Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is operating a number of pathfinder testing programmes with the aim of delivering a sustainable system of regular asymptomatic testing for staff in a school environment. The pilots are primarily intended to help us rapidly identify and understand any logistical and implementation challenges involved in the different models of testing.

Consideration of options to scale up testing of school staff in all schools in Scotland is ongoing, and will be informed by early learning from these pilots. Regular staff testing is just one potential COVID-19 mitigation in addition to the robust package of measures already in place in schools.

Fergusons pipe-fitting subcontractor, HB Hydraulics, which operates a subcontractor office on-site at the shipyard, recruited additional workers to handle the growing volume of its work on the dual fuel ferries. Without the prior knowledge or agreement of Fergusons management, a group of their workers arrived at the shipyard to collect accommodation details.

The information requested is set out in the tables that follow. Due to a number of factors such as the repayments of earlier loans which allowed funds to be recycled, the figures for the Financial Transactions received and those disbursed, by year, do not reconcile.

Yes, Community Pharmacists and members of the pharmacy team can be involved in the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The community pharmacy network across Scotland continue to play a key role in the NHS response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is vital that they ensure that that patients continue to have their medicines safely dispensed and providing accessible healthcare advice through the NHS Pharmacy First Scotland service.

As of 23 December Public Health Scotland are publishing weekly vaccination statistics on their website. As further vaccination data becomes available, PHS will consider expanding their reporting in line with this.

Information for individuals that want to offer their support to the vaccination programme is available at: Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance on offering support - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Publication of the National Protocols for COVID-19 Vaccines on 21st January, authorises and enables retired unregistered and returning staff to administer COVID-19 vaccinations. These individuals can now apply for specific vaccinator roles advertised on the NHS Scotland Recruitment website, with applications routed directly to local Health Boards.

We have engaged with Health Boards regarding those individuals who have intimated an interest in re-entering the health and social care workforce via our Accelerated Recruitment Portal (ARP). We have provided 188 prospective vaccinators to Boards through this route.

In addition, we have already provided all NHS Scotland boards with access to the GMC and NMC emergency registers of qualified healthcare workers. We are writing to regulators to signpost our guidance for onward dissemination to registrants interested in a role within the programme.

The Scottish Government has welcomed support from former NHS staff who have offered to assist in the delivery of the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme. Individuals can offer their support at: Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance on offering support - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

In October we shared information with Health Boards from nurses, registered on our Accelerated Recruitment Portal, who expressed an interest in supporting the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme. We have provided 188 prospective vaccinators to Health Boards through this route.

We have also written to regulatory bodies (HCPC, GPhC, GMC and NMC), to help connect temporary registrants with their local Health Boards in order that they may register an interest in returning to support the delivery of healthcare services.

We have written to Health Boards asking that they secure a daily workforce of c. 1,700 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) vaccinators and c.970 support staff, with a view to delivering 400,000 doses per week by the end of February.

Publication of the National Protocols for COVID-19 Vaccines on 21st January, authorises and enables retired unregistered and returning staff to administer the vaccines. It also extend the groups of healthcare professionals who are authorised to vaccinate, with appropriate education, training and supervision.

More than 8000 vaccinators are currently registered on the vaccination management tool, and at least 640 GP Practices are already actively involved in the programme. We are currently engaging with Health Boards regarding the composition of this workforce.

Ferguson Marine has always complied with Scottish Government guidelines on Covid-19 and has worked closely with trades unions to make sure there are robust measures in place, and these have limited in-yard transmission to a single case since work at the yard restarted in June 2020.

Separately, management suspended production at the yard to undertake a full review of the Covid-19 prevention measures in place and to reconfigure the workplace amenities/canteen to comply with revised social distancing requirements. Both Scottish Government and Fergusons management remain fully committed to ensuring that Fergusons continues to provide the safest possible working environment for its people.