Chamber and committees

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 provides the legislative framework for resilience activity in Scotland.

Category 1 responders, including Local Authorities, are obliged under the Act to maintain arrangements to warn the public, and to provide information and advice to the public, if an emergency is likely to occur or has occurred. This includes emergencies such as severe weather and wildfires.

In addition, the Scottish Government has a longstanding commitment to providing the public with advice on preparing for and responding to a range of emergencies through its Ready Scotland channels.

The Ready Scotland website (ready.scot) provides information on how the public can prepare their home, their family and their businesses for severe weather and other emergencies. It also provides information on how to respond, keep safe, and help others in the community when emergencies do occur.

When areas are at risk from severe weather or severe wildfires, the Scottish Government, responder organisations and other resilience partners all work closely to share public safety advice through a variety of channels.

Since October 2022, Scottish Government has funded the third sector organisation RNID to deliver its ‘Near You’ scheme in partnership with the NHS. The service provides hearing aid maintenance and support, access to information and advice as well as early detection and prevention. The scheme is currently operational across 5 hub areas – Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Scottish Borders, Shetland, Lothians and Fife and is facilitated by locally recruited staff and trained volunteers.

Partnerships provide domiciliary care in care homes as well as forging links with other third sector organisations to maximise attendance and support provided. Regular monitoring of this service is undertaken to assess demand and savings including in clinical hours and patient travel.

Funding for Community Eyecare (formerly General Ophthalmic Services) is published annually in the Scottish Budget and supports the expansion of community optometry services. Figures for the last five years, including annual movements are summarised in the following table.

Requests for staff training are approved by senior management based on business need and value for money. Whilst total expenditure on staff training is recorded, we do not have a breakdown of spend only related to staff involved with social media management.

Responsibility for fire safety and monitoring at Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) sites rests with the duty holder/site owner. Many BESS locations are unmanned and monitored remotely, meaning there is typically no immediate life risk. Some BESS sites may have welfare facilities for workers during short, irregular shifts (outside of construction or decommissioning phases), and certain buildings on these sites may fall under the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 in terms of general fire safety. However, these sites are normally not subject to fire risk regulations due to the processes taking place on site.

SFRS adheres to the National Fire Chiefs Council’s guidance for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), developed with the safety of both the public and emergency responders in mind.

A dedicated working group within SFRS will continue to monitor the increasing number of BESS applications and their development, alongside the Service’s role in the planning, consultation, and progression of these sites.

SFRS’ protection efforts focus on four key areas:

• The impact of life safety in the event of a fire.
• A risk-based approach to safety.
• Emerging intelligence, including operational insights and partner communications.
• Post-fire audits and analysis.

A strong focus on prevention and the adherence to industry safety standards is essential for managing risks. The SFRS specialist fire safety enforcement and community safety teams will continue to collaborate with partner agencies, and their highly skilled firefighters are ready to deploy standard and specialised national resources to any incident as needed.

It is important to make sure that the start date of the annual flu programme reflects the expected peak of flu circulating to ensure maximum vaccine efficacy.

The 2024 Winter Flu and Covid programme (FVCV) launched on 9 September with the child flu programme. This was the earliest the programme in Scotland could start the child programme, due to vaccine supply deliveries.

Vaccination of adult flu groups began on 16 September, with the main flu and COVID-19 co-administration launching on 23 September. As per previous winter programme, Boards used the first two weeks of the main programme to focus on our most vulnerable citizens, notably residents in care homes for older adults and the housebound. Community appointments then began on 7 October.

These launch dates were based on two factors;

1.Advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination & Immunisation (JCVI): The JCVI advice noted that Health Departments should ideally aim to vaccinate their adult flu population in October and November, in order to vaccinate the eligible population prior to the beginning of the flu season, and to minimise the impact of vaccine waning.

2.Availability of COVID-19 vaccine supply: The vast majority of COVID-19 and flu vaccines are co-administered (currently 95.2% as of 26 January), for maximum convenience for people who are eligible for both. As such we had to wait for COVID-19 vaccine supplies to be available in Scotland to start that main phase of the programme, and 23 September was the earliest possible date.

During planning for its winter programmes, the Scottish Vaccination & Immunisation Programme (SVIP) takes multiple, complex factors into account when arriving at programme dates. These include JCVI advice on programme timings and cohort eligibility, the risk of emerging new COVID-19 variants, flu and COVID-19 vaccine supply availability and clinic capacity within the system.

These factors change annually, meaning that programme start dates will shift and therefore a direct comparison is difficult.

The Scottish Government is aware of the Spanish Tax Lease system.

The phasing of the permitted development rights (PDR) work programme has been kept under review to ensure that it reflects – and helps to promote – the Scottish Government's strategic priorities. As a priority, Phase 3 of the review focussed on PDR for domestic and non-domestic renewable energy equipment. The amended scope of Phase 3 reflected the cost and climate crises, and the need to ensure the planning system plays its part in helping to support households and businesses to adapt their properties.

We still expect to revisit the PDR related to private ways / hilltracks at a future point. This is a complex issue of interest to a wide range of stakeholders with differing perspectives, and requires very careful and detailed consideration.

The first meeting of the Expert Group took place on 25 April 2024 and its lifespan was initially expected to be around one year, although there was scope to extend this, and it’s now likely to continue beyond this time.

The group aims to share an update on its progress, and timeline for potential recommendations, to the Scottish Government for consideration in late April.

The Endometriosis Care Pathway for NHS Scotland supports healthcare professionals to provide a holistic approach and timely care for those with endometriosis and endometriosis-like symptoms.

The pathway is clear and advises healthcare professionals to suspect endometriosis in women who present with one or more symptom (including in young women aged 16 and under).

Clinicians are advised to assess women’s individual information and support needs and take into account their circumstances, symptoms, priorities, desire for fertility, aspects of daily living, work and study, cultural background, and their physical, psychosexual and emotional needs.

All NHS Boards should be taking steps to implement the pathway.

To support health care professionals to improve their knowledge and understanding of endometriosis, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) has launched an e-learning module on menstrual health available on Turas Learn. It is open access to anyone working in NHS Scotland and in particular aimed at those working in primary care.

Further training resources have also been provided through the Women’s Health Masterclass on endometriosis which provided information on diagnosis, treatment and current research on endometriosis, raising awareness of the Pathway with attendees. The resources from this event are also available on Turas Learn.

Additionally, we are have funded the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) to develop new training resources on endometriosis for members, which will be available in the coming months.