Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government regularly publishes statistics and management information relating to its Covid-19 business grants on its website. The latest publication that includes details of the Discretionary Fund was published on 10 March 2021.

The Scottish Government will publish details of how much each Local Authority has been allocated from the Discretionary Fund as part of a forthcoming finance circular.

The Scottish Government is currently considering the role that a vaccination certificate/passport may have. However, this work is still ongoing and a final decision has not been reached on whether this will be introduced.

A key factor in the Scottish Government’s decision will be the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines, their impact on transmission and the length of time for which each vaccine provides immunity. There is not enough information available yet.

We continue to monitor all developments in relation to COVID-19, including on the subject of vaccine certification. We continue to contribute to the World Health Organisation Safer Vaccination Programme on vaccine certification. This includes consideration of technical details, ethical and equality issues, and privacy standards. The outcome of those discussions will guide our work in this area.

A vaccination certificate could play a valuable role but there are various issues to work through, not least the significant equalities issues with allowing freedoms only to those vaccinated. Work, on a 4 nations basis, has started to scope and develop a technical solution to allow secure, authenticated access to Covid vaccination status.

This is to ensure technology is not the limiting factor should the work underway indicate it would be appropriate to introduce certification at the right time.

The Scottish Government’s main focus remains on our national vaccine programme and ensuring that this is rolled out as quickly and effectively as possible.

It is normal practice for the Scottish Government to publish updated flag flying guidance at the beginning of each year. The main changes to the guidance in 2021 were:

• Confirming specific flag flying dates;
• The removal of the birthday of HRH The Duke of York as an official flag flying day;
• Confirmation of the Government’s previously announced policy to fly the European Flag daily at St Andrew’s House and Victoria Quay, subject to other flag flying commitments; and
• Advice about the possible effects the COVID-19 pandemic on scheduled flag flying days.

The decommissioning of oil and gas infrastructure at the end of its life presents the potential for Scotland to capitalise on a market that is forecast to reach £15.2 billion over the next decade.

The Scottish Government has not held specific discussions regarding this matter, however we are in regular contact with the UK government to ensure that we continue to support the oil and gas sector in the energy transition. For example, through the Oil and Gas, and Energy Transition Strategic Leadership Group (SLG) we will continue to work with the UK Government to take action in key reserved policy areas. This Group remains supportive of the actions underway through the OGA’s Supply Chain and Exports Taskforce which, as part of its activities, is looking to stimulate activity and work with operators on well plugging and abandonment campaigning.

We want to ensure that the world class Scottish supply chain continues to develop competitive capabilities in Scotland, becoming a centre of decommissioning excellence, and finds ways to export this expertise.

Crown Estate Scotland’s review of ScotWind aims to allow the ScotWind process to continue as swiftly as possible and thereby lay the foundations for a strong pipeline of development. The review seeks to support our long-term goals for a successful offshore wind sector, and the opportunities for the supply chain that this brings, while achieving a fair value for Scotland’s assets.

As this is an open and competitive process neither the Scottish Government nor Crown Estate Scotland can discuss applications, however, we can confirm that there has been a healthy level of interest in ScotWind.

As announced by Crown Estate Scotland on 11 February, the review is targeted for completion by 24 March 2021. Crown Estate Scotland plan to outline the conclusions of the review at that point.

As planning and consenting authorities we regularly engage with the UK government and The Crown Estate. We have liaised with them on various aspects of offshore wind planning and consenting, including on the impact of the Round 4 leasing process.

We introduced an enhanced asymptomatic testing programme for school and early learning and childcare staff and senior phase pupils in line with the first phase of a return to in-school learning on 22 February. Voluntary twice-weekly at-home testing, using Lateral Flow Devices, is being made available to all school staff in primary, secondary and special schools, and all senior phase pupils. We have also announced that we will extend the availability of testing to all S1-S3 secondary school pupil year groups following an expected fuller return after the Easter break, which will be subject to continued progress in suppressing the virus.

Regular staff and pupil asymptomatic testing is part of a robust package of COVID-19 mitigation measures already in place in schools, and must not be viewed in isolation from those measures. We view twice-weekly asymptomatic testing as an additional precaution which will help us to make a return to in-person learning as safe as possible for staff and pupils. The goal of this testing is to identify staff or young people who have the virus but do not have symptoms and require them to self-isolate, thus breaking potential chains of transmission early and minimising the risks of outbreaks in schools. Lateral flow tests provide quick results – usually within about half an hour. That makes them useful for regular testing programs of this kind. However, we are aware that lateral flow tests are less sensitive than laboratory PCR tests and for that reason we will continue to ask that everyone who tests positive using a Lateral Flow Device under the schools programme has a confirmatory PCR test.

We are working with key partners such as YoungScot to ensure we understand the views of young people and can take these into account to improve the testing offer over time.