Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with Food Standards Scotland and other partners to raise awareness of the importance of vitamin D, particularly amongst those at highest risk of deficiency.

On 11 October, Food Standards Scotland (FSS) launched a new national campaign to raise awareness of vitamin D and encourage people in Scotland to take a daily 10 microgram supplement throughout the winter months. The campaign will run between October 2021 and February 2022 and follows on from previous promotional activity undertaken by FSS earlier this year. Action to target specific population groups at higher risk of vitamin D deficiency is being considered and will be integrated throughout the campaign.

Leaflets highlighting the importance of vitamin D and supplements are available in a range of languages and formats. Healthy Start vitamins, which contain Vitamin D, are provided free to all pregnant women in Scotland throughout their pregnancy and have been since April 2017. Vitamin D supplements are also available free of charge for breastfeeding women and all babies up to the age of one.

Since 25 January 2019, a period largely covered by Covid restrictions, there have been the following cases referred to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) for consideration of prosecution:

In our Heat in Buildings Strategy, the Scottish Government has committed to phasing out the need to install new or replacement fossil fuel boilers (in off-gas grid areas from 2025, and in on-gas areas from 2030) subject to technological developments and decisions by the UK Government on reserved matters.

We will consult in further detail on this issue during 2022. Should any legislation be required subsequently, it will be subject to a range of impact assessments to allow the Scottish Parliament the opportunity to fully scrutinise the impacts.

In our effort to remove emissions from heating buildings, the Scottish Government has separately a zero emissions first approach in our delivery programmes and will phase out funding for fossil fuel heating systems by 2024 (where it is not detrimental to our fuel poverty objectives).

We have already phased out oil and LPG boilers from Warmer Homes Scotland, Area Based Schemes and Home Energy Scotland Loans.

No households have had their replacement oil or LPG boilers or heating systems cancelled as a result and all Warmer Homes Scotland and Home Energy Scotland Loan applications with committed offers signed prior to 6 September 2021, for either replacement oil/LPG boilers or heating systems, will have these honoured and receive their installations/loans. No local council has reported plans to install an oil/LPG boiler or heating measure as part of their Area Based Scheme.

From now on, households eligible for assistance under Warmer Homes Scotland will be offered low-carbon alternatives, where these are technically appropriate for the property. These include High Heat Retention Heating Systems, Air Source Heat Pumps, Ground Source Heat Pumps, Micro-hydro, Micro-wind and Micro-CHP systems. Some of these measures may be of particular benefit to households living in rural and island areas that are not served by the gas grid. Warmer Homes Scotland operates a national pricing mechanism, meaning that rural and island homes are not disproportionately affected.

Since April 2021 our Area Based Schemes have included additional funding to provide low carbon and micro-generation measures as part of a whole house approach. Local councils are encouraged to offer these measures to households living in or at risk of fuel poverty, where this is technically feasible and will result in lower energy bills. Our Area Based Schemes also provide additional funding and support for remote rural and island communities to reflect the delivery challenges in these locations, including higher installation costs.

The Scottish Government has committed to delivering a new deal for tenants and to consulting on the options, deliver legislation and implementing an effective national system of rent controls by the end of 2025.

Our aim is to ensure quality, affordability and fairness for everyone who rents their homes and we will set out our proposals for taking this work forward in our forthcoming rented sector strategy which we aim to publish for consultation by the end of this calendar year.

Tenant participation is at the heart of our work to develop the Strategy and we are working in partnership with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Tenants Information Service and the Tenant Participation Advisory Service, as well as existing tenant groups, to understand tenants’ lived experiences and hear their views.

Alongside the views of tenants and stakeholders who respond to the consultation on the strategy, we will consider a wide range of information, evidence and expert views on rent controls, including examining international comparisons, to inform the policy development of this important area of work.

Vitamin D status is measured annually as part of the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS).

The latest report is available at: NDNS: results from years 9 to 11 (2016 to 2017 and 2018 to 2019) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Scottish Government is not currently undertaking research to assess levels of vitamin D deficiency in the general population, including in relation to deprivation.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03702 on 29 October 2021. 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 Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people living in Scotland with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and person-centred.

The NHS Recovery Plan, launched in August, sets out the Scottish Governments key headline ambitions and actions to be developed and delivered now and over the next 5 years, backed by more than £1 billion of investment. Scottish Health Boards are in the process of implementing their remobilisation plans for 2021-22, with an initial additional £80 million dedicated to supporting waiting times already provided this year.

We will publish a National Workforce Strategy by the end of the year, to further support the remobilisation and recovery of health and social care services and set out priorities for recruitment, training and retention. We anticipate that the Strategy will be used by workforce, service and financial planners from across Health and Social Care at all levels.

We are aware that the pandemic has impacted on waiting lists for neurology clinics and are currently implementing programmes to mitigate this situation. The Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) is working closely with Neurology services to support the adoption of Active Clinical Referral Triage (ACRT) and Discharge Patient Initiated Review (PIR) approaches within Neurology. Both ACRT and Discharge PIR support better access for patients based on clinical need and can be applied in various neurological conditions, including MS.

The recent Scottish MS Register report noted that despite the challenges presented by COVID-19 during 2020-21, 87% of newly diagnosed people received contact with an MS specialist nurse within 10 working days of diagnosis and over 99% of people were contacted within 10 working days of an MS nurse receiving the referral.

We have invested £1.4m over the past year, through our Neurological Care and Support Framework, into innovative projects which improve the care and support of people with neurological conditions. This includes over £300,000 on projects which improve the health and wellbeing of people with MS in Scotland, including better integrated care and supported self-management.

We are working closely with colleagues in Public Health Scotland to develop systems that will collect key data to inform service planning, delivery of clinical standards, and improvement across Scotland. In the first instance we have commissioned an audit of prevalence for neurological conditions from primary care system and we anticipate this data collection will begin during 2022.

We are also working with the Neurological Alliance of Scotland to distribute the first national patient experience survey specifically for people with neurological conditions.

Public Health Scotland collects waiting times data for neurology, which informs current practice in relation to service improvement. We are aware that the pandemic has impacted on waiting lists for neurology clinics and are currently implementing programmes to mitigate this situation. We are working with NHS boards through the Centre for Sustainable Delivery to implement more efficient ways of working such Patient Initiated Review and Active Clinical Referral Triage. These can be applied in various neurological conditions.

Regarding the cost of treating neurological conditions, service areas within NHS health boards carry their own budgets and associated financial improvement plans to manage and improve efficiency of their spend across specialties. Neurology spend data is collected as part of the annual Costs Book exercise published by Public Health Scotland, and we continue to work with health boards and consider data issues as part of this.

The Apprenticeship Levy is a tax on employers, introduced by the UK Government in 2017, and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) hold the data on what is raised through the Apprenticeship Levy.

The Scottish share of Apprenticeship Levy receipts received through the block grant continues to be invested in wider skills, training and employability to meet the needs of employers, the workforce and Scotland’s economy.

The Scottish Government receives some raw data from HMRC on what is raised through the Apprenticeship Levy and has carried out some analysis which suggests that in both 2017-18 and 2018-19, approximately 60 percent of the Apprenticeship Levy contribution in Scotland was from the private sector, 34 per cent from the public sector and 6 per cent from the non-profit making bodies and mutual associations. However, the data that we receive does not enable a full breakdown analysis of each sector.

More recent sector level analysis from 2019-20 is not yet available.

On the 2 October 2019, my predecessor confirmed that the Scottish Government would introduce legislation in this parliamentary session to entitle all children whose school start is deferred to access funded early learning and childcare in their deferred year.

The legislation required, an affirmative Scottish Statutory Instrument (SSI) under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, was laid on 7 December 2020.

Last year, to progress the implementation of this policy and allow us to develop an evidence base for our evaluation, five pilot authorities were funded to offer an additional year of funded ELC to all children who choose to defer entry to primary 1. These authorities were: Angus, Argyll and Bute, Falkirk, Scottish Borders and Shetland Islands.

To allow us to expand our evaluation of the impact of the legislation, five additional authorities have been selected to receive funding to implement this policy from August 2022.

These authorities will be: Aberdeen City, Clackmannanshire, Fife, Glasgow City, and Stirling. The Scottish Government has committed £8.9 million to support this early implementation.

The evaluation of the experience in pilot authorities is being undertaken to monitor the impact of the policy, inform assessment of likely uptake of the entitlement and inform wider implementation of this legislation.