Chamber and committees

Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) Guideline 161 provides guidance on managing the long-term effects of COVID-19 including signposting people to rehabilitation services where required.

In addition the Implementation Support Note , which has been developed in consultation with people with lived experience, third sector organisations, and healthcare professionals, provides primary care teams with practical information on identifying, assessing and helping people with long COVID to access the services relevant to their individual needs.

The Bank has been established to be administratively independent from Government. While Ministers set the Missions, the Bank’s Board determines its investment strategy and investment criteria. Any investment the Bank makes is assessed rigorously by the Bank’s experienced investment team and must deliver both commercial returns and mission impact returns that support at least one of the missions. It must also meet the Bank’s subsidy control permissions, including assessing whether the Bank is at risk of crowding-out private investment.

There is potential for a substantial and growing market for natural capital and nature-based solutions to climate change emerging in Scotland, and for these in turn to have positive benefits for local communities. The Bank’s investment supports Gresham House in a new sustainable forestry fund venture which is focused on new and diverse planting in Scotland. It represents a new investment proposition which mainstream investors have yet to fully embrace. The Bank’s cornerstone investment is designed to encourage other investors to follow the Bank into this new type of forestry fund.

We continue to promote registration so more children can benefit from milk and a healthy snack. We are working in close partnership with COSLA and Local Authorities via an Implementation Group. We will shortly be expanding the remit and membership of this Group to include wider stakeholders and to ensure the scheme is meeting the needs of children and settings as we look ahead to scheme Year 2 and beyond.

Key to the spring 2019 review was that projects should continue to be designed at a grass roots level but that a more strategic approach to funding was needed to deliver lasting behavioural change.

We are providing a vehicle for communities to come together and engage in collective climate action through the development of a network of regional climate action hubs and climate action towns. These initiatives will empower communities to identify the actions that are most appropriate to their needs.

They will address the findings of the review by developing an integrated network of support that can build capacity for climate action across all communities. They will provide tools and resources to support community-led groups to take action commensurate with our climate commitments and allow for a wide r exchange of knowledge and best practice.

We are also taking steps to better integrate climate objectives into wider SG community initiatives to promote the mainstreaming of climate action, deliver increased value for money and ensure funding delivers on both climate and wider policy outcomes .

The two pathfinder regional community climate hubs were launched on 6 September: The Northern Highlands and Islands Climate Action Hub will be delivered by Thurso Community Development Trust, and the North East Scotland Climate Action Network (NESCAN) Hub will build on the work of Aberdeen Climate Action.

Clear outcomes have been set allowing us to bring learning into the wider network as it evolves.

Our Health Recovery Plan, published on 25 August, outlines that recovery of staff is intrinsic to our collective ambitions for renewing our NHS.

The Scottish Government is providing £8 million this financial year to support the mental health and wellbeing of the health and social care workforce. This includes targeted support to the primary care and social care workforces of £2 million.

We will continue to work with partners, including doctors and their representatives, to provide support for, and evolve, local wellbeing resources while also maintaining and improving nationally-led initiatives. The national resources available to doctors and other health and social care professionals include:

• The National Wellbeing Hub, https://www.nationalwellbeinghub.scot/ ), which provides a range of self-care and digital resources;
• The National Wellbeing Helpline ((0800 111 4191), which provides a 24/7 service to those who require psychological support and can offer advice, signposting and onward referral to local services where required;
• Coaching for Wellbeing, a free-to-access digital coaching service accessible via the National Wellbeing Hub;
• The Workforce Specialist Service, which offers confidential mental health assessment and treatment for regulated health and social care professionals in Scotland; and
• Additional capacity within Boards to provide psychological therapies and interventions to support staff mental health.

We will offer further support for the physical and emotional needs of the workforce - this will include additional funding for rest areas, guidance to promote effective wellbeing conversations, new opportunities for staff to reflect on the emotional aspects of their work and further resources so staff at all levels can access peer support.

This work will inform the development of a new National Wellbeing Programme to be implemented from autumn 2021. The totality of this work, coupled with our work on leadership and culture, seeks both to prevent burnout, distress and suicide among doctors, and reduce the stigma associated with doctor burnout and mental health.

National statistics (UK) released on 17 June show that 10,660 hectares of new woodland was created in Scotland in 2020/21, the equivalent of over 21 million trees in the ground and around 80% of all trees planted across the UK

However COVID restrictions, combined with heavy rain and snow across most of Scotland in March, resulted in unavoidable delays to planting. Despite this we achieved 89% of the woodland creation target in 2020-21 and the remaining 11% was planted during the remainder of the planting season in April, May and June, during the first 100 days

The combined sewer network is designed to spill during heavy rainfall to protect homes from flooding. The reported 40% increase in sewage spills in the last five years is primarily due to increases in total annual rainfall and rainfall intensity which are related to climate change. The Scottish Government is committed to reducing sewage spills into rivers and seas across Scotland.

We have introduced legislation through the Urban Waste Water Treatment (Scotland) Regulations 1994 and the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011 to minimise the impact of sewage discharges on the water environment.

We are working closely with Scottish Water and SEPA to prioritise investment to reduce sewage spill frequency and impact on the water environment. As part of a long-term strategy, Scottish Water is aiming to transform its waste water services to meet the challenges presented by the impacts of climate change and population growth.

The most recent statistics indicate that there has been an increase in the use of cocaine and crack cocaine over recent years and we are seeing this reflected in the drug-related death statistics. It is believed this increased use may be related to decreases in price and increases in purity. We also know that availability of cocaine across Europe has been at record levels in recent years.

This increase is part of a growing pattern of poly drug use. Of the 458 deaths where cocaine was implicated, there were 16 where cocaine was the only substance involved. Poly drug use continues to present new and complex challenges for treatment services and we continue our efforts in surveillance to understand and respond to emerging drug trends.

We continue to work closely with Police Scotland, drug treatment services and key stakeholders to closely monitor the situation and ensure the appropriate services are in place for those most at risk.

People should be provided with high quality person centred treatment regardless of the type of drugs they are using. Alcohol and Drug Partnerships use both national and local data and intelligence to commission appropriate services that respond to the immediate and changing needs of their population.

It is also vital that we continue to closely monitor drug trends, as well as the harms associated with drug use. One of the key pieces of work being taken forward by the Drug Deaths Task Force is work to improve our public health surveillance of drugs.

The Drug Deaths Taskforce are in regular contact with colleagues at Public Health Scotland around receiving data relating to drugs and receive this quarterly, which is then fed back to the Taskforce.

There are also a range of projects funded by the Taskforce, which have identified key issues around drug trends and harms in a wide range of areas across Scotland, and this information is being collated and will be shared and used to help make important decisions around highlighting trends and harms along with tackling these efficiently and quickly.

The scientific report published on 9 August by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change makes absolutely clear the severe threat and heightened risk the climate emergency poses to the planet. However, it also shows that with immediate, concerted international action to reduce emissions, it is still possible to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5°C in the longer term.

Offshore fossil fuel exploration and development is an area where key decisions on licencing, regulation and policy are reserved to the UK Government. On 12 August, the First Minister wrote to the UK Prime Minister calling for significant enhancements to the climate conditionality associated with offshore oil and gas production. As set out in that letter, there is no doubt how important our highly skilled oil and gas industry and workforce are to Scotland, but we must ensure that they, and the existing infrastructure, can help Scotland seize the opportunities of the just transition to net zero - we cannot rest on business as usual in the face of a climate emergency. In this context, the Scottish Government has also recently committed to undertake a programme of work and analysis to better understand Scotland’s energy requirements as we transition to net zero and how these align with our climate change targets and the aims of the UN Paris Agreement. This work, which will report by the end of 2022, will supplement a wide range of evidence that will be considered to take an informed policy decision on the contribution of North Sea production to the global climate emergency and to Scotland’s economy, security and wellbeing.

In terms of other forms of fossil fuel extraction, the Scottish Government has previously confirmed a finalised policy position of no support for onshore unconventional oil and gas development in Scotland and will develop policies on conventional onshore oil and gas development and coal extraction in alignment with our climate change obligations and wider energy policy.

We are proud that Scotland is at the forefront of global efforts to respond to the climate emergency. Legally binding targets have been set to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors of the economy by 2045 at the latest, with a world-leading interim 2030 target of a 75% reduction. In December 2020, the Scottish Government updated our Climate Change Plan to set out how we will deliver this ambition as part of a green recovery from COVID-19. The indicative Nationally Determined Contribution document we have published in advance of the COP26 Summit outlines the full range of actions we are taking to contribute to the Paris Agreement, through reducing our emissions, building resilience to the impacts of climate change and supporting international efforts, for example by using our position as Co-Chairs of the Under 2 Coalition and through doubling our Climate Justice Fund.