Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is required by law to regularly review all protective measures that are currently in place, such as the mandatory requirement for the wearing of face coverings in most indoor settings, including places of worship. This measure will continue to be monitored and reviewed in relation to evidence on the four harms : the direct impact of COVID-19, other health impacts, societal impacts, and economic impacts.

After a recent review, during which there was careful consideration of all of the current evidence as well as the options available, Ministers determined that the regulations on face coverings remain proportionate and should not change for the present.

At this stage of the pandemic many of the more intrusive restrictions have been lifted, but the virus and the harms that it causes have not gone away. We still continue to see hospital admissions and deaths as a result of COVID and the impacts of long COVID can be significant. That is why it remains important to maximise the use of the remaining measures such as face coverings.

While the vaccination has significantly weakened the link between new cases and serious health harms, it has not been completely broken. It is therefore important that places of worship, along with many other indoor settings, continue their good practice to reduce the spread of the virus.

We are grateful to faith and belief communities for their important role in protecting their congregations and enabling everyone, particularly those at higher risk, to access worship safely.

The reported amount of spend by Levy Paying private sector organisations accessing the Flexible Workforce Development Fund (FWDF) since 2017, as provided by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and Skills Development Scotland (SDS) who administer the Fund on behalf of the Scottish Government, is:

A robust, impartial procurement process has been undertaken in accordance with regulations and best practice to identify a partner to undertake work on this commitment.

Following the procurement exercise, EY has been awarded the programme of work and analysis to better understand our energy requirements as we transition to net zero and how this aligns with our climate change targets and the goal of the Paris agreement.

It is expected that this work will supplement a wide range of evidence that will be considered to take an informed policy decision on the contribution of North Sea production to the global climate emergency and to Scotland’s economy, security and wellbeing within Scotland’s wider energy system.

The Programme of Work will inform the forthcoming Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, which brings together our commitment to refresh the 2017 Energy Strategy and to deliver Scotland’s first sectoral Just Transition Plan.

The Scottish Government is committed to eliminating sectarianism, racism and all discrimination from our national game. We believe that there is no place for discrimination of any form in football or society in general and the Scottish Government condemns those who commit any actions.

Since 2012 we have invested £15 million in work to tackle sectarianism which has delivered the broadest and most comprehensive set of activities in response to this issue that there has ever been. This includes 9 projects funded for 2021-22, including the Fair Play Foundation who are working with SFA schools of football and community football clubs along with North Kelvin Sports Development and Sense Over Sectarianism who are now working with the South of Scotland Lowland Development League.

Police Scotland work with clubs to identify and take action against individuals as we appreciate the majority of football fans do not participate in these forms of hatred against others.

Since its introduction in 2017, the Scottish Government has allocated the following funds to the Flexible Workforce Development Fund:

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03144 on
‎ 28 September 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

Phase 1 of the upscale of the NHS SARS-CoV-2 Genomics sequencing service from 200 samples to 684 samples/week is complete. Phase 2 to further expand the service will continue throughout the rest of the year to achieve an increase of up to 1000 samples/day.

In phase 3 of the project, due for completion by April 2022, a service review and options appraisal will be undertaken on future development beyond the immediate priority of sequencing for SARS-CoV-2 and how this will support Scotland’s wider public health service.

In line with our support of Genome UK, the Scottish Genomics Leadership Group, our expert group in genomics medicine are providing advice to the Scottish Government to plan our long-term agenda for genomics medicine in Scotland. The group will consider any learnings from the pathogen service and how they may apply to our work on human genomics.

The Scottish Government launched its Suicide Prevention Action Plan (SPAP) ‘Every Life Matters’ in 2018. It contains a target to “reduce the rate of suicide by 20% by 2022 (from a 2017 baseline)” and outlines 10 actions to help achieve that goal.

The baseline rate of suicide in 2017 was based on a five-year average (2013-2017). The equivalent rate for the period ending in 2022 will be calculated in the same way, using data for the whole period 2018-2022, which will be available from National Records of Scotland (NRS) in mid to late 2023.

The National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group (NSPLG) reports annually on progress in taking forward actions in the SPAP and on supplementary recommendations agreed since publication. Its most recent annual report was issued in September 2021.

Many of the key deliverables of the Action Plan have been achieved to date, including the launch of Scotland’s social movement: ‘United to Prevent Suicide’; production of learning resources on suicide prevention, mental health and self-harm; guidance to encourage, inform, and support local suicide prevention approaches; and the launch of a pilot service to support those bereaved by suicide.

We have accepted recent recommendations made by the NSPLG in its report on improving support for suicidal crisis. These recommendations will be taken forward by a new National Lead and a dedicated Suicidal Crisis Support Action Group.

Furthermore we are working with COSLA and stakeholders to develop a new long-term suicide prevention strategy for Scotland. The strategy will be published in September 2022, supported by a clear delivery plan, and underpinned by a commitment to double suicide prevention spending by the end of this Parliament.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and Skills Development Scotland (SDS) administer the Flexible Workforce Development Fund (FWDF) on behalf of the Scottish Government. They do not allocate funds to different sectors, as the Fund works on a first come first served basis.

Recognising the significant delivery challenges in the last year due to Covid-19 restrictions, it has been agreed with SFC and SDS to extend academic year 2020-21 delivery to the end of March 2022. Information on employer sector is provided by employers themselves to colleges, the Open University in Scotland (OUiS) and SDS during the application process. To date, the estimated FWDF spend per sector in 2020-21, as reported by SFC and SDS, has been the following:

We are working with industry, local government and environmental groups to develop a route map to deliver our waste and recycling targets for 2025. This work will also be critical in determining how the waste and resources sector will contribute towards lower carbon emissions in the period to 2030 and beyond.