Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government follows the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) Guidance in developing guidance as the vaccination programme makes progress towards increasing levels of COVID-19 immunity in the population. Current JCVI advice remains that the single greatest risk of mortality and severe disease from COVID-19 is increasing age and COVID-19 risk increases exponentially with age.

Following the recent JCVI advice, young people aged 12 to 15 with severe neuro-disabilities, Down’s Syndrome, immunosuppression and multiple or severe learning disabilities, as well as people who are household contacts of individuals who are immunosuppressed, will be eligible for vaccination soon. The JCVI is not currently advising routine vaccination of children outside of these groups, based on the current evidence.

All young people 16 to 17 years of age will now be offered the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination in Scotland. In line with the latest advice from the JCVI, they will be offered a first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. People who are 16 or 17 in mainland Scotland will be invited to register their interest through the online portal at NHS Inform, and will then be sent an appointment via SMS or email. Eligible young people in Shetland, Orkney and Western Isles will be contacted by their health board and invited to attend clinics.

Drop-in clinics are available for 16 to 17-years-olds. Anyone who doesn’t register an interest or attend a drop-in clinic, will be sent an appointment invitation through the post. It is expected that everyone in this age group will have been offered a vaccination appointment by the end of September.

The advice to protect against the risks of contracting COVID-19 or developing any associated ‘Long COVID’ signs and symptoms, remain the same for those who are vaccinated as those unable to receive vaccination for medical reasons. There is further detailed advice available, which is continuously updated in line with protection levels advice, for those who have been shielding for health reasons published here: Coronavirus (COVID-19): shielding advice and support - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Like all medicines, no vaccine is completely effective, but we do know the vaccination of a high proportion of the population will assist in reducing symptomatic disease and transmission. As the vaccination programme progresses, the Scottish Government advises everyone to follow the protection level rules set for each Local Authority area, as well as to follow general public health guidance issued on non-pharmaceutical measures which help to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

In addition to the individual level of protection against severe disease or hospitalisation afforded by vaccination, a further benefit of the vaccination programme is to assist in developing widespread community immunity and thereby reduce the force of transmission and viral reproduction rate, controlling the prevalence of COVID-19.

Research by Public Health England (PHE), which monitors vaccine efficacy within the UK, shows that those who became infected 3 weeks after receiving one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca vaccine were between 38% and 49% less likely to pass the virus on to their household contacts than those who were unvaccinated. Protection was seen from around 14 days after vaccination, with similar levels of protection regardless of age of cases or contacts. Data is published here: One dose of COVID-19 vaccine can cut household transmission by up to half - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) . Further research into the COVID-19 vaccines’ impacts on transmission is underway.

The inoculation of a large proportion of the population will help to provide a degree of ‘passive protection’ in the community for those who cannot receive vaccination for medical reasons and those who may develop a weaker immune response to vaccination due to old age, immunosuppression or illness.

The full Native Woodland Survey of Scotland (NWSS) data set has been available for free download from the Scottish Forestry open data web pages since January 2020.

Prior to that it has been available on the Forestry Commission Scotland web pages since 2014.

The National Transition Training Fund (NTTF) had a committed budget of £25m for 2020-21. Delivery of Year 1 projects completed at the end of July 2021 and a report on outcomes will be published later this year.

The First Minister announced a further £20m of funding on 16 June 2021, for an initial tranche of projects as part of the second year of the Fund. We continue to carefully monitor skills needs, particularly as the UK Government’s furlough scheme comes to an end.

Based on available data, between October 2020 – March 2021, the number of places delivered in Year 1 of NTTF was 6,327. Some projects are still to report final figures as delivery continued until end July 2021.

Final delivery figures for Year 1 will be published when all provision is complete. The sectors supported in Year 1 are listed below:

• Tourism and Hospitality
• Transport - Aviation
• Aerospace
• Rural
• Land-based/Aquaculture
• Forestry
• Seafood
• Screen
• Culture and Creative Industries
• Further education
• Higher education
• Energy
• Digital

As delivery under Year 2 has not started yet for many projects it is not possible to provide information on the number of applications that have been approved, rejected or are yet to be processed. The funding is being delivered through various sector-based projects which will have different application procedures and target audiences specific to the needs of the sector. The sectors supported in Year 2 are listed below:

• Transport - Aviation
• Seafood
• Tourism and Hospitality
• Adult Social Care
• Health and Social Care
• Land-based/Aquaculture
• Open University
• Childcare - Early Years
• Cyber Security
• Digital
• Rural
• Advanced Manufacturing
• Culture and Creative Industries
• Crofting
• Screen
• Aerospace
• Construction (Green)
• Energy
• Historic Environment (Green)
• Forestry
• Higher education
• Further education

The regulated childcare sector is operating throughout the summer and The Scottish Government created guidance to support this. Organised children’s activities are also operating with guidance available, which has been updated in line with easing of restrictions.

The Scottish Government have invested £20 million into the Get Into Summer initiative. This funding is providing targeted and wider support for Local Authorities and national partners to ensure that more children have access to play experiences during the summer. As part of that, guidance was provided to encourage Local Authorities to work with partners including early learning and childcare and school age childcare providers.

Glasgow City Council have Memorandum of Understanding with UK Government related COP26 and to recover costs incurred in relation to the direct spending associated with hosting COP26 in Glasgow. Scottish Minister have made clear their expectation that all costs arising from the decision to hold COP26 in Glasgow will be borne by the UK Government, this includes funding to Glasgow City Council for hosting COP26.

Statistics on the waiting times patients experience waiting for family genetic testing following a sudden arrhythmic death syndrome bereavement are not held by Public Health Scotland (PHS). PHS does not hold information on the conditions patients are waiting to be seen for.

Statistics relating to the waits patients experience for new outpatient appointments at specialty level are published up to 31 March 2021. These include waiting times for Clinical Genetics and Cardiology. These can be found at the following link: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/nhs-waiting-times-stage-of-treatment/nhs-waiting-times-stage-of-treatment-quarter-ending-31-march-2021/ .

For clinical genetics, the median waiting time for patients seen during Jan-Mar ‘21 was 40 days.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

It is a matter for each individual Public Body to decide how to address Fair Work First in their procurement processes, with decisions being taken on a case-by-case basis. In doing so, all Bodies are expected to apply the Fair Work First criteria to all new regulated procurement processes from 1 April 2021, wherever relevant and proportionate to do so. This procurement process commenced prior to 1 April 2021.

Information from National Records of Scotland (NRS) is in the following table. Background information on how National Records for Scotland record deaths can be found at: Deaths - Background Information | National Records of Scotland (nrscotland.gov.uk)

Deaths from Sudden arrhythmic death syndrome 1 , by age, sex and ethnic group, 2010 to 2019

COP26 presents a unique platform for communities across Scotland to showcase the innovative climate action being undertaken at a local level and to drive forward further collective action towards our net zero target. Our programme for COP26 will be underpinned around our two themes of Just Transition and People. We are committed to using our links through our communities work, civil society partners and local authorities to ensure that voices across Scotland are represented at COP.

We are working with partners to develop and deliver a community engagement programme in the run up to, and beyond, COP26 that will empower communities to take action in a way that responds to local circumstances and priorities. We will support them to host events relevant to their local areas that extend the climate conversation far and wide. We have also funded the Glasgow Science Centre ‘Our World, Our Impact’ climate change engagement programme as part of Scotland’s pre-COP26 activity. Communities targeted in Glasgow include Maryhill, Yoker, Govan and Glasgow Disability Alliance.

Climate Week 2021 will take place between 13 to 19 September and, coming 6 weeks before COP, will engage individuals, communities, businesses and organisations to build public understanding of how everyone across Scotland can play their part in tackling the global climate emergency.

We are also working with partners to design and deliver a youth engagement programme. This includes the COP26 Scottish Youth Climate Programme, delivered by Young Scot, YouthLink Scotland and Keep Scotland Beautiful, that will deliver youth engagement activities ahead of, during, and after COP26, with a focus on engaging young people in decision making in response to the global climate emergency. Education Scotland are also working with Local Authorities and third sector partners to develop and deliver a programme of learning and activity around the themes of COP26.