Chamber and committees

The current data gathering arrangements for the physical examination of the newborn and the newborn hearing test reflect that the services are locally commissioned by Health Boards. As such, Health Boards take primary responsibility for identifying and addressing workforce planning and resourcing issues at a local level.

Governance is provided to the Pregnancy and Newborn Screening Programme, of which the hearing test is a part, through the Programme Board and National Screening Oversight, which reports to the Scottish Screening Committee. Boards therefore have a clear route to flag any issues that may require national action.

The coronavirus guidance for pregnant employees and employers is published at www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-advice-for-pregnant-employees , and applies in all four UK countries. The guidance supports discussions between employees, employers and occupational health teams on how best to ensure health and safety for pregnant women in the workplace at any gestation, and recommends a more precautionary approach for women who are 28 weeks pregnant and beyond. As with all coronavirus guidance, this is regularly updated in light of new information and evidence in relation to the virus.

Telephone and video consultations have and continue to play an important role in ensuring that care and support for new mothers and babies, children, young people and their families continues across Scotland during the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are many examples of continued, innovative and high quality service provision by universal community health services; maximising opportunities to utilise IT, flexing telehealth capacity, with professional judgement remaining the main driver in determining an individual's level of support. Where face-to-face contacts are necessary NHS Boards are ensuring that they can be carried out safely.

As outlined in the NHS Recovery Plan, published on 25 August 2021, technology enabled care will continue to play an important part in the delivery of care as part of the mix of service provision. NHS Boards should aim to return to normal service provision with increased numbers of face-to-face health visitor contacts and this should be planned for and built into NHS Boards' overall COVID-19 recovery response.

We recognise that long waits are unacceptable and we remain committed to meet the standard that 90% of patients start treatment within 18 weeks of referral.

We have asked all Boards to set out their plans and trajectories for meeting the waiting times standards and clearing backlogs by the end of March 2023. To support this, we have already allocated £9.25m from the Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund, for the first year of clearing waiting list backlogs in CAMHS and Psychological Therapies. This is part of a wider investment supported by a £120m Recovery and Renewal fund to transform services, with a renewed focus on prevention and early intervention.

Scottish Government and Dumfries and Galloway Council officials engage regularly on how to progress this commitment and a further meeting is planned in October, which will also involve South of Scotland Enterprise.

Delivery of the actions set out in our Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan is ongoing. Since publication we have undertaken a wide range of activity to help people deal with the mental health effects of the pandemic. That includes, for example, working with local authorities to establish new community mental health and wellbeing services for children, continuing to support the roll-out of computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and providing ongoing support for the Clear Your Head campaign.

A £120 million Recovery and Renewal Fund was announced in February to support the Plan. So far over £50 million has been allocated from the Fund. This includes allocations of £40 million to improve Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. We are currently allocating the remainder of the fund and will make further announcements in the coming weeks.

I will update Parliament on progress against the Transition and Recovery Plan in the months ahead.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03286 on‎ 1 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
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NHS bodies, Local Authorities and other public sector bodies that use Scottish Government’s national collaborative framework for the Supply of Natural Gas will see no increase in price this financial year to their wholesale cost of gas. The cost of wholesale gas was fixed in April 2021 and will remain unchanged this financial year. Information is not held centrally for those public bodies that do not use the national collaborative framework.

In general terms, in the event that any Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, including the Additional Dwelling Supplement, is due in relation to a transaction it could not be reclaimed.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Revenue Scotland, in its role as Scotland’s fully devolved tax collection and management authority, regularly publishes data on its website regarding the number of transactions subject to Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT), including the Additional Dwelling Supplement. The LBTT tax return does not however allow for capture of the information requested.