Chamber and committees

Police Scotland, and the legacy Scottish Police College, have been involved in the delivery of training, mentoring and capacity building for the Sri Lankan Police Service since 2010. This has taken the form of a range of programmes, including: Community Policing 2010-2013; Capacity building and development of the Sri Lankan Police Service National Police Academy 2013-2016; Human Rights compliant approaches to Public Order Public Order Management 2016-2017; and Crime Investigation training and Gender work 2016-2019. The current programme, beginning in 2019 and due to last until 2022, is delivering Gender focussed activities aimed at developing the role of women in the Sri Lankan Police Service, Sexual and Gender Based Violence prevention and investigation, and Community Policing. Police Scotland has not delivered training specifically for Sri Lanka’s Special Task Force.

We understand, that from 12 to 16 December 2016 a delegation from the Sri Lankan Police Service visited Police Scotland, in relation to Human Rights compliant approaches to Public Order training. Of the four Sri Lankan Police Service officers who attended, we understand that one was from the Special Task Force.

The Scottish Government is committed to providing support to people of all ages with access to employment support and opportunities to retrain and reskill. COVID-19 has had a fundamental impact on the Scottish economy and labour market and our response aims to support individuals into good, sustainable jobs as the economy begins to grow again.

We are building on the £33 million already invested by the Scottish Government to support existing employability support services including Community Jobs Scotland, Employability Fund and Fair Start Scotland, this year by investing a further £100 million to tackle unemployment and address retraining needs. To prevent youth unemployment and the scarring effect that it would have on a generation becoming the legacy of this pandemic, £60 million of this investment will be used to support the Young Person’s Guarantee, ensuring every 16-24 year old has the opportunity of work, education or training, giving them the chance to succeed despite the economic impacts of COVID-19. We have also put in place £10 million for a range of measures to recruit and retain apprentices, helping modern and graduate apprentices who are facing redundancy as a result of COVID-19 get back into work.

The £25 million National Transition Training Fund will support those aged 25 or over whose jobs are at risk as a result of the pandemic or have been made redundant, to access retraining. The first strand of the Fund, managed by Skills Development Scotland, was launched on 8 October. Individual Training Accounts (ITA), offer up to £200 to people of all ages who are unemployed or earn less than £22,000 who wish to upskill. ITAs reopened on 1 July this year, and remain open to applications.

We will continue to provide support for individuals affected by redundancy through our Partnership Action for Continuing Employment, PACE initiative. Through providing skills development and employability support, PACE aims to minimise the time individuals affected by redundancy are out of work. As announced in Programme for Government, we are investing an additional £5 million to scale up and enhance our support for those made redundant.

For those who want help to find and remain in work, Fair Start Scotland (FSS) is an all age, national employment support service, which offers tailored support for people who may be further removed from the labour market. In July, we extended Fair Start Scotland services to March 2023 providing stability and continuity for FSS participants and allowing us to manage the anticipated COVID-19 related increase in demand for support from the most disadvantaged in our communities. We have also provided additional funding of £2.35 million for our Parental Employability Support Fund which will provide intensive employability support for those most at risk of poverty, including disabled, young and minority ethnic parents to help them access or progress in work.

No One Left Behind, jointly managed through our partnership with Local Government, provides employability support to people of all ages, who are further removed from the labour market, including those with disabilities, long term health issues and single parents. This provision supports individuals to increase confidence, skills and experience, enabling them to progress towards or enter employment. We remain committed to the transformation of employability services, through the phased implementation of No One Left Behind to progress towards more effective and joined-up support across Scotland.

The latest ONS Labour market statistics show that COVID-19 is continuing to impact on Scotland’s young people. Based on trends from previous recessions it is estimated that the unemployment rate of 16-24-year olds in Scotland could peak at around 20% as a result of COVID-19. This could result in over 60,000 young people becoming unemployed and not in education as a result of the impacts of the pandemic.

Further details on how the Young Person’s Guarantee will be implemented will be set out to Parliament shortly. The Scottish Government is working with partners including local authorities, Scottish Funding Council, Skills Development Scotland and Developing the Young Workforce Groups to finalise plans that will set out how the additional investment for the Young Person's Guarantee will be used to increase the number and range of opportunities available to young people.

The delivery of Kickstart is a matter for the UK Government. However, the Scottish Government continues to engage with the Department for Work and Pensions to discuss the alignment between Kickstart and the Young Person’s Guarantee with a view to ensuring it supports existing interventions in Scotland.

PHS conducted a survey of the people shielding. The report can be found at the following link.https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/downloads/covid-19-shielding-programme-scotland-impact-and-experience-survey/

The shielding online survey report provides a breakdown of shielding behaviour by clinical condition (pp 74 and 86). Respondents who shielded because of a severe respiratory condition are most likely to self-report that they are completely following the guidance. They are also the least likely to have deviated from the guidance.

Of the 4,274 deaths occurring between 1 March and 30 September 2020 where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, in 631 cases the deceased’s main pre-existing condition was a respiratory condition.

The methodology used for analysis of pre-existing conditions is explained on NRS website here: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statistics/covid19/covid-deaths-report-week-41.pdf

The Scottish Government has been consistently clear that it will provide the necessary funding across health and social care services to recognise the additional costs of responding to Covid-19. On 29 September the Scottish Government announced funding of £1.1 billion across NHS Boards and Integration Authorities to meet costs arising from the response to the pandemic. The Scottish Government has now allocated a total of £150 million to social care.

There are a number of reasons behind the recent rise in delayed discharges, including increased admissions of older people with a higher level of frailty, who require more care after discharge. Staff annual leave and sickness absence is also having an impact on care services but we are working with health and social care partnerships to address these challenges and deliver sustainable improvements.

The evidence on temperature checks in hospital staff and patients has been reviewed by experts within the COVID-19 Nosocomial Review Group (CNRG) and the Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection (ARHAI) Scotland service. The following link provides the minutes of CNRG meeting: https://www.gov.scot/publications/covid-19-nosocomial-review-group-minutes-4-june-2020/

The conclusion of the CNRG members was that there was a wide variation in the sensitivity of the various Infrared Thermal Imaging (ITI) devices and the limited evidence highlights multiple limitations of ITI for the routine detection of febrile patients in health and care settings. Members concluded that there is not enough evidence to recommend the use of ITI for the prevention of COVID-19 transmission in health and care settings.

The current evidence is available in the published report via: https://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/web-resources-container/infrared-thermal-imaging-in-health-and-care-settings-for-the-prevention-of-covid-19-transmission/ .

The existing Infection Prevention and Control measures, including hand hygiene, effective use of PPE and extended use of face masks, remain paramount to reduce COVID-19 transmission in the health and care settings.

Here as elsewhere, emerging evidence is kept under review on a regular basis.

As set out in our Strategic Framework for the pandemic, published on 23 October 2020, and in line with clinical and public health priorities, we will extend routine weekly testing of asymptomatic groups in a way which focusses on protecting those most vulnerable to the most harm, including those at highest risk of mortality. As testing capacity builds over the next three months, this will include broadening our current targeted programme of regular testing of NHS staff.

Further details on the Framework can be found here:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/covid-19-scotlands-strategic-framework/

Regular testing of this type sits alongside other measures such as strong emphasis on symptomatic health care staff immediately self-isolating and arranging testing, use of appropriate PPE, physical distancing, environmental optimisation and decontamination and good social hygiene to reduce the risk of staff who have COVID-19, but do not have symptoms, transmitting the virus to those they are caring for.

The respiratory group is the one with the greatest number of people placed on the COVID-19 shielding list. A full breakdown of the shielding cohort by shielding group is as follows.

The following table provides the number of individuals on the shielding list by group (as at 10 June 2020)