the possible symptoms of breast cancer can be found at https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/cancer/cancer-types-in-adults/breast-cancer-female.

The information requested is publicly available from PHS website:

• the latest release published on 29 June 2021 - National drug and alcohol treatment waiting times - 1 January to 31 March 2021 - National drug and alcohol treatment waiting times - Publications - Public Health Scotland . It contains information on the number of people seen for treatment, types of treatment accessed, and length of time waited
• the older releases are available on Drugs and Alcohol Misuse | Publications | Health Topics | ISD Scotland 

PHS have also provided the following table which shows the median waiting time (in days) for referrals for alcohol treatment services. Data is available for the financial years 2011-12 to 2020-21 and includes a breakdown by NHS Board as well as Scotland-level data:

The Local Delivery Plan Standard for IVF Waiting Times is for ‘90 per cent of eligible patients to commence IVF treatment within 12 months of referral. The 90% standard continues to be met since it was first measured in March 2015.

Waiting time statistics on the waits experienced by patients from referral to screening appointment for in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment can be found on the PHS website at the following link: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/ivf-waiting-times-in-scotland

This is the latest IVF Waiting Times publication and data from January 2016 to present can be downloaded under Data Files, data from July 2014 can be found https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/Publications/2018-08-28/2018-08-28-IVF-Waiting-Times.xlsx . Collection of waiting times data on IVF screening and waiting times only began in 2014.

As the statistics produced are predominately based on aggregate data and presented in 13 week time bands an average (mean) waiting time cannot be calculated.

Patients can already store gametes (egg and sperm) through NHS fertility services with informed consent (regulated by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) and by law under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 (as amended)) under the following circumstances:

• Storage of personal gametes for use in NHS Assisted Conception Treatment by couples that fulfil the access criteria.
• Storage of gametes for patients who require fertility preservation treatment.
• Storage of gametes donated altruistically by sperm or egg donors for use in NHS Assisted Conception Treatment.
  

Data on nationality is not collected as part of the COVID vaccination programme.

We commenced the collection of ethnicity data as part of the vaccination programme in November 2021. This is to help tackle racialised health inequalities. Once this data becomes available it will help us to better design and tailor services to improve people’s health outcomes. This data is collected following a recommendation from the Expert Reference Group on COVID and Ethnicity (ERG).

The ethnicity question is a mandatory field, and so everyone should complete this field, though there is an option for people to select the option ‘prefer not to say/don’t know’. The ethnicity question used is taken from Census 2022 Question 23.

Full information on what personal information we process , including ethnicity, and how we use your data as part of the COVID-19 vaccination programme can be found on NHS Inform under Data, Privacy and Ethics.

Public Health Scotland already publishes information about equality of vaccination uptake. The most recent data can be found at COVID-19 Statistical Report - 1 December 2021 - COVID-19 statistical report - Publications - Public Health Scotland . The report contains information about the data sources used.