Chamber and committees

Local authorities are working in partnership with health boards to provide information on travel to vaccination centres including the provision of community transport if appropriate. In remote and rural areas local authorities are supporting transportation and in some places mobile vaccination facilities are being used to reach people.

We are asking people to attend the appointments they have been allocated if they possibly can. We would encourage people to accept that they may not necessarily be given an appointment at the centre closest to them, as the principle objective is to vaccinate as many people as we possibly can as fast as we can. However, in instances where individuals are unable to travel due to a mobility issue, complex medical need or other we would ask them to phone the national Covid Vaccination Appointment booking number to book an appointment at a more convenient location.

If the nature of the person’s condition means that they cannot travel at all, Service Now should pass that call to the local health board call handlers to arrange a more local solution which would be either at their GP Practice or to be vaccinated in their own home if they are housebound.

Health boards are responsible for ensuring venues are accessible and will make appropriate adjustment to ensure that all vaccination sites are accessible to all. Responsibilities are set out in the Equalities Act 2010 and other relevant legislation such as the Social Care ( Self-Directed Support ) Act 2013.

The Scottish Government is working with the voluntary and third sector to set up a centralised volunteer coordination hub to make good use of the locally offered support and in particular for deployment at mass vaccination clinics and to help people who need assistance to access local clinics.

For those who are housebound, there will be domiciliary visits (either by the community nursing team attached to the health centre or a community vaccination team.

Anyone who has been called forward for a vaccine and who would like additional help, should call the Scottish COVID-19 Vaccination Helpline (0800 030 8013).

I refer the member to answer S5W-35127 on 5 March 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

I refer the member to answer S5W-35127 on 5 March 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

The JCVI group has considered evidence and all factors including age, ethnicity occupation and additional vulnerabilities and concluded that rapid vaccine deployment is the most important means to maximise public health benefits against severe outcomes from COVID-19.

The JCVI also recommends a particular focus through communications and outreach on promoting uptake of the vaccination in Phase 2 for those who are in particular minority ethnic communities such as ethnic minorities or travellers and for those who are obese/morbidly obese, and those experiencing socio-economic deprivation.

The Scottish Government is working with faith based, third sector and community groups to reach out to more people from deprived communities to increase the vaccine uptake.

We have put in place financial and practical support to ensure all parts of our community have the knowledge and confidence to participate in this vaccination programme and to remove any practical barriers.

The above mentioned steps will ensure that vaccine information is accessible and culturally appropriate – and delivered by trusted voices such as community leaders.

We follow JCVI guidance on priority including any clinical guidance on vaccine use they recommend.

To date, our latest management information indicates a wastage rate of around only 1.8% - well below our planning assumption of 5%, which is a precautionary approach for worst case scenarios and in line with global best practice.

Close to 12,200 vaccinators are registered on our national Vaccination Management Tool.

Boards are approaching 1,400 support staff headcount available for deployment.

The Scottish Government is considering the role of a vaccination certificate.

However, it is too soon to introduce any form of certification. We need to know more about the efficacy of the vaccines, their impact on transmission and the length of immunity before it would be safe to introduce a vaccine certificate. The Scottish Government continues to engage in international developments in relation to COVID-19, including on the subject of vaccine certification. We are contributing 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, and our four nation discussions with the governments of the UK.

Following extensive research to determine motivations to vaccinate we launched a mass communication public health marketing campaign ‘Roll up your sleeves’ to promote the roll out of the vaccine programme, on 21 st January. The Roll Up Your Sleeves campaign will run across TV, radio, outdoor, press, PR and social media channels until end March and plans are in place for future phases of the activity to support the younger audiences and encourage vaccine uptake.

The campaign will reach a very large (99.1%) of all adults (4.36m) in Scotland who will see the advertising a minimum of 20.6 times. The campaign signposts the public to a national helpline and to NHS Inform where more further detailed information on the vaccine programme is available and is updated regularly.