Chamber and committees

There are no proposals to rewrite or remove questions contained in the Health and Wellbeing Census.

I also refer the member to the answer given to S6W-04878 on 17 December 2021 regarding the appropriateness of the Census questions.

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 A92 A96 Haudagain Improvement project, which was anticipated to be complete in winter 2021, has faced a number of challenges including the impact of the pandemic continuing to disrupt progress. The contractor has indicated a revised date for completing the works, with the Improvement now due to open to traffic by the end of March 2022 as detailed in the recent press release available on the Transport Scotland website at:  https://www.transport.gov.scot/news/a92a96-haudagain-improvement-update-to-expected-completion-date/ .

I also refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05362 on 21 December 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 .

a) Since 2019 the Scottish Government has increased legal aid fees by 8% with a further 5% committed to in early 2022. This is a total rise of 13% set against a backdrop of difficult public finances and compares well to public sector pay increases. The 5% plus 5% increases are part of an over £20m package of support for legal aid providers, in the context of the COVID pandemic. This included a £9m grant fund, payments for which were completed in September 2021 and £1m for legal aid trainees over this and next year.

The legal aid Fund is demand-led and is not cash limited. The report of the Independent Review of Legal Aid, published in 2018, found that Scotland’s legal aid system benchmarked well against other countries. The report set a long-term vision for reform. The Scottish Government has committed to bring forward reforms, including a Legal Aid Reform Bill, during this parliament.

b) With reference to pay comparisons, legal aid providers are private firms. Salaries and terms and conditions are a matter for each business. However, we are committed to the future sustainability of the legal aid system. We continue to be open to discussion and to consider evidence of gaps in the workforce and supporting diversity in the profession. The levers to assist with recruitment which the Scottish Government has undertaken includes £1m of funding over this year and next to support the costs of employing trainee solicitors.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) Scottish Intercollegiate Guideline Network (SIGN) have confirmed that they currently have no plans to update SIGN Guideline 122 - Prevention and management of venous thromboembolism.

However, on Wednesday 15 December, SIGN published a new rapid guideline: SIGN 163 - Prevention and management of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients with COVID-19.

The Open Market Shared Equity scheme is targeted at first time buyers on low to moderate incomes regardless of the source of their income. This includes those in employment and in receipt of benefits. In 2020-21, the average gross household income of beneficiaries was £27,000 and 43% of households had at least one child.

The Scottish Government published an updated Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) on 23 November. The BRIA sets out the baseline data currently available and trends, including information from the non-domestic rates valuation roll and about Airbnb, which show a significant growth in the number of properties which are being used for short-term lets.

The BRIA sets out the costs to local authorities and recovery through fees, and provides indicative average fees for a low and high cost scenario. The assumptions behind the average indicative fees for a short-term lets licence have been informed by discussions with local authorities.

The Licensing Order allows local authorities to raise revenue from fees to cover the costs of establishing and running their licensing scheme. The actual fees to be charged will be determined by local authorities following Scottish Government guidance and are likely to include higher and lower tiers, reflecting the varying sizes of premises to be licensed.

The licensing scheme will help to build a comprehensive picture of short-term let activity across Scotland.

Soil that is classified as hazardous is always chargeable at the standard rate of Scottish Landfill Tax. Therefore no hazardous soils should have been subject to the lower rate of Scottish Landfill Tax.

Statistics published by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) show that the volume of hazardous soil landfilled in Scotland has declined significantly since 2015, reducing from 27,209 tonnes to 3,921 tonnes in 2020.

The Scottish Government continues to closely monitor all emerging evidence on the effectiveness of COVID-19 treatments and their clinical effectiveness. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is now assessing Paxlovid’s safety and effectiveness, and I cautiously welcome analysis of the final clinical trial results from Pfizer (which are yet to be published or verified) which show that Paxlovid cuts the risk of hospitalisation or death by approximately 89% in high risk, non-hospitalised adult patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19. If approved by the MHRA, this will represent another significant pharmaceutical option in our response to COVID-19.

On 20th October, the UK Government announced that 250,000 treatment courses of Paxlovid had been ordered, pending regulatory approval. On 22nd December, the UK Government announced that a further 2.5 million treatment courses had been ordered as part of efforts to reduce the impact of COVID-19 and the Omicron variant across the UK. If authorised by the MHRA, the intention is to initially deploy antivirals such as Paxlovid to individuals through a UK-wide national study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The University of Oxford has been selected to lead the study . This will enable collection of additional data to address limitations in the company-sponsored trials, for example the effectiveness of the treatments in vaccinated patients, as participants in the company trials were unvaccinated.

The following formal flood protection schemes are complete.

The Scottish Government announced in January 2020 that it intended to establish a licensing scheme for short-term lets using powers under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 and we have been engaging with local authorities on implementation of a licensing scheme since then. Local authorities have experience in licensing other activities under the 1982 Act and we made changes to our proposals in response to their views.

In setting timescales for establishing a licensing scheme, and for existing operators to have made an application, the Scottish Government has been mindful of striking a balance between giving local authorities and operators sufficient time to prepare, whilst moving quickly enough to address what remains a pressing issue for many residents and communities.

We will be working closely with local authorities, and other stakeholders on the working group, to review and update guidance and prepare for implementation.