Chamber and committees

The Avian Influenza and Influenza of Avian Origin in Mammals (Scotland) Order 2006 prohibits the release of gamebirds in any Protection, Surveillance or Low Pathogenic Restricted Zones, established around an Infected Premises. This Order also provides Ministers with the powers to prohibit the release of game birds in Temporary Control Zones and Temporary Movement Restriction Zones (where disease is yet to be confirmed) based on a risk assessment of the specific disease situation and premises particulars. When kept there is also a legal requirement to report suspicion of notifiable avian disease in game birds.

The Avian Influenza (H5N1 in Wild Birds) (Scotland) Order 2007 prohibits the release of game birds in a Wild Bird Control Area or a Wild Bird Monitoring Area. Furthermore, Licencing requirements dictate that where Special Protected Area (SPA) or Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) are designated for vulnerable species, consent from NatureScot is required for the release of pheasants. One of the factors considered in this licensing assessment is control of Notifiable Avian Diseases (NADs).

Epidemiological investigations at each of the six infected premises (IPs) involving gamebird establishments, declared in Scotland in 2023, revealed that all of the birds involved were open to direct or indirect contact with wild birds, either through unroofed netted release pens, open potholes or, in the cases of fully netted release pens and housed birds, through holes in the netting or walls.

Our emergency planning portal; ready.scot, was updated in June 2022 to include a new ‘Learn’ section to support the public, community groups and Voluntary Sector partners, by raising awareness of emergency resilience structures and processes, and to strengthen understanding of how they might participate in an effective and joined-up response to an emergency. Between March and April 2023 a series of four online community resilience workshops took place, joined by approximately 240 participants. We will continue to work with the sector, and in particular Local Authorities who have the lead role on engaging with local communities, to understand their training needs and to provide any additional resources required.

The Scottish Government is committed to doing everything in its power to reduce smoking prevalence in Scotland, lowering smoking rates in our communities to 5% or less by 2034.

We are taking part in a UK-wide consultation on creating a smoke-free generation and tackling youth vaping, which includes the proposal on raising the age of sale for tobacco products by one year each year for those born on or after 1 January 2009.

Any decision to allow members of the Government a free vote would be a decision taken by Cabinet collectively, following analysis of the consultation responses and once a decision on next steps is taken.

The Scottish Government’s forthcoming Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Action Plan will set out priority areas for action over the next three years. Ensuring that people have access to the information and services they need to make informed choices and take care of their sexual health are key outcomes of the plan.

A national sexually transmitted infection (STI) awareness campaign led by Public Health Scotland launched in July with targeted work for groups who have seen the highest rates of STIs, particularly gonorrhoea.

The Scottish Government is also investing in a national roll-out of an online STI testing service.

The Scottish Government is unable to provide a detailed explanation of the selection process. As a Parliamentary Commissioner, the selection of the Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland will be a matter for the Scottish Parliament.

Part 2 of Schedule 1 of the Bill states that the Commissioner will be “appointed by His Majesty on recommendation of the Scottish Parliament”. This process is covered by Rule 3.11 of the Parliament’s Standing Orders. Selection will be carried out by a “selection panel” comprising the Presiding Officer, the convener of the relevant Committee and between 4 and 7 other cross-party MSPs selected by the Presiding Officer. Any member of the selection panel may propose that Parliament nominates the person recommended by the panel.

The Scottish Government’s Storm Arwen Review provided a detailed review of such a situation, and our two follow-up reports made clear that the organisations who are responsible for emergency planning and response in Scotland had formally incorporated those recommendations into their workplans.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21186 on 22 September 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The rainfall we have seen across Scotland in October has been extreme, affecting many communities and businesses. The Scottish Government has been in close contact with the agricultural sector through our Area Offices and networks to determine the extent to which producers have been affected and what the implications of that are, including for food crops in the North East region.

Following the severe rainfall of 6 th to 8 th October I met with NFUS, East of Scotland Growers and Kettle Produce on 13th October to hear about the impacts on fruit and vegetable producers at that stage, which were principally in the Perthshire area, with losses reported to crops such as carrots, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, swede and sprouts. I then visited Keithick Farms near Coupar Angus to see and discuss the impacts of the flooding with a number of affected farm businesses.

From 19th to 21st October there were further impacts on crops from Storm Babet, which as well as worsening the situation in some of the areas affected earlier in the month, has also led to some further flooding of crops in Angus and Aberdeenshire, including potatoes.

It will take time for the extent of the impacts of the October flooding on food crops to become fully apparent, as the condition of crops still in the ground becomes clearer on fuller assessment and harvesting. The Scottish Government remains in close contact with farming organisations and producers to understand those impacts and discuss what actions can be taken to mitigate them. In the meantime we would encourage retailers to ensure that they are sympathetic to any producers who may have been negatively impacted by the flooding.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with categorised responders, who are responsible under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 for assessing the risk of an emergency occurring, maintaining plans to ensure they can continue to perform their functions in case of an emergency, and considering whether an assessment makes it necessary or expedient to add or modify plans. Scottish Government are not however responsible for, or the owners of, any of these plans.

In relation to door-to-door welfare checks specifically, our follow-up report on Storm Arwen in October 2022 confirmed that “The capability to deliver this type of large-scale response relies on a number of the issues, for example swift activation of resilience arrangements, the ability to quickly assess the impact on the ground, strong mutual aid arrangements and links to community and voluntary groups, and agile public communications plans. Resilience partnerships are however also aware that deploying a large number of people to travel on foot to carry out door-to-door checks could itself create a risk for those involved, for example if the weather conditions remain challenging. As such, these checks should always be considered as part of a range of ‘care for people’ considerations and measures which are rolled out in response to any major incident, which might also for example include the provision of rest centres.”

The Scottish Government is also supporting partners in the development of the Persons at Risk Distribution (PARD) resource which enables the swift identification of, and support to, those most at risk during an incident.