The Scottish Government has supported the following research:

‘Genetic Testing for Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome and the British Coronial System’. This is currently in follow-up in NHS Grampian and ran from May 2014 to June 2020.

‘The Role of Genetic Testing & Molecular Autopsy in Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS)’, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde which ran from 2011 – 2014.

‘Phenotype-driven molecular autopsy for sudden cardiac death’ through the Familial Arrhythmia Network Scotland, the Scottish Genetics Consortium, NHS Grampian and NHS Highland which ran from 2001 to 2013.

‘Non-invasive prediction of total and sudden cardiac mortality in patients with heart failure’, University of Glasgow, which ran from 1994 to 1996.

Statistics on the waiting times patients experience waiting for family genetic testing following a sudden arrhythmic death syndrome bereavement are not held by Public Health Scotland (PHS). PHS does not hold information on the conditions patients are waiting to be seen for.

Statistics relating to the waits patients experience for new outpatient appointments at specialty level are published up to 31 March 2021. These include waiting times for Clinical Genetics and Cardiology. These can be found at the following link: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/nhs-waiting-times-stage-of-treatment/nhs-waiting-times-stage-of-treatment-quarter-ending-31-march-2021/ .

For clinical genetics, the median waiting time for patients seen during Jan-Mar ‘21 was 40 days.

Information from National Records of Scotland (NRS) is in the following table. Background information on how National Records for Scotland record deaths can be found at: Deaths - Background Information | National Records of Scotland (nrscotland.gov.uk)

Deaths from Sudden arrhythmic death syndrome 1 , by age, sex and ethnic group, 2010 to 2019

The Scottish Government currently regularly attend the below meetings alongside the UK Government:

• UKG COP26 Delivery Board
• Devolved Administration Directors Forum
• UKG led COP26 regular Devolved Administrations catch-up
• Devolved Administrations Ministerial group
• COP26 COVID Steering Group
• COP26 Test, Trace and Isolate Working Group
• COVID leads weekly meeting
• Transport Co-Ordination Group (Relevant sub groups below)

o Communications

o Rail and Subway

o Glasgow City

o Edinburgh City

o Aviation

o Bus and Coach

o Resilience

o Venue Transport

• Transport Steering Group
• Travel Steering Group
• COP26 Planners working Group
• COP26 SCS Risk Challenge Panels
• COP26 Security & Readiness Steering Group
• COP26 Venue Operations Steering Group
• COP26 VIP Logistics Planning Group
• COP26 Testing & Exercising Group
• COP26 Blue Zone Staffing Group
• COP26 Horizon Scanning Group
• COP26 Policing and Security Assurance Group (PSAG)

There are currently 40 officials working full-time, or scheduled to begin working full-time on the delivery of COP26. There are also 23 officials currently, or scheduled to dedicate a percentage of their time to working on the delivery of COP26.

The Scottish Government notes the recent calls for the International Criminal Court to recognise the destruction of nature, “ecocide”, as an international crime.

We are committed to maintaining high environmental standards and have put in place arrangements to establish Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) as the new governance body which has the ability to keep under review the implementation of international obligations relating to environmental protection legislation and advise the Government accordingly.

The reusable nappy voucher was first included in Scotland’s Baby Box in April 2019. The number of nappies claimed each year was as follows:

2019 – 4912

2020 – 7192

2021 – 3128 (this is up to 02-07-2021)

Scotland’s Baby Box Managing Agent, APS Group (Scotland), has continued to work with suppliers since the start of the programme to reduce the use of single use plastic in the Baby Box where possible. Currently, only items which require individual wrapping for safety or hygiene purposes are individually wrapped. This includes the baby wrap and the mattress which are packaged to ensure the important safety information is not missed and the teether which is packaged for hygiene purposes.

All clothing is delivered to APS Group (Scotland) as multiples in single protective outers (rather than individually wrapped) for protection in transit. The protective packaging included in the Baby Box is made from 50% recycled paper and is FSC accredited. Other packaging such as cardboard outers, is also recyclable.

We will continue to evaluate how Scotland’s Baby Box is helping families and continue to monitor how it can be improved. We will keep the contents under review and adapt these to meet the needs of babies and parents. This will certainly include removing single use plastics wherever possible.

At its heart, Scotland’s Baby Box strongly signals our determination that every child, regardless of their circumstances, should get the best start in life by ensuring that every family with a newborn has access to essential items needed in the first six months of a child’s life. It’s a simple idea which helps to tackle deprivation, improve health and support parents during the first few months of their child’s life.

To ensure that Scotland’s Baby Box is delivered in as cost effective manner as possible, the box and its contents are bought in bulk aligned to Scotland’s birth rate to maximise efficiency savings and the operation and delivery of the Baby Boxes is streamlined to provide the best value for money while maintaining the highest quality of service. Any customisation of the box and its contents would result in a cost increase to the overall programme.

The Baby Box balances practical items, such as the clothing, changing mat, digital thermometer and bath & room thermometer with items designed to have a positive impact on parent-child interaction such as books, a baby wrap and a play mat to support attachment, early learning and play. The current box and its contents have been shaped by the evaluation of the initial pilot http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/06/8891 and ongoing feedback from health professionals and families.

The Scottish Government continues to monitor the Baby Box programme and has commissioned an independent evaluation of Scotland’s Baby Boxes which will be published later this year.