Chamber and committees

The majority of funding available to local authorities is provided by means of a block grant from the Scottish Government and it is for locally elected representatives to manage the allocation of their total resources and the level of services that are delivered to their local communities, including on local roads and pavements.

Public Health Scotland’s surveillance programme monitors the progress of COVID-19, flu and other respiratory infections, (including RSV), and reports regularly on the ongoing impact of those infections during the winter months. This has been incorporated into detailed modelling that has been used to support development of our winter resilience plan.

For all scenarios we know that effective and timely delivery of the seasonal flu and COVID-19 vaccines is crucial, and our winter vaccination programme is now well underway. The degree of protection wanes over time, which is why booster vaccination is needed to maintain the best protection against COVID-19 and flu, especially for those at highest risk. We continue to do all we can to encourage and support every single eligible person to come forward, ultimately, the decision to get vaccinated has always been, and remains, a matter of personal choice. We are working to ensure that more than two million eligible people in Scotland are offered and able to receive vaccines, in turn helping to protect the public and relieving pressure on the NHS.

Introduction - Winter Vaccination Programme 2022 to 2023: COVID-19 and seasonal flu deployment plan - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

An explanation of how the Minimum All-Tenure Housing Land Requirements (MATHLR) for each planning authority in Scotland have been arrived at is set out in the Housing Land Requirement Explanatory Report, which was published alongside Draft NPF4 and is available from the Scottish Government’s website: www.gov.scot . The MATHLRs are broad, reasonable and long-term figures based on evidence of need and demand for housing.

In keeping with our statutory and other assessment requirements, we published our Integrated Impact Assessments (IIA) alongside Draft NPF4 and invited comments. This included an Environmental Report, setting out the likely significant environmental effects of Draft NPF4, including on climatic factors. Our assessment findings and the comments received have been taken into account in finalising the Revised Draft NPF4, which was laid in the Scottish Parliament on 8 November 2022. The NPF4 IIA is available from the Scottish Government’s website: www.gov.scot .

Whilst a more specific quantitative assessment against the Scottish carbon budget has not been made in arriving at the MATHLRs, future proposals for new homes will be considered against NPF4 as a whole including its policies on climate and nature crises, as well as on quality homes. These will influence both the location and design of individual proposals for new homes. As land is allocated for housing development in Local Development Plans, further impact assessment will be required.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02957 on 12 October 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 .

As of the end of the day on 7 November 2022, there had been a total of 31,118,359 journeys made under the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel Scheme. 40.6% of these journeys were made by cardholders aged 5-15. 59.4% of these journeys were made by cardholders aged 16-21.

This data is for total journeys made through the scheme and is not split into Young Scot branded and non-Young Scot branded National Entitlement Cards.

The Scottish Government published its winter resilience plan on 4 October. This sets out a range of actions we are taking to support our health and social sector throughout the winter period - Health and social care: winter resilience overview 2022 to 2023 - gov.scot.

The COVID-19 Four Harms group continue to meet fortnightly to review and consider the overall threat level of Covid-19 in Scotland guided by evidence provided by the Chief Medical Officer. The group are ready to respond to any surge in infections, outbreaks or variant of concern and have contingency planning in place.

For all scenarios we know that effective and timely delivery of the seasonal flu and COVID-19 vaccines is crucial, and our winter vaccination programme is now well underway. As of 30th October 2022, 2,420,721 Autumn/Winter Vaccines have been administered in Scotland – 1,214,300 COVID-19 vaccines and 1,206,421 adult flu vaccines. Over 87% of older adult care home residents, and 80% of over-65s have received their COVID-19 booster thus far.

We continue to monitor RSV as part of the Public Health Scotland’s surveillance programme and currently have no evidence to suggest that we are facing an RSV epidemic this winter. NHS Board winter plans take into account the predicted surge of seasonal flu, RSV and Norovirus activity that can happen between October and March and have adequate resources in place to deal with potential outbreaks across this period.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02957 on 12 October 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 Scottish Government is quite clear that the relevant costs of cladding remediation will be met by developers through the Scottish Safer Buildings Accord. The Scottish Government will prioritise its spend on buildings where the developer no longer exists.

We are already taking forward a range of initiatives to support recruitment and retention of workforce in rural General Practice. The Golden Hello scheme offers a one-off bursary of £10,000 to every GP taking up an eligible post in a remote and rural area. Furthermore, ScotGEM is a four-year graduate-entry medical degree which began in 2018, with a focus on rural medicine and healthcare improvement, supporting graduates to choose careers in general practice.

Doctors completing FY2 have a variety of options to continue their careers in NHS Scotland. This includes, but is not limited to, becoming an Locum Appointment for Training physician, an SAS physician or a locum physician; time spent in which can count towards Specialty training and can be good option to gain a wider range of skills and experience and to strengthen future applications to Specialty training. While it is important for local areas to have general practice and hospital doctors which meet the needs of their populations, locums posts can play an important role within our NHS too, working flexibly in response to changes in local need or circumstances and helping to cover leave and other absences.

The Scottish Government is currently considering ICIAs in relation to proposed Highly Protected Marine Areas. Engagement with local stakeholders will be carried out during the process where appropriate. We will begin site selection next spring and will actively engage with stakeholders throughout the process.