Chamber and committees

On 29 August I announced Transport Scotland’s intention to appoint Atkins WSP Joint Venture to progress design and development work for the route through Glen Croe. The contract represents £25m of Scottish Government investment, an estimate of the overall contract value for undertaking the design, promotion, procurement and construction supervision of medium and long-term solutions.

Ministers share the urgency communities and businesses place on maintaining and improving connectivity of this vital route, which is why we are progressing measures for the short, medium and long term in tandem.

We will bring forward proposals for the medium term by the end of this year, with an announcement on the preferred route option for the long term by Spring 2023.

Contracting letters were issued by Creative Scotland to local authority delivery partners on 21 September. Creative Scotland have also contracted successful applicants from the first round of the Access to Music Making and Strengthening Youth Music Funds and activity is beginning to take place.

All NHS Scotland Boards are providing support for people with long COVID, delivered across the full range of services provided by our NHS. This includes assessment from local primary care teams, support from community based rehabilitation services and referrals for secondary care investigation where needed.

For children and young people with symptoms consistent with long COVID, assessment and initial investigation is being provided by local primary care teams, who can give advice and guidance about the management of symptoms and any potential treatment options for these in the first instance.

Primary care clinicians can refer to occupational therapy and/or physiotherapy for further support where appropriate. In cases where referral to secondary care is required, children and young people may be referred to general paediatric services for investigation and management. Where required, local authorities have duties to provide additional support for learning tailored to the individual needs of the child or young person.

We have allocated an initial £3 million for the financial year 2022-23 to support NHS boards and key partners to improve the care available for people, including children and young people, with long COVID across Scotland. This includes funding board recruitment of additional paediatric occupational therapist support for children, young people and their families.

The Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Programme Board will not be extended in its current format beyond March 2023.

Perinatal and infant mental health continues to be a key priority for the Scottish Government and the continued development and implementation of perinatal and infant mental health services will continue to be supported. We will announce our next steps for this work in due course.

Scottish Government Ministers and officials meet regularly with CERG members to discuss a range of issues on how to accelerate delivery of climate action, including how to decarbonise our transport systems and cities.

The Hon. Lord Brailsford replaces the Hon. Lady Poole as Chair of the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry today. The amended terms of reference also come into effect from today to further emphasise the expectation that the Inquiry will take a human rights-based approach, and that it will demonstrate how that approach has informed and improved the recommendations it makes. Specifically, this change will require the Inquiry when reporting, “To demonstrate how a human rights based approach by the inquiry has contributed to the inquiry’s findings in fact and recommendations”.

The amended Terms of Reference can be found in full here: COVID-19 Inquiry - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Officials have initiated exploratory talks with UK Government, pressing for further clarity on the substance and process of proposals in England and the proposed framework for discussing a model for Investment Zones in Scotland.

As the First Minister has made clear, the creation of any Investment Zones here would have to reflect the devolution settlement, particularly as it relates to environmental protection. The Scottish Government is committed to a programme of enhancing nature protections and delivering nature restoration.

The Scottish Government has not conducted an impact assessment into any potential difference in the labelling requirements elsewhere in the UK. This is because, the Regulations underpinning Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) do not mandate specific labelling requirements. Instead, the Regulations give producers and the scheme administrator the flexibility to decide on their preferred approach.

While the UK Government is still to publish its response to its DRS consultation, which closed in March 2021, officials are working closely with the other administrations in the UK to ensure that Scotland’s DRS is compatible with other future schemes, without negatively impacting on the aims and ambitions of our scheme.

The initial phase of the pilot project is nearly complete. This early work has sought to understand how communities which have been affected by repeated water scarcity events should be identified, to establish the proximity to public water mains, to assess the network capacity and estimate the costs associated with extending the mains to potentially allow those on private water supplies to make a connection. Scottish Water has completed the studies for the pilot projects with final report expected soon. I will write to the Member to provide an update once I have considered the final report.