Chamber and committees

Further positive change will be progressed through in how fireworks are sold and used in Scotland, subject to the outcome of the upcoming Scottish Parliament elections. This will contribute towards a fundamental shift in the relationship that Scotland has with fireworks, as recommended by the Firework Review Group, and reduce the negative impact experienced by animals, individuals and communities due to fireworks.

The regulations laid in Parliament on 19 February 2021 are an important first step and will, along with a package of measures focussing on awareness raising and prevention, allow tangible change to be in place for autumn 2021.

The Scottish Government requires that green port operators and businesses directly benefitting from any new tax incentives will adopt the Scottish Government’s Fair Work First approach. We intend this as a condition of being permitted operator status, or being entitled to specific tax incentives related to operating within a green port.

Specifically, upon being awarded green port status operators will be expected to have become signatories to the Scottish Business Pledge. This will also be required of business who wish to set up in the green port and take advantage of the incentives on offer.

Work to review the Minimum Unit Price (MUP) level was paused in order to respond to the urgent demands of handling the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This has restarted in order to review the level of the MUP in the course of this year. The price level will be considered in line with the latest evidence on the affordability of alcohol. Should the Scottish Government consider that an amendment is required to the MUP level, any proposals would of course be brought to Parliament for full consideration.

We expect Health Boards to ensure their staff are appropriately trained and developed for their roles, as per the Staff Governance Standard. The standard complements the training expectations set out in individual professional and regulatory requirements.

Introduced in February 2018, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) developed a clinical guideline, about the use of medication to manage migraines. The clinical guidance is based on what we know from current medical research. It also gives advice based on the opinion of healthcare professionals who are trained on how best to manage people's care.

All boards have been encouraged by the Scottish Government to establish care interface groups, which will cover work in improving the management of headaches. the Royal College of General Practitioners Scotland have also been supported by the Scottish Government to develop tools and resources to support boards establish these groups.

The Scottish Government remains committed to improving neurological care and support in Scotland, including for people with migraine. The Neurological Care and Support Framework includes a commitment to promote and support the implementation of Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) General Standards for Neurological Care and Support 2019. General standards for neurological care and support (healthcareimprovementscotland.org)

These standards articulate what people with neurological conditions should expect to receive in terms of high quality care from the health and social care organisations that support them, and it is intended that organisations use these standards to demonstrate that they are delivering this. Standard 3 states that organisations should ensure that staff have the education, training and information to deliver care and support to people living with neurological conditions, appropriate to roles and workplace setting. The accompanying criteria states that this should be aligned to appropriate guidance, standards and best practice, where available. Discussions to explore the introduction of quality assurance arrangements for the standards are being taken forward with HIS. The Scottish Government expect Health Boards to ensure their staff are appropriately trained and developed for their roles, as per the Staff Governance Standard. The standard complements the training expectations set out in individual professional and regulatory requirements.

The First Minister announced on 16 March that Stay at Home regulations will be lifted on 2 April and replaced with guidance to Stay Local, with more services able to open from 5 April. The First Minister also announced further expected easing’s from 26 April including the anticipated restarting of driving lessons and tests. The only current exceptions for driving lessons are lessons provided by a member of the same household and where an organisation has delegated authority to do so from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency. This includes Scottish Fire and Rescue Services, Police Scotland and bus operators.

The Scottish Government welcomed Alzheimer Scotland’s Fair Dementia Care Report and began consideration of the report’s call for a definition of advanced dementia care, free at the point of delivery, prior to the onset of the pandemic.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport announced in Parliament on 16 February that the Scottish Government supports the recommendations of the Independent Review of Adult Social Care and, subject to the outcome of the election, would support the creation of a National Care Service which will ensure there is national accountability for the delivery of social care. As an initial response to the Independent Review recommendations there is an increase in rates of allowances for free personal and nursing care by 7.5% from 1 April. This was welcomed by Alzheimer Scotland as a first step in meeting the aims Fair Dementia Care.

In addition, learning from the pandemic, we are taking forward new work on clinical models of care in care homes and the report’s recommendations on improving the quality of care for people with advanced care needs will also be considered as part of that work.

We also continue to fund national dementia workforce development and service improvement programmes to support the delivery of high quality dementia care. We will also take forward work with Health Boards and others to explore how we might expand the focus on the Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Nurse Consultants – part funded by the Scottish Government, Health Boards and Alzheimer Scotland – to include additional strategic work with the care home sector.

The Scottish Government’s Dementia and COVID-19 Action Plan was published in December, to build on, continue and expand national action on supporting people with dementia, their families and carers in response to the pandemic.

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 Strategic Framework Business Fund was published on 10 March 2021.

We are focused on delivering the maximum support for the economic recovery of our town centres.

Grants of up to £7,500 for retailers and up to £19,500 for hospitality and leisure businesses will be paid in April to help businesses, including town centre businesses, re-open progressively. These one-off re-start grants will replace ongoing Strategic Framework Business Fund payments and will provide more money up front to help with the costs of re-opening.

We have extended 100% Non-Domestic Rates relief for all retail, leisure and hospitality premises for all of 2021-22 – this is more generous than the equivalent rates reliefs available in other UK nations.

To support sustained longer-term renewal for our towns, cities and villages, we are establishing a Place Based Investment Programme backed by £325 million capital investment over 5 years from 2021-22. The Programme aims to link and align all place based funding initiatives and progress our ambitions for community-led regeneration, town centres and 20 minute neighbourhoods. It will build on the additional £34 million economic stimulus for regeneration and towns and other funding provided specifically for town centres, smaller settlements and Business Improvement Districts in the current financial year.

The National Transition Training Fund was introduced to address and mitigate the impacts of Covid-19 on the labour market, with projections that around 115,000 people in Scotland could be at risk of long term unemployment as a result of the pandemic.

The extension of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) beyond October 2020 has meant that the worst impacts of the pandemic on unemployment have not yet been realised. Uptake of the current offer has therefore been less than expected.

To date, based on available data, over 3000 individuals have received training through the programme across a range of sectors including Tourism and Hospitality, Rural, Creative Industries, and Aerospace.

Delivery of the college and university projects supported by the Fund will continue to the end of the academic year and final delivery figures for 2020-21 will be published when all provision is complete.

Ongoing support for the National Transition Training Fund was announced as part of the 21-22 Scottish Budget.

I met with the UK Government’s Minister for Crime Reduction and Policing on 11 February 2021, and the Minister for Prevention, Public Health and Primary Care on 24 February 2021.

During the meetings I highlighted the specific challenges we face in tackling the public health emergency we are experiencing in relation to drug deaths, and outlined the range of work we are already taking forward to tackle this complex issue.

I also raised specific issues where UK Government action is required to support the approaches we wish to take, including the introduction of overdose prevention facilities; the introduction of drug checking facilities; regulation of the sale of pill press machines that are used to mass produce street benzodiazepines; and amending existing naloxone regulations that will help further increase the availability of this life saving drug.