Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government recognises the critical importance of the Stena Line ferry service from Loch Ryan Port to Belfast. On 22 December the Scottish Government approved an application from Stena Line for an exemption to allow their essential workers to volunteer to leave self-isolation and return to work. Under the critical workers exemption process, before a staff member who is a close contact of a positive case can return to work there are a number of requirements they must adhere to, including having had their second COVID-19 vaccination more than 14 days previously and have evidence of a negative PCR test.

As I outlined yesterday at General Questions, in response to question S6O-00653, we intend to bring forward a ban on glue traps in Scotland.

My full answer can be found here .

The Scottish Government intends to allocate up to £5.1m per annum to cover the costs of the advocacy provision over a four year period. All of the funding is provided for the establishment and operation of the new service. However, this is a demand-led service and until it has been operational over a period of time it will not be possible to develop a detailed breakdown of when funding will be drawn down.

To ensure continuous improvement of the service, and to inform the next procurement exercise, we will monitor demand and review expenditure over the contract period. Subsequently, the contract value will be updated in the Public Contracts Register ahead of any extension or retendering for this contract.

We are carrying out a consultation to inform the development of our aviation strategy, so at this stage no decisions have been made about what will be addressed. The consultation includes questions on how the Scottish Government can help to reduce the environmental impact of aviation. The responses to the consultation, alongside other relevant evidence and wider Scottish Government policy, will inform decisions on the final content of the strategy.

The Islands Connectivity Plan, to replace the current Ferries Plan, will be produced during 2022 and engagement and consultation on this will enable substantial public and community input.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05411 on 24 January 2022. 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 has engaged widely with stakeholders and partners about the introduction of a licensing scheme for short-term let accommodation. Since January 2020, Ministers and or Scottish Government officials have had 13 meetings with representatives from different local authorities in Scotland. Details of these meetings, including when control areas were discussed, can be found in a recent Freedom of Information response at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202100228791/ .

When deciding to designate all or part of an area as a short-term let control area, a planning authority must submit their proposal to Scottish Minsters for approval. We are aware the City of Edinburgh Council and Highland Council are currently progressing plans to designate control areas, in order to address pressures created by secondary letting, but these have not yet been submitted to Ministers for consideration.

A fundamental purpose of the scheme is to ensure basic safety standards are met in all types of short-term let accommodation across Scotland. It is therefore mandatory for operators and licensing authorities to abide by the scheme, which will help to ensure the safety of guests and neighbours. The Scottish Government would expect local authorities to act in compliance with their statutory duties if a licensing authority did not have a licensing scheme in place by this date, it could be subject to challenge. If a failure to comply with statute was successfully judicially reviewed, the Court of Session could order that particular action be taken to remedy that.

In 2021, we published draft guidance for licensing authorities, letting agencies and platforms to inform our consultation. We are now in the process of reconvening the stakeholder working group, which includes local authority representatives, to update and publish revised guidance to enable operators and licensing authorities to review their preparations for implementation.

The guidance sets out that we want licensing authorities to take a risk-based and proportionate approach that will enable them to sustainably recover their own costs associated with establishing and administering the licensing scheme within a ‘not for profit’ fee based structure. Section F of our updated Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) , published on 23 November, also provides further information about recovery of costs through fees.

In line with Scottish Government’s Digital Strategy, we have encouraged licensing authorities to work towards a digital first approach to administering the scheme. We have also encouraged licensing authorities to have paper copies of relevant information, and the application form, available upon request for people who cannot access them online and to provide support to access online services at their offices.

Regulations amending the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 were made today.

The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Amendment (No.2) Regulations 2022 amend the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (“the principal regulations”) and will take effect on 24 January 2022.

The Amendment Regulations remove the capacity limits for live events held indoors and the definition of a live event.

The regulations also remove the requirement to take measures to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, that a distance of 1 metre is maintained between people on or waiting to enter hospitality and leisure premises and that only enough people are admitted to the premises to allow the 1 metre distance to be maintained.

The regulations remove the requirement for table service in premises where alcohol is sold for consumption on the premises, and that the customer must remain seated whilst consuming food and drink on the premises.

The regulations also remove the requirement for the closure of nightclubs to members of the public and amend the definition of ‘late night premises’ in the Principal Regulations in relation to the certification requirements.

The Regulations have been published at www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2022/13/contents/made

The recommendation that fertility treatment for unvaccinated patients be deferred at the current time was made on the grounds of safety. There is robust published evidence of increased risks of morbidity, risk of severe illness and poorer outcomes from COVID-19 for unvaccinated pregnant women and their babies (including preterm birth and stillbirth), increasing virus incidence and uncertainties about the Omicron variant on pregnant women. The lead Clinicians in the NHS Assisted Conception Units in Scotland had also raised their concerns.

All patients currently having treatment temporarily deferred will have the deferral time added back on to their treatment journey to ensure that no patient loses out on treatment. We recognise this is particularly important for women who are approaching the upper end of the age limit for IVF treatment.

With the exception of a short period of time at the beginning of the pandemic when, on the instruction of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA - the UK fertility regulator), fertility treatment was ‘paused’ in all NHS and private facilities across the UK as a precautionary measure, all four NHS Assisted Conception Units in Scotland have remained open throughout the pandemic. All patients on the waiting list while treatment was paused had an additional 6 months added to their treatment journey. This ensured that women close to the upper age limit for NHS IVF treatment were not disadvantaged.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

There were a total of 53 deaths in SPS custody during 2021.

The SPS publishes information regarding all deaths in our custody in calendar years on the SPS website. This information is updated on a quarterly basis and can be accessed using the following link: Prisoner Deaths (sps.gov.uk) . The next quarterly update will be published on the SPS website in January 2022 which will provide information on deaths in custody that occurred between October-December 2021.