Chamber and committees

There have been no meetings between the myself and BDA Scotland since 1 September.

Meetings between officials and BDA Scotland take place routinely and the Cabinet Secretary is fully briefed on these discussions.

The Scottish Government’s 2021-22 Programme for Government contained a commitment to introduce a Good Food Nation Bill. The purpose of this Bill, introduced on 7 October, is to provide a clear, legislative framework introducing a statutory requirement for the Scottish Ministers and specified public authorities to publish good food nation plans. Those plans must set out the main outcomes they want to achieve in relation to food-related issues; the policies needed to do this; and the indicators or other measures required to assess progress.

The Bill underpins the work we are carrying out as part of the Good Food Nation programme of measures, delivering outcomes which support our nation’s social and economic wellbeing, the environment, people’s health and economic development. The subsequent plans will link together all the areas of food policy work that are addressed within the Programme for Government. Examples of such policies include our commitment to update and develop the Local Food Strategy following the recent consultation; plans to legislate for restrictions on unhealthier food and drink promotions; and a commitment to bring forward a plan to end the need for food banks and support people experiencing food insecurity.

Local teams look at available space within their area when considering appropriate locations for COVID-19 vaccination centres to meet local requirements, that have the right reach and size of venue for their population. Pop-up clinics can be located in a variety of venues with local health boards considering, amongst other things, the flow of queues; the time of year; and the health and safety of staff and the public when scoping out new locations.

Since the vaccine rollout began, we have made the vaccine as accessible as possible and drop in clinics are available throughout Scotland’s mainland health boards. The most up to date list of which can be found at: https://www.nhsinform.scot/vaccinedropinclinics.

The Scottish government does not include its long COVID estimates in the COVID-19 in Scotland dashboard, because they are instead published in the weekly Scottish Government Coronavirus (COVID-19): modelling the epidemic series of publications ( Coronavirus (COVID-19): modelling the epidemic - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ). The estimates reported in the weekly Coronavirus (COVID-19): modelling the epidemic series are based on data and simulation, so are inherently uncertain and therefore this weekly modelling report is the most appropriate location to publish them.

Estimates of the number of long COVID cases in Scotland are also generated by the Office for National Statistics ( Prevalence of ongoing symptoms following coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in the UK - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) ). These estimates are caveated in a similar manner; “this is analysis of new, recently collected data, and our understanding of it and its quality will improve over time. Long COVID is an emerging phenomenon that is not yet fully understood. The estimates presented in this release are experimental statistics, which are a series of statistics that are in the testing phase and not yet fully developed.”

The COVID(O) committee met on 14 December (attended by myself, and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer) and all 4 nations agreed to remove all 11 nations (including Angola) from the red list. This came into effect from 0400 on Wednesday, 15 December. Thus there is no requirement for an exemption being arranged

The 2022-23 Scottish Budget provides investment of £18 billion for the Health and Social Care Portfolio, delivering on the commitment to pass on frontline health and care Barnett consequentials in full.

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

The SPS can provide the following information in response to the questions asked:

(a)Recruitment of prison staff between 1 December 2020 and 30 November 2021, by prison establishment.

The table below outlines the number of external appointments made into the SPS for requested date range, detailed by establishment and role type (either non-operational or operational):

Table 1

The Scottish Government recognises the negative impact that long COVID can have on the health and wellbeing of those affected. We are already taking action to ensure that people are supported in the most appropriate way possible, and are committed to do more.

We have published our approach paper which sets out 16 commitments to improve care and support for people with long COVID in Scotland.

Our approach outlines the work we are doing, with partners, to strengthen the key elements of care for people with long COVID - accessed through; supported self-management, assessment provided within primary and community care, rehabilitation support and; secondary care investigation and support where required.

Our commitments are backed by a £10 million ‘Long COVID Support Fund’, which will provide additional resource to strengthen services for people with long COVID across Scotland, by bolstering the capacity of existing NHS services, enabling improved care co-ordination and supporting staff education and training needs.

We are continuing to support clinicians to access evidence based information and advice on long COVID, to inform assessments, investigations and referrals for patients.

We are also funding nine Scottish-led research projects with a total funding commitment of £2.5m to improve understanding of the long-term effects of COVID-19 on physical and mental health, and help with developing effective clinical interventions to support recovery and rehabilitation.

Since the announcement on 17 March 2021 that ScotRail services will be provided through the Scottish Government’s Operator of Last Resort arrangements on expiry of the current franchise agreement, no costs have been charged for legal work in connection with those arrangements undertaken by solicitors of the Scottish Government Legal Directorate.

In terms of external solicitor costs, works to the value of £157,763 have been charged for to date. At this rate, Transport Scotland would estimate legal expenditure to be under £500,000 by the commencement of ScotRail Trains Ltd services on 1 April. It should be noted that this is a substantially lower amount than might have been expected in support of a rail franchise procurement competition.

No leasing, uniform provision and rolling stock maintenance agreements are expected to remain in place with Abellio once the current franchise ends. A number of existing contracts between Abellio ScotRail Ltd and its suppliers will transfer from Abellio ScotRail Ltd to the new operator, ScotRail Trains Limited, on 1 April 2022.

An agreement has been entered into with Abellio Transport Holdings for the retention of the Abellio Shared Services Centre based in Glasgow. This will retain jobs in Glasgow handling all customer service calls and correspondence, payroll services and payment processing facilities.