Chamber and committees

Wales was the special partner nation at Showcase Scotland 2022 as part of Celtic Connections, with six Welsh acts featuring as part of the festival programme: Cynefin, Eve Goodman, N’Famady Kouyaté, No Good Boyo, Pedair and The Trials of Cato. There was increased collaboration in advance of the festival with meetings of cultural organisations between the two nations and a strong partnership between Feis Rois and Welsh group Avanc has resulted. As Showcase Scotland took place virtually in 2022, Wales will once again have a focus in 2023 alongside Brittany. The virtual launch was attended Angus Robertson, Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture and Dawn Bowden, Welsh Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport.

Focus Wales was a partner with the recent successful iteration of Global Music Match which saw Scottish and Welsh artists collaborating with other international artists, with many longstanding relationships resulting.

The Scottish Government has an office in Dublin which delivers an ambitious and exciting programme to engage local audiences with Scotland’s contemporary culture, in support of Scotland’s wider International Framework.

The office supports Scotland’s programme of cultural celebrations throughout the calendar year, and identifies opportunities to celebrate anniversaries of significant dates with local events. It also designs programmes of cultural activity that support Scottish artists and performers to develop markets in Ireland. It works closely with Scotland’s cultural institutions including Creative Scotland and the National Performing Companies.

The Ireland-Scotland Joint Bilateral Review, launched in 2021, highlights culture as one of its six key themes. In line with the recommendations of this report, the Scottish Government in Ireland is working alongside Irish Government colleagues with a continued focus on creating opportunities for our artists and performers, and for our creative and heritage sectors to flourish.

Through Colmcille 1500, there has been a partnership between Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland to celebrate St Columba’s legacy and 1500 years since his birth.

There have also been many projects supported through a Creative Scotland funding stream set up to encourage activity linking Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic language and culture projects.

As referred to in the answer to question S6W-06673 on 4 March 2022, the Scottish Government Office in Dublin, one of its external network of offices, delivers an ambitious and exciting programme to engage local audiences with Scotland’s contemporary culture, in support of Scotland’s wider International Framework.

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 .

We know that the pandemic has been exceptionally difficult for the mental health and wellbeing of many children, young people and their families, and that there has been increased pressure on mental health services as a result of this.

As part of our £120 million Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund, we have made an additional £40 million available this year to improve CAMHS and to clear waiting list backlogs by March 2023. Long waits are unacceptable and we remain committed to meet the standard that 90% of patients start treatment within 18 weeks of referral. We are directing support to those Boards with the longest waiting lists to clear backlogs by March 2023 and are monitoring progress closely.

Additionally, in our NHS Recovery Plan we have committed to provide sufficient funding for around 320 additional staff in CAMHS over the next 5 years. This will have the potential to increase capacity for CAMHS cases by over 10,000.

We have also provided an additional £15 million to local authorities this year to deliver locally based mental health and wellbeing support for 5-24 year olds in their communities, providing alternative treatment options and pathways to CAMHS and ensured access to counselling support services in all secondary schools.

The Scottish Government is currently developing its consultation exercise, to seek views on future legislative change to the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. This follows the report of the former Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee in the last session of the Parliament, on post-legislative scrutiny of the Act. We will announce further information about the consultation as soon as we are in a position to do so.

COVID-19 vaccines are procured on a four nations basis via the UK Vaccines Taskforce. As Scotland is not a member of the COVAX scheme, we are not in a position to share vaccines with our international development partner countries. We will continue to engage with the UK government on this matter.

On 8 December, the First Minister wrote to the Prime Minister to urge the UK government to end its opposition at the World Trade Organisation and to join over 100 countries who are now supportive of a temporary Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights waiver.

We have also provided international development support to our partner countries to support their COVID-19 responses, including vaccine preparedness. This includes the following examples of relevant recent funding.

In December 2020, we provided £2 million to UNICEF to help vaccine distribution, roll-out and online healthcare education in our partner countries of Rwanda, Malawi and Zambia.

In September 2021, we provided £250,000 from our International Development Fund to leverage the provision to our partner countries of £11.2 million worth of PPE - our single biggest ever donation - to aid COVID-19 responses as part of our strategic response.

In February 2022, we provided £1.5 million to UNICEF to support equal access to COVID-19 vaccines in our partner countries. The funds will support vaccination programmes in Rwanda, Malawi and Zambia, their provision of safe oxygen supplies, and help the agency deliver equipment, resources and technical support in response to the pandemic.

I have had regular discussions with the Chief Executive, NHS Lothian but have not specifically met with the Chief Officer, East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership to discuss the Edington Hospital in North Berwick.

On 17 January, I met with delegates from East Lothian and listened to their concerns about Edington Hospital and underlined that decisions about local provision are best made locally. The decision when to re-open Edington Hospital is to be made by NHS Lothian and East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership.

However, I expect any decision that is made to take into account the needs of the local population, and ensure an appropriate level of service are in place to meet those needs.

The Scottish Government meet with NHS 24 on a regular basis to ensure that it delivers its functions in accordance with Ministers’ policies and priorities; to provide strategic leadership; to ensure financial stewardship; and to hold Chief Executives, senior management team and Board to account.

The Scottish Government review all monthly Board papers to keep appraised of Board business and also hold Annual and Mid-year review meetings with NHS 24. Due to the increasing pressures Covid-19 has had on the Service, regular sponsorship engagement has increased significantly with daily and weekly discussions now taking place with the Boards Chief Executive along with regular performance reporting from NHS 24 which allows us to maintain a focus on performance against their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

The Scottish Government published Coronavirus (COVID-19): face covering and masks guidance which provides information on the requirement to wear face coverings (unless exempt) including enforcement measures.

Enforcement of COVID-19 restrictions is a matter for Police Scotland and any breaches of these regulations can be reported to Police Scotland directly.

The police have enforcement powers to issue a Fixed Penalty Notice of £60 (halving to £30 if paid within 28 days) if members of the public do not comply with this law without a reasonable excuse. Officers have been asked to Engage, Explain, and Encourage with Enforcement only as a last resort.

We continue to keep the regulations and guidance under regular review.

NHS 24 has played a key role in the response to Covid-19, completely altering the way in which they deliver their Service from a predominantly out of hours Service to 24/7 advice and support for patients both for Covid and in support of the re-design of unscheduled care.

In response to the re-design of unscheduled care programme, the Scottish Government has also successfully launched national media campaigns to help ensure clear and concise public information is delivered to support a reduction of unscheduled ED attendances by directing the public to access the right care from the most appropriate service for their needs.

Callers to 111 are encouraged to seek help from their own GP or from 999 in an emergency, if this is more appropriate and to access NHS inform for information and advice on seasonal illness information and self-help guides.